ERA

[JohnnyMO]

Can someone explain how pitching is so considered so dominant in this new era of baseball with these ERA’s

Monday: Peterson (5-7, 5.97 ERA) vs. Liberatore (5-7, 5.18 ERA)

Tuesday: Rea (7-7, 4.85 ERA) vs. McGreevy (4-8, 3.07 ERA)

Wednesday: Boyd (6-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. May (5-7, 4.59 ERA)

Claims that pitching is dominant is a simplistic response to the offensive dullness of the contemporary game. Runs per game are around historical average. But what seems lifeless about the game and adds boredom is that MLB is near an all-time low on singles per game, near all-time lows in league batting average, while maintaining roughly historical average (a little above average) in walks. Baseball is scoring a {historically} disproportionate number of its runs from the home run. It is also making more of hits outs from a historically high number of strikeouts. Through the flow of a baseball games, it's baserunners that help keep things interesting, plus good defensive play to keep those runners from scoring of off base to begin with.. Waiting for the exuberance of the homerun among a series of strikeouts is dull, and it can seem like too much dominance by pitchers.

I agree it's not as much fun to watch. But how do you sell hitters on changing their approach when they are scoring as much as ever and most experts including their coaches and managers believe they would score less against today's pitching and defensive alignments if they went back to an approach of hitting more singles?

[mattmitchl44]

As I've noted before, if people want the game to be "prettier" and more interesting, you only have to look as far as optimizing one statistic:

pitches per plate appearance

the lower you can push pitches per plate appearance, the better the "flow" and "action" of the game will be. In the limit, if you could get to 1.0, every pitch would result in a batted ball and a hit, out, error, etc.

But you would have to make changes in order to reduce pitches per plate appearance.

- Move the mound back to reduce the effective velocity of today's pitchers
- Redesign the baseball to increase its moment of inertia and reduce the ability of pitchers to spin the ball excessively
- Deaden the baseball
- Optimize the strike zone size and location

The first two make pitchers more "hittable" but the third reduces the amount of damage many hitters will be able to do when they put the ball in play. The last is just to get a strike zone that pitchers will want to attack and hitters will want to swing in.

[JohnnyMO]

As I've noted before, if people want the game to be "prettier" and more interesting, you only have to look as far as optimizing one statistic:

pitches per plate appearance

the lower you can push pitches per plate appearance, the better the "flow" and "action" of the game will be. In the limit, if you could get to 1.0, every pitch would result in a batted ball and a hit, out, error, etc.

But you would have to make changes in order to reduce pitches per plate appearance.

- Move the mound back to reduce the effective velocity of today's pitchers
- Redesign the baseball to increase its moment of inertia and reduce the ability of pitchers to spin the ball excessively
- Deaden the baseball
- Optimize the strike zone size and location

The first two make pitchers more "hittable" but the third reduces the amount of damage many hitters will be able to do when they put the ball in play. The last is just to get a strike zone that pitchers will want to attack and hitters will want to swing in.

Or just wait until the game naturally evolves again when the next brilliant mind comes up with a new way to win a ballgame. It will happen, it always has.

[Goldfan]

Where is the stat boost for PITCHING appearing?
Hitting is terrible…..low BA high K’s
SP only need to go 5 with the lead…..hand over to the speed/spin BP masters and wins should be logged quite frequently>>>>that’s not happening.
Outside the few Elite SP most teams rotations look like the Cardinals which are putting up ERA’s no better than 20-25yrs ago
So where is this unhittable MLB pitching hiding its historic stats?

The stat boost for pitching is exactly what you said…more k’s and lower batting average against.

Runs=Wins
So the MLB product has devolved into a less entertaining more boring K/HR exhibition over 9innings. This is the outcome they hoped for?
Less offense
Less single pitching success
Same runs
And I’d argue that the K’s are higher and BA is lower primarily because of the hitter not the pitcher.
And even with K’s higher……it’s very doubtful we see another 3000K pitcher. Max will be the last.

I’m not saying it’s good for the game, but it’s what happened. Pitchers got more difficult to hit, hitters figured out how to score runs despite all the k’s and lower batting averages.

Yes - as pitchers as a group have become progressively more difficult for batters to hit no matter their approach, most hitters have steered toward an approach where they are trying to do as much "damage" as possible when they do catch up with one and hit it hard - an approach to try and generate XBHs, not singles.

I really don’t think it’s the pitcher being better…..if so they would have more wins…..better ERA…..
Somewhere at sometime the analytics honks convinced organizations that launch was the way. This is what induces all the K’s. If contact were taught and practiced I’m almost certain the K’s would go down and the .300 hitter would be plenty. Very few players have the talent for power and high avg. a few more can have power and respectable avg….then there are the majority that if only attempting to swing for power will be your .200 hitter>>>these batters were singles hitters in the past….. And in 2026 every player is swinging for the fence.

I don't even know what your "would have more wins" argument is. There is exactly one win assigned to a pitcher per game. Who gets the win is an artifact of the rules about assigning wins.

If slap hitting, contact oriented singles hitters were a viable tactical option today, teams would teach to that.

But with today's pitchers, defensive positioning, no astroturf fields, etc., having guys go out to make weak contact isn't guaranteed to produce "plenty" of .300 hitters.

This isn’t too difficult the understand. IF SP is so much better and the premise is that it is…..and the ONLY way the poor hitter has discovered to combat this and score runs is to hit HR(your theory not mine)…..and hitters no longer care about striking out like they used to in MLB…..then a vastly superior pitcher than an era ago should have not problem easily going through a lineup 3-4 times>>>>giving up minimal runs>>>>>logging historic K totals>>>>handing the game to the 8th or 9th inning shutdown setup and closer….AND easily recording 20+ wins a year. But your narrative is that they can’t do that because batters hitting .220 with 175K’s and 25HR scoring the same runs/game as 20yrs ago prevent this???

[Goldfan]

Where is the stat boost for PITCHING appearing?
Hitting is terrible…..low BA high K’s
SP only need to go 5 with the lead…..hand over to the speed/spin BP masters and wins should be logged quite frequently>>>>that’s not happening.
Outside the few Elite SP most teams rotations look like the Cardinals which are putting up ERA’s no better than 20-25yrs ago
So where is this unhittable MLB pitching hiding its historic stats?

The stat boost for pitching is exactly what you said…more k’s and lower batting average against.

Runs=Wins
So the MLB product has devolved into a less entertaining more boring K/HR exhibition over 9innings. This is the outcome they hoped for?
Less offense
Less single pitching success
Same runs
And I’d argue that the K’s are higher and BA is lower primarily because of the hitter not the pitcher.
And even with K’s higher……it’s very doubtful we see another 3000K pitcher. Max will be the last.

I’m not saying it’s good for the game, but it’s what happened. Pitchers got more difficult to hit, hitters figured out how to score runs despite all the k’s and lower batting averages.

Yes - as pitchers as a group have become progressively more difficult for batters to hit no matter their approach, most hitters have steered toward an approach where they are trying to do as much "damage" as possible when they do catch up with one and hit it hard - an approach to try and generate XBHs, not singles.

I really don’t think it’s the pitcher being better…..if so they would have more wins…..better ERA…..
Somewhere at sometime the analytics honks convinced organizations that launch was the way. This is what induces all the K’s. If contact were taught and practiced I’m almost certain the K’s would go down and the .300 hitter would be plenty. Very few players have the talent for power and high avg. a few more can have power and respectable avg….then there are the majority that if only attempting to swing for power will be your .200 hitter>>>these batters were singles hitters in the past….. And in 2026 every player is swinging for the fence.

I don't even know what your "would have more wins" argument is. There is exactly one win assigned to a pitcher per game. Who gets the win is an artifact of the rules about assigning wins.

If slap hitting, contact oriented singles hitters were a viable tactical option today, teams would teach to that.

But with today's pitchers, defensive positioning, no astroturf fields, etc., having guys go out to make weak contact isn't guaranteed to produce "plenty" of .300 hitters.

This isn’t too difficult the understand. IF SP is so much better and the premise is that it is…..and the ONLY way the poor hitter has discovered to combat this and score runs is to hit HR(your theory not mine)…..and hitters no longer care about striking out like they used to in MLB…..then a vastly superior pitcher than an era ago should have not problem easily going through a lineup 3-4 times>>>>giving up minimal runs>>>>>logging historic K totals>>>>handing the game to the 8th or 9th inning shutdown setup and closer….AND easily recording 20+ wins a year. But your narrative is that they can’t do that because batters hitting .220 with 175K’s and 25HR scoring the same runs/game as 20yrs ago prevent this???

Total MLB HR in 2000 are about the same as in 2026

[NYCardsFan]

Where is the stat boost for PITCHING appearing?
Hitting is terrible…..low BA high K’s
SP only need to go 5 with the lead…..hand over to the speed/spin BP masters and wins should be logged quite frequently>>>>that’s not happening.
Outside the few Elite SP most teams rotations look like the Cardinals which are putting up ERA’s no better than 20-25yrs ago
So where is this unhittable MLB pitching hiding its historic stats?

The stat boost for pitching is exactly what you said…more k’s and lower batting average against.

Runs=Wins
So the MLB product has devolved into a less entertaining more boring K/HR exhibition over 9innings. This is the outcome they hoped for?
Less offense
Less single pitching success
Same runs
And I’d argue that the K’s are higher and BA is lower primarily because of the hitter not the pitcher.
And even with K’s higher……it’s very doubtful we see another 3000K pitcher. Max will be the last.

I’m not saying it’s good for the game, but it’s what happened. Pitchers got more difficult to hit, hitters figured out how to score runs despite all the k’s and lower batting averages.

Yes - as pitchers as a group have become progressively more difficult for batters to hit no matter their approach, most hitters have steered toward an approach where they are trying to do as much "damage" as possible when they do catch up with one and hit it hard - an approach to try and generate XBHs, not singles.

I really don’t think it’s the pitcher being better…..if so they would have more wins…..better ERA…..
Somewhere at sometime the analytics honks convinced organizations that launch was the way. This is what induces all the K’s. If contact were taught and practiced I’m almost certain the K’s would go down and the .300 hitter would be plenty. Very few players have the talent for power and high avg. a few more can have power and respectable avg….then there are the majority that if only attempting to swing for power will be your .200 hitter>>>these batters were singles hitters in the past….. And in 2026 every player is swinging for the fence.

You’re saying hitters are worse and pitchers are worse. Which is a pretty “get off my lawn” thought process. Yes hitters swing for the fences more than ever. Yes pitchers go for velo and spin more than ever. The question is why. And there is a much more nuanced answer than “analytics are dumb and no one knows what they are doing anymore” if you’re actually willing to think about it.

In an average year, roughly 80% of active fund managers underperform their index/benchmark (net of fees), even though those managers possess far more information, data, technology, and analytic horsepower than ever before. Goldfan's theory for such a phenomenon is basically that they all must be stupid and not know what they're doing. He apparently cannot grasp the concept of competitors (whether batters vs. pitchers, investors vs. other investors, companies vs. other companies, etc.) competing away margin/surplus/advantage/improvement/inefficiency and winding up at a similar equilibrium to before.

[JohnnyMO]

Where is the stat boost for PITCHING appearing?
Hitting is terrible…..low BA high K’s
SP only need to go 5 with the lead…..hand over to the speed/spin BP masters and wins should be logged quite frequently>>>>that’s not happening.
Outside the few Elite SP most teams rotations look like the Cardinals which are putting up ERA’s no better than 20-25yrs ago
So where is this unhittable MLB pitching hiding its historic stats?

The stat boost for pitching is exactly what you said…more k’s and lower batting average against.

Runs=Wins
So the MLB product has devolved into a less entertaining more boring K/HR exhibition over 9innings. This is the outcome they hoped for?
Less offense
Less single pitching success
Same runs
And I’d argue that the K’s are higher and BA is lower primarily because of the hitter not the pitcher.
And even with K’s higher……it’s very doubtful we see another 3000K pitcher. Max will be the last.

I’m not saying it’s good for the game, but it’s what happened. Pitchers got more difficult to hit, hitters figured out how to score runs despite all the k’s and lower batting averages.

Yes - as pitchers as a group have become progressively more difficult for batters to hit no matter their approach, most hitters have steered toward an approach where they are trying to do as much "damage" as possible when they do catch up with one and hit it hard - an approach to try and generate XBHs, not singles.

I really don’t think it’s the pitcher being better…..if so they would have more wins…..better ERA…..
Somewhere at sometime the analytics honks convinced organizations that launch was the way. This is what induces all the K’s. If contact were taught and practiced I’m almost certain the K’s would go down and the .300 hitter would be plenty. Very few players have the talent for power and high avg. a few more can have power and respectable avg….then there are the majority that if only attempting to swing for power will be your .200 hitter>>>these batters were singles hitters in the past….. And in 2026 every player is swinging for the fence.

I don't even know what your "would have more wins" argument is. There is exactly one win assigned to a pitcher per game. Who gets the win is an artifact of the rules about assigning wins.

If slap hitting, contact oriented singles hitters were a viable tactical option today, teams would teach to that.

But with today's pitchers, defensive positioning, no astroturf fields, etc., having guys go out to make weak contact isn't guaranteed to produce "plenty" of .300 hitters.

This isn’t too difficult the understand. IF SP is so much better and the premise is that it is…..and the ONLY way the poor hitter has discovered to combat this and score runs is to hit HR(your theory not mine)…..and hitters no longer care about striking out like they used to in MLB…..then a vastly superior pitcher than an era ago should have not problem easily going through a lineup 3-4 times>>>>giving up minimal runs>>>>>logging historic K totals>>>>handing the game to the 8th or 9th inning shutdown setup and closer….AND easily recording 20+ wins a year. But your narrative is that they can’t do that because batters hitting .220 with 175K’s and 25HR scoring the same runs/game as 20yrs ago prevent this???

Managers rarely let pitchers throw over 100 pitches. That’s because in order to get the spin and velo that makes modern pitchers tougher to hit they go max effort, wear down more quickly, and risk injury.

[mattmitchl44]

Where is the stat boost for PITCHING appearing?
Hitting is terrible…..low BA high K’s
SP only need to go 5 with the lead…..hand over to the speed/spin BP masters and wins should be logged quite frequently>>>>that’s not happening.
Outside the few Elite SP most teams rotations look like the Cardinals which are putting up ERA’s no better than 20-25yrs ago
So where is this unhittable MLB pitching hiding its historic stats?

The stat boost for pitching is exactly what you said…more k’s and lower batting average against.

Runs=Wins
So the MLB product has devolved into a less entertaining more boring K/HR exhibition over 9innings. This is the outcome they hoped for?
Less offense
Less single pitching success
Same runs
And I’d argue that the K’s are higher and BA is lower primarily because of the hitter not the pitcher.
And even with K’s higher……it’s very doubtful we see another 3000K pitcher. Max will be the last.

I’m not saying it’s good for the game, but it’s what happened. Pitchers got more difficult to hit, hitters figured out how to score runs despite all the k’s and lower batting averages.

Yes - as pitchers as a group have become progressively more difficult for batters to hit no matter their approach, most hitters have steered toward an approach where they are trying to do as much "damage" as possible when they do catch up with one and hit it hard - an approach to try and generate XBHs, not singles.

I really don’t think it’s the pitcher being better…..if so they would have more wins…..better ERA…..
Somewhere at sometime the analytics honks convinced organizations that launch was the way. This is what induces all the K’s. If contact were taught and practiced I’m almost certain the K’s would go down and the .300 hitter would be plenty. Very few players have the talent for power and high avg. a few more can have power and respectable avg….then there are the majority that if only attempting to swing for power will be your .200 hitter>>>these batters were singles hitters in the past….. And in 2026 every player is swinging for the fence.

I don't even know what your "would have more wins" argument is. There is exactly one win assigned to a pitcher per game. Who gets the win is an artifact of the rules about assigning wins.

If slap hitting, contact oriented singles hitters were a viable tactical option today, teams would teach to that.

But with today's pitchers, defensive positioning, no astroturf fields, etc., having guys go out to make weak contact isn't guaranteed to produce "plenty" of .300 hitters.

This isn’t too difficult the understand. IF SP is so much better and the premise is that it is…..and the ONLY way the poor hitter has discovered to combat this and score runs is to hit HR(your theory not mine)…..and hitters no longer care about striking out like they used to in MLB…..then a vastly superior pitcher than an era ago should have not problem easily going through a lineup 3-4 times>>>>giving up minimal runs>>>>>logging historic K totals>>>>handing the game to the 8th or 9th inning shutdown setup and closer….AND easily recording 20+ wins a year. But your narrative is that they can’t do that because batters hitting .220 with 175K’s and 25HR scoring the same runs/game as 20yrs ago prevent this???

They don't need to if you have vastly better bullpens with a bunch of guys throwing 100 mph and shutting teams down for, at least, the 7th, 8th, and 9th.

Managers would rather err on the side of keeping their dominant SPs healthy for the long run by limiting their innings/pitches and turning games over to their bullpens when they can.

[JohnnyMO]

Where is the stat boost for PITCHING appearing?
Hitting is terrible…..low BA high K’s
SP only need to go 5 with the lead…..hand over to the speed/spin BP masters and wins should be logged quite frequently>>>>that’s not happening.
Outside the few Elite SP most teams rotations look like the Cardinals which are putting up ERA’s no better than 20-25yrs ago
So where is this unhittable MLB pitching hiding its historic stats?

The stat boost for pitching is exactly what you said…more k’s and lower batting average against.

Runs=Wins
So the MLB product has devolved into a less entertaining more boring K/HR exhibition over 9innings. This is the outcome they hoped for?
Less offense
Less single pitching success
Same runs
And I’d argue that the K’s are higher and BA is lower primarily because of the hitter not the pitcher.
And even with K’s higher……it’s very doubtful we see another 3000K pitcher. Max will be the last.

I’m not saying it’s good for the game, but it’s what happened. Pitchers got more difficult to hit, hitters figured out how to score runs despite all the k’s and lower batting averages.

Yes - as pitchers as a group have become progressively more difficult for batters to hit no matter their approach, most hitters have steered toward an approach where they are trying to do as much "damage" as possible when they do catch up with one and hit it hard - an approach to try and generate XBHs, not singles.

I really don’t think it’s the pitcher being better…..if so they would have more wins…..better ERA…..
Somewhere at sometime the analytics honks convinced organizations that launch was the way. This is what induces all the K’s. If contact were taught and practiced I’m almost certain the K’s would go down and the .300 hitter would be plenty. Very few players have the talent for power and high avg. a few more can have power and respectable avg….then there are the majority that if only attempting to swing for power will be your .200 hitter>>>these batters were singles hitters in the past….. And in 2026 every player is swinging for the fence.

I don't even know what your "would have more wins" argument is. There is exactly one win assigned to a pitcher per game. Who gets the win is an artifact of the rules about assigning wins.

If slap hitting, contact oriented singles hitters were a viable tactical option today, teams would teach to that.

But with today's pitchers, defensive positioning, no astroturf fields, etc., having guys go out to make weak contact isn't guaranteed to produce "plenty" of .300 hitters.

This isn’t too difficult the understand. IF SP is so much better and the premise is that it is…..and the ONLY way the poor hitter has discovered to combat this and score runs is to hit HR(your theory not mine)…..and hitters no longer care about striking out like they used to in MLB…..then a vastly superior pitcher than an era ago should have not problem easily going through a lineup 3-4 times>>>>giving up minimal runs>>>>>logging historic K totals>>>>handing the game to the 8th or 9th inning shutdown setup and closer….AND easily recording 20+ wins a year. But your narrative is that they can’t do that because batters hitting .220 with 175K’s and 25HR scoring the same runs/game as 20yrs ago prevent this???

Total MLB HR in 2000 are about the same as in 2026

So many reasons. The early 2000’s were the end of the steroid era. Then homeruns went down for a while. Then as hitters started playing with launch angle and selling out for power homers went up until they hit at an all time high in 2019. 2019 caused MLB to deaden balls and homers came back down a bit. DOWN to where they were in the steroid era.

[renostl]

Where is the stat boost for PITCHING appearing?
Hitting is terrible…..low BA high K’s
SP only need to go 5 with the lead…..hand over to the speed/spin BP masters and wins should be logged quite frequently>>>>that’s not happening.
Outside the few Elite SP most teams rotations look like the Cardinals which are putting up ERA’s no better than 20-25yrs ago
So where is this unhittable MLB pitching hiding its historic stats?

The stat boost for pitching is exactly what you said…more k’s and lower batting average against.

Runs=Wins
So the MLB product has devolved into a less entertaining more boring K/HR exhibition over 9innings. This is the outcome they hoped for?
Less offense
Less single pitching success
Same runs
And I’d argue that the K’s are higher and BA is lower primarily because of the hitter not the pitcher.
And even with K’s higher……it’s very doubtful we see another 3000K pitcher. Max will be the last.

I’m not saying it’s good for the game, but it’s what happened. Pitchers got more difficult to hit, hitters figured out how to score runs despite all the k’s and lower batting averages.

Yes - as pitchers as a group have become progressively more difficult for batters to hit no matter their approach, most hitters have steered toward an approach where they are trying to do as much "damage" as possible when they do catch up with one and hit it hard - an approach to try and generate XBHs, not singles.

I really don’t think it’s the pitcher being better…..if so they would have more wins…..better ERA…..
Somewhere at sometime the analytics honks convinced organizations that launch was the way. This is what induces all the K’s. If contact were taught and practiced I’m almost certain the K’s would go down and the .300 hitter would be plenty. Very few players have the talent for power and high avg. a few more can have power and respectable avg….then there are the majority that if only attempting to swing for power will be your .200 hitter>>>these batters were singles hitters in the past….. And in 2026 every player is swinging for the fence.

I don't even know what your "would have more wins" argument is. There is exactly one win assigned to a pitcher per game. Who gets the win is an artifact of the rules about assigning wins.

If slap hitting, contact oriented singles hitters were a viable tactical option today, teams would teach to that.

But with today's pitchers, defensive positioning, no astroturf fields, etc., having guys go out to make weak contact isn't guaranteed to produce "plenty" of .300 hitters.

This isn’t too difficult the understand. IF SP is so much better and the premise is that it is…..and the ONLY way the poor hitter has discovered to combat this and score runs is to hit HR(your theory not mine)…..and hitters no longer care about striking out like they used to in MLB…..then a vastly superior pitcher than an era ago should have not problem easily going through a lineup 3-4 times>>>>giving up minimal runs>>>>>logging historic K totals>>>>handing the game to the 8th or 9th inning shutdown setup and closer….AND easily recording 20+ wins a year. But your narrative is that they can’t do that because batters hitting .220 with 175K’s and 25HR scoring the same runs/game as 20yrs ago prevent this???

Total MLB HR in 2000 are about the same as in 2026

So many reasons. The early 2000’s were the end of the steroid era. Then homeruns went down for a while. Then as hitters started playing with launch angle and selling out for power homers went up until they hit at an all time high in 2019. 2019 caused MLB to deaden balls and homers came back down a bit. DOWN to where they were in the steroid era.

Agreeing.

There are teams being successful at R/G without
being strong on the HR ball. Mostly central divisions teams besides TB.

Hits have had small deviations since the 1970's as well as runs and TB.
Singles are down a full hit since then. Balls in play by about 3. While SO are up
by about 3. Seems there is some fondness to force outs, GIDP, GO, FO over the
SO. Since runs, hits, and TB are fairly steady.

[CCard]

Can someone explain how pitching is so considered so dominant in this new era of baseball with these ERA’s

Monday: Peterson (5-7, 5.97 ERA) vs. Liberatore (5-7, 5.18 ERA)

Tuesday: Rea (7-7, 4.85 ERA) vs. McGreevy (4-8, 3.07 ERA)

Wednesday: Boyd (6-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. May (5-7, 4.59 ERA)

Well, these pitchers aren't really dominant.

[BrummerStealsHome]

Can someone explain how pitching is so considered so dominant in this new era of baseball with these ERA’s

Monday: Peterson (5-7, 5.97 ERA) vs. Liberatore (5-7, 5.18 ERA)

Tuesday: Rea (7-7, 4.85 ERA) vs. McGreevy (4-8, 3.07 ERA)

Wednesday: Boyd (6-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. May (5-7, 4.59 ERA)

Claims that pitching is dominant is a simplistic response to the offensive dullness of the contemporary game. Runs per game are around historical average. But what seems lifeless about the game and adds boredom is that MLB is near an all-time low on singles per game, near all-time lows in league batting average, while maintaining roughly historical average (a little above average) in walks. Baseball is scoring a {historically} disproportionate number of its runs from the home run. It is also making more of hits outs from a historically high number of strikeouts. Through the flow of a baseball games, it's baserunners that help keep things interesting, plus good defensive play to keep those runners from scoring of off base to begin with.. Waiting for the exuberance of the homerun among a series of strikeouts is dull, and it can seem like too much dominance by pitchers.

I agree it's not as much fun to watch. But how do you sell hitters on changing their approach when they are scoring as much as ever and most experts including their coaches and managers believe they would score less against today's pitching and defensive alignments if they went back to an approach of hitting more singles?

They aren't scoring more runs than ever. Scoring (4.51 rpg) is at a historical average (4.75)

[JohnnyMO]

Can someone explain how pitching is so considered so dominant in this new era of baseball with these ERA’s

Monday: Peterson (5-7, 5.97 ERA) vs. Liberatore (5-7, 5.18 ERA)

Tuesday: Rea (7-7, 4.85 ERA) vs. McGreevy (4-8, 3.07 ERA)

Wednesday: Boyd (6-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. May (5-7, 4.59 ERA)

Claims that pitching is dominant is a simplistic response to the offensive dullness of the contemporary game. Runs per game are around historical average. But what seems lifeless about the game and adds boredom is that MLB is near an all-time low on singles per game, near all-time lows in league batting average, while maintaining roughly historical average (a little above average) in walks. Baseball is scoring a {historically} disproportionate number of its runs from the home run. It is also making more of hits outs from a historically high number of strikeouts. Through the flow of a baseball games, it's baserunners that help keep things interesting, plus good defensive play to keep those runners from scoring of off base to begin with.. Waiting for the exuberance of the homerun among a series of strikeouts is dull, and it can seem like too much dominance by pitchers.

I agree it's not as much fun to watch. But how do you sell hitters on changing their approach when they are scoring as much as ever and most experts including their coaches and managers believe they would score less against today's pitching and defensive alignments if they went back to an approach of hitting more singles?

They aren't scoring more runs than ever. Scoring (4.51 rpg) is at a historical average (4.75)

When did I say offenses were scoring more than ever? Re-read what I said.

[BrummerStealsHome]

Can someone explain how pitching is so considered so dominant in this new era of baseball with these ERA’s

Monday: Peterson (5-7, 5.97 ERA) vs. Liberatore (5-7, 5.18 ERA)

Tuesday: Rea (7-7, 4.85 ERA) vs. McGreevy (4-8, 3.07 ERA)

Wednesday: Boyd (6-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. May (5-7, 4.59 ERA)

Claims that pitching is dominant is a simplistic response to the offensive dullness of the contemporary game. Runs per game are around historical average. But what seems lifeless about the game and adds boredom is that MLB is near an all-time low on singles per game, near all-time lows in league batting average, while maintaining roughly historical average (a little above average) in walks. Baseball is scoring a {historically} disproportionate number of its runs from the home run. It is also making more of hits outs from a historically high number of strikeouts. Through the flow of a baseball games, it's baserunners that help keep things interesting, plus good defensive play to keep those runners from scoring of off base to begin with.. Waiting for the exuberance of the homerun among a series of strikeouts is dull, and it can seem like too much dominance by pitchers.

I agree it's not as much fun to watch. But how do you sell hitters on changing their approach when they are scoring as much as ever and most experts including their coaches and managers believe they would score less against today's pitching and defensive alignments if they went back to an approach of hitting more singles?

They aren't scoring more runs than ever. Scoring (4.51 rpg) is at a historical average (4.75)

When did I say offenses were scoring more than ever? Re-read what I said.

Well . . . how else does one interpret "when they are scoring as much as ever?" It is stated in the present tense, after all.

[JohnnyMO]

Can someone explain how pitching is so considered so dominant in this new era of baseball with these ERA’s

Monday: Peterson (5-7, 5.97 ERA) vs. Liberatore (5-7, 5.18 ERA)

Tuesday: Rea (7-7, 4.85 ERA) vs. McGreevy (4-8, 3.07 ERA)

Wednesday: Boyd (6-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. May (5-7, 4.59 ERA)

Claims that pitching is dominant is a simplistic response to the offensive dullness of the contemporary game. Runs per game are around historical average. But what seems lifeless about the game and adds boredom is that MLB is near an all-time low on singles per game, near all-time lows in league batting average, while maintaining roughly historical average (a little above average) in walks. Baseball is scoring a {historically} disproportionate number of its runs from the home run. It is also making more of hits outs from a historically high number of strikeouts. Through the flow of a baseball games, it's baserunners that help keep things interesting, plus good defensive play to keep those runners from scoring of off base to begin with.. Waiting for the exuberance of the homerun among a series of strikeouts is dull, and it can seem like too much dominance by pitchers.

I agree it's not as much fun to watch. But how do you sell hitters on changing their approach when they are scoring as much as ever and most experts including their coaches and managers believe they would score less against today's pitching and defensive alignments if they went back to an approach of hitting more singles?

They aren't scoring more runs than ever. Scoring (4.51 rpg) is at a historical average (4.75)

When did I say offenses were scoring more than ever? Re-read what I said.

Well . . . how else does one interpret "when they are scoring as much as ever?" It is stated in the present tense, after all.

I’d suggest interpreting it by the definitions of the words. If I have as much money as you then we have the same amount of money. If I have more money than you then I have a larger total of money. Let me know if you have more questions. I have a good friend who is an elementary school English tutor, I’m sure I can get you a deal.

[rockondlouie]

Cardinals starting rotation has actually been good GF

Starters staff:

4.08 ERA
#4 in NL
#10 in MLB

Innings pitched

#5 in NL
#13 in MLB

Where they lack and C. Bloom is attempting to rectify via trades & the draft is of course:

Strikeouts

#10 in NL
#23 in MLB



The problem this season (dah!) has been the bullpen

Relievers:

4.33 ERA
#9 in NL
#20 in MLB