Baseball has been trending towards a game with a lot of home runs, walks, and strikeouts for a while now.
This process has been going on for years: hitters know that a home run is more valuable than a hit, and pitchers know that strikeouts are better than allowing contact.
That’s why they are throwing harder pitches with sharper break.
They have been evolving, and MLB has too, as a result.
Batting average is not as big of a priority as it once was, because we know now that it can be empty and doesn’t necessarily correlate with stellar offensive production the way walks and extra-base hits do.
Teams have understood this.
This trend has been reflected in overall numbers, too.
MLB teams hitting under .240
1998 – 0
1999 – 0
2000 – 0
2001 – 0
2002 – 0
2003 – 0
2004 – 0
2005 – 0
2006 – 0
2007 – 0
2008 – 0
2009 – 0
2010 – 1
2011 – 2
2012 – 5
2013 – 5
2014 – 4
2015 – 0
2016 – 1
2017 – 1
2018 – 8
2019 – 4
2020 – 11
2021 – 12
2022 – 14— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) February 22, 2023
Four years ago, it was rare for a team to hit under .240.
But the game has changed, and the trend began in 2020.
Four teams finished under that .240 threshold in batting average in 2019, but the number jumped to 11 in the pandemic season and kept on increasing in subsequent years.
It was 12 in 2021 and 14 last season.
The league prioritized the elimination of the shift and implemented larger bases to try and increase that batting average.
They want more people on base and more action on the basepaths, and those two measures should help somewhat.
Whether that’s the right decision or not remains to be seen and depends entirely on each person’s likes and tastes.
Not everyone sees baseball the same, and certainly not everybody enjoys the same things.
We do know that the recent rule changes may help reverse the batting average trend.
We will know in October.
NEXT:
Kyle Schwarber Is Already Hitting Blasts This Spring
