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Post by chinmusic on Oct 12, 2021 19:23:55 GMT -8
Professional baseball across the minor league spectrum, from Low-A to AAA, saw some recent offensive trends continue. Changes in the Ball Parks, use of the MLB baseball, and the natural order of bigger-faster-stronger players, all contributed according to the "Quants" (Analytics folks). Here are a few numbers to massage.
In all of MiLB, the average slash line was: .247/ .334/ 406
The average number of runs scored per game by a team: 5.04
The average number of base on balls received per game by a team: 3.48
The average number of strike outs per game by a team: 9.62
* Walks, runs, and strike outs were all up - a continuing trend.
In AAA, teams averaged 1.24 Home Runs/game. Down 8%
In AA, teams averaged 1.10 Home Runs per game. Up 47%
In Hi-A, teams averaged 1.0 Home Run per game. Up 65%
In Lo-A, teams averaged 0.84 Home Runs per game. Up 33%
* Home Runs were up overall. A continuing trend.
AAA HR production dipped following two years of large increases.
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Post by dryside on Oct 13, 2021 9:04:13 GMT -8
First off,thanks for all your post. You are a great resource of information on this board.
Now, I'm old school as it gets when it comes to my favorite sport. Baseball today is almost unrecognizable to me then when I first started following the game back in 1955.It use to be a game of execution. Hit and run,steals,bunts,etc. Starting pitchers who finished what they started on a regular basis. You didn't need a set of analytics to know if a guy could hit or not. You didn't need a radar gun to know if a guy threw hard or not. You didn't take away from the game by employing an infield shift that is guaranteed to reduce hits and averages. I don't need to know what the exit velocity of a hit is to know "he got all of that one"... we are slowly but surely taking the immeasurables out of the game and reducing it to a video game like readout.... Utility is being replaced by "specialist"...nothing to see guys not only go 0 for 4 but strikeout 4 times in a game. Contact hitters ? Guys never shorten their swings with 2 strikes. They continue to come out of their shoes when they swing. If a guy can hit .250 and has 20 plus homers he can name his contract price. .300 hitters ? No premium put on that number like before. Tony Oliva where are you ? Tommy John surgery is as numerous as a cold in winter. Now little leaguers throw a breaking ball as often as they do a 2 seam fastball. It's all about velocity. Kids looking for a scholarship? First thing everyone wants to know ? How hard can he throw...never mind does he get people out with location and change of speeds Okay I'm done ranting.....carry on
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Post by kersting13 on Oct 13, 2021 12:52:35 GMT -8
First off,thanks for all your post. You are a great resource of information on this board.
Now, I'm old school as it gets when it comes to my favorite sport. Baseball today is almost unrecognizable to me then when I first started following the game back in 1955.It use to be a game of execution. Hit and run,steals,bunts,etc. Starting pitchers who finished what they started on a regular basis. You didn't need a set of analytics to know if a guy could hit or not. You didn't need a radar gun to know if a guy threw hard or not. You didn't take away from the game by employing an infield shift that is guaranteed to reduce hits and averages. I don't need to know what the exit velocity of a hit is to know "he got all of that one"... we are slowly but surely taking the immeasurables out of the game and reducing it to a video game like readout.... Utility is being replaced by "specialist"...nothing to see guys not only go 0 for 4 but strikeout 4 times in a game. Contact hitters ? Guys never shorten their swings with 2 strikes. They continue to come out of their shoes when they swing. If a guy can hit .250 and has 20 plus homers he can name his contract price. .300 hitters ? No premium put on that number like before. Tony Oliva where are you ? Tommy John surgery is as numerous as a cold in winter. Now little leaguers throw a breaking ball as often as they do a 2 seam fastball. It's all about velocity. Kids looking for a scholarship? First thing everyone wants to know ? How hard can he throw...never mind does he get people out with location and change of speeds Okay I'm done ranting.....carry on
I don't disagree with the basic premise, there is one thing I'd like to expand on: Shift. I don't mind that defense now employs shifts based on where guys tend to hit the ball. What bothers me is that instead of learning how to use the whole field in order to counteract the shift, the strategy has been to just "double down" on hitting the ball harder INTO the shift. If every infielder is on the right side of the infield, you don't have to hit the ball with 100mph exit velocity to get a hit. You can just tap it to the left side, and you're on base. I also think one of the worst things recent changes in MLB is the move to the 26-man active roster. The game has allowed pitcher usage to completely change the rules of the game, instead of managers changing their usage to stay within the rules. In spring training, I always used to predict the Reds roster make-up for opening day and on. It was ALWAYS 10 pitchers and 15 position players up through at LEAST 1999. As we got into the early 2000s, the roster construction changed to 12 pitchers and 13 position players almost over night. Over the last 5 years, 13 pitchers and 12 position players started becoming the norm, and now that we changed to 26 players in 2020, you frequently see teams with only 4 reserve batters on the bench, which of course plays into the fact that EVERY relief pitcher is a 1 inning guy, and if you average over 5 innings per start, you're considered a workhorse starting pitcher. |
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Post by chinmusic on Oct 13, 2021 15:11:49 GMT -8
"The only constant in our lives is change".
We live in a digital world now, more data invites more analysis.
In Low-A, they experimented with Robotic Umpires last season. That demonstrated that professional umpires at the Low-A level tend to have a generous strike zone that favors the pitcher. With the Robots, a noticable increase in walks was recorded, thus introducing another change in the game if baseball impements that system.
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Post by badwack on Oct 13, 2021 18:08:28 GMT -8
I came from the school of keep the Ball down. Launch angle was drive the Ball back at the Pitcher. Knew who could throw a breaking Ball and the SOB's who could throw the ball to any spot and jamb the hell out of you. Had no idea about spin rates, angles, blah, blah. However, a few years ago I would have loved to have just a basic spread sheet to track Pitches, locations and where the Ball was most likely hit by what kid. What a tool! I bet they have far more now including who blinks or burps. Just saying.....
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Post by kersting13 on Oct 14, 2021 8:48:44 GMT -8
I came from the school of keep the Ball down. Launch angle was drive the Ball back at the Pitcher. Knew who could throw a breaking Ball and the SOB's who could throw the ball to any spot and jamb the hell out of you. Had no idea about spin rates, angles, blah, blah. However, a few years ago I would have loved to have just a basic spread sheet to track Pitches, locations and where the Ball was most likely hit by what kid. What a tool! I bet they have far more now including who blinks or burps. Just saying..... I think for players that are NOT MLB capable - which is 99.9% of baseball players playing today - that those same "old" rules still apply. Most guys aren't going to hit a lot of HRs if they get their launch angle up - they're going to hit easy fly outs. A ball in play vs most HS kids is going to have a WAY higher possibility of being a hit than it is vs pros. Unless you're playing an elite HS club or higher, I think MOST players aren't capable of taking advantage of the current MLB style of play. |
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