Post by hottubbeaver on May 26, 2023 14:28:21 GMT -8
I would be curious to know/see, if their has been any trend (up or down) across ncaa in offensive production? With transfer portal allowing experienced players who excel at a D-II or III school the opportunity to jump to a D-1 program, coupled with the amount of hitting instruction and experience an 18 year old of today has received versus 20 years ago it would not surprise me if offensive numbers overall are up. I also think the balls used today compared to 10 years ago are different, seems were lowered can't recall when, that seemingly (pun intended) small change can result in a significant impact on certain type of pitches effectiveness and favors offense over pitching.
The change clearly favored offensive output and power hitting, with reward over risk for elevated swing trajectory adjustments.
How about ERA across the Pac 12?
2013 (conf. rank, team, era)
1st OSU 2.28
conf. avrg. 3.66
2014 (conf. rank, team, era)
1st OSU 2.29
conf. avrg. 3.61
Flat-Seem baseball begins
2015 (conf. rank, team, era)
3rd OSU 3.02
conf. avrg. 3.56
2016 (conf. rank, team, era)
4th OSU 3.53
conf. avrg. 4.01
2017 (conf. rank, team, era)
1st OSU 1.93
conf. avrg. 4.20
2018 (conf. rank, team, era)
3rd OSU 3.27
conf. avrg. 4.28
2019 (conf. rank, team, era)
2nd OSU 3.02
conf. avrg. 4.73
2020 Conference stats not accessible, covid
2021 (conf. rank, team, era)
1st OSU 3.48
conf. avrg. 4.58
2022 (conf. rank, team, era)
2nd OSU 4.19
conf. avrg. 5.00
2023 (conf. rank, team, era)
3rd OSU 4.65
conf. avrg. 5.43
2017 looks like an outlier at first, but was due to an elite and dominating front line. Heimlich .76 ERA, Thompsons 1.96 and Fehmel 3.87
It looks like the game has changed since the flat-seem balls were instituted. That doesn't mean a stingy run allowance can't be produced still. It can be done and should remain a trademark approach of OSU baseball.
Here's some additional info from a Linfield study looking at differences between raised and flat seems.
digitalcommons.linfield.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1085&context=symposium
