Oct 4, 2018
Alternate title: Goose Gossage is an Ass Part 2. Based
on a Bleacher Report article around the “greats of the game”
commenting on baseball new “all or nothing” type of play. More
strikeouts than hits in this year’s season for the first time ever.
These interesting stats, Chip and Cern’s thoughts and more on this
episode of the Chip and Cern Show.
Hall of Famers are not the only ones voicing their displeasure
with an all-or-nothing game in which:
• The ball is not put in play in roughly a third of all
plate
appearances, 31.6 percent of which end in a strikeout, walk or
hit batter.
• The .248
MLB
batting average is the
lowest since
1972, the season before the American League instituted the
designated hitter, when it was .244.
• There were more strikeouts than hits in a month for the
first timein MLB history in April and, through early August,
MLB had accumulated more strikeouts than hits overall. The race is
on for whether it will happen in a full season for the first
time.
• Through Saturday, the combined rate of strikeouts, walks and
home runs across the game was 33.6 percent. According to the Elias
Sports Bureau, since strikeouts were first recorded in both leagues
in 1913, there have been only six seasons in which strikeouts,
walks and home runs have accounted for at least 30 percent of all
plate appearances, and all of them have occurred since 2012.
•
Defensive
chances over the past two years have declined to the
fewest in history—36.7 per game this year and last year, the first
time that figure's ever dipped below 37.0. While we arguably have
some of the greatest athletes ever on the field today—Hall of Famer
Brooks Robinson has little over the Colorado Rockies' Nolan Arenado
and Oakland Athletics' Matt Chapman, just as one example—they're
not on display as often as they could be.
• Strategies like the hit-and-run and stolen base attempt (at
their lowest per-game average since 1964, according to Elias) have
become endangered species.
• Rules changes have eliminated the takeout slide at second
base and the collision with the catcher at home plate.
• Emotion and energy is being drained from the game one replay
and administrative move at a time (see above re: takeout slides and
home plate collisions). Games are averaging about three hours in
length and replays almost one-and-a-half minutes per review,
according to
Maury
Brown in a story written for
Forbes.comin April.
Baseball has changed a ton in the last 10 years. Do you think
it is for the better or worse? Let us know on Twitter at
@chipandcernshow. Speaking of plugs, pick up your Chip and Cern
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