Are too many strikeouts hurting the game of baseball?

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

I agree with novelist_wannabe. This is a byproduct of specialized pitching more than hesitant batting. Increased platoons and pinch-hitters seem to be the likely next step, but first they need to expand rosters.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

Sure you do, if there's one out, and your team has a guy on third, you're cursing the hell out of your guy that strikes out, when all he needed to do was hit a fly ball.

I'm not sure it makes a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. But, in those instances, strikeouts suck.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

No. More walks are the intentional byproduct of taking more pitches.

But BB/9 was at its lowest level since 1966 last year.

Pitchers have adjusted. Like someone wrote on this thread, every at-bat now seems to be 0-1, 0-2, 1-2.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

I agree with you 100 percent. Twenty-five man rosters are a relic. There just aren't enough position players now on a Major League roster.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

That's an interesting thought.

When I was a kid, teams usually carried 10 pitchers. Now you see teams with 12, and sometimes 13 pitchers.

We do have more pitching specialists, and fewer situational batters. If the rosters size increased would teams add platoon players, or more pitchers?

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

The quality of baseball right now l is phenomenal. There is a class of players under 25 right now that will produce a Hall of Fame-clogging number of players. Trout can be Willie Mays. Kershaw can be Koufax. Teams are giving prospects a chance and eschewing washed-up, overpriced vets.

It's an awesome time for baseball and nobody seems to notice because THEY DON'T ACTUALLY LIKE BASEBALL. If you're bored right now, you like watching home run derby — not baseball.

No one called Bob Gibson boring. Why? BECAUSE PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKED BASEBALL BACK THEN.

And offense is down because fewer are taking steroids and talent evaluators and youth coaches recognized the supply/demand curve for pitching during the 1990s. Every team now has a guy throwing harder than they did a decade ago, when Dave Burba was considered a No. 2 starter with a 4.50 earned run average.

It's refreshing. It won't last. Hitting will catch up. It always does. But I'm enjoying this era. I think baseball is remarkably healthy from an on-field standpoint, even if the fans don't think so.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

Couldn't you just legislate it? Like golf clubs allowed in a bag are legislated?

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

If there's one thing I can see happening roster-wise, it would be a pitcher/hitter combo like Brooks Kieschnick tried to do a couple of years ago. I'm talking about a guy who plays a couple of different positions including pitcher, and can handle the bat well enough to be a decent pinch hitter and day-off sub.

Most players were both through high school. I don't think it would be difficult to have a guy specialize in short relief, a batter or two, and still be able to play third base or the outfield. Most of those guys in the bullpen don't have anything besides fastball and one other pitch anyway.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

Not very often? At that strikeout rate, even if every game was a perfect game, the ball would be put in play in 72% of at bats.

Also, I would imagine for every strikeout, half the fans watching thing it's boring, half the fans think it's just fine by them.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

You'd have to define players by position, then.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

All trends point to specialization.

 

Re: Does baseball have a strikeout problem?

Yeah, it would have to be a guy who was a hitter first and a pitcher second, because it hasn't worked the other way. Kieschnick washed out after a couple of years and the closest guy to him since then, Micah Owings, eventually stopped hitting.

Even the best-hitting pitchers of the past 15 years --- Carlos Zambrano, Dontrelle Willis, Mike Hampton, among others --- wouldn't have been able to stay on rosters as just hitters. They had power and could handle the bat OK, but their plate discipline was/is terrible.