Year of the Pitcher 2.0 is damaging to game

I am truly uncertain of which of these stats is more astounding a week before Memorial Day:

• The Seattle Mariners entered Sunday with a team batting average of .197.

• There have already been six no-hitters, with a seventh unofficial one (it came in a seven-inning game because of a doubleheader).

• Only four teams (Boston, San Diego, Toronto and Washington) had more hits than strikeouts entering the weekend, and it was pretty close for some of those teams. These figures are, of course, interconnected. (The Mariners are one of three teams that have been no-hit twice, the others being Cleveland and Texas.) The average major league hitter is batting a paltry .237. Batting average has deservedly fallen from favor as a yardstick of effective hitting, but this is not healthy — and the last time averages fell consistently under .250, much less .240, significant rule changes followed: a smaller strike zone and lower mounds in 1969, the designated hitter in 1973.

Roughly 75% of the schedule remains to be played. The weather has not fully heated up around the country. All this can change — but the trend of more strikeouts and lower batting averages started years ago and is gaining momentum.

This is Year of the Pitcher 2.0, this generation’s version of 1968, with Jacob deGrom playing the role of Bob Gibson.

But 2021 is not truly ‘68. This version features higher-velocity fastballs but fewer of them. Less than half the pitches thrown today are fastballs.

And the current game relies on waves of relievers rather than workhorse starters. DeGrom’s current 0.68 ERA is about half of Gibson’s famous 1.12 ERA in 1968, but the Mets ace won’t approach Gibson’s workload.

Today’s lineups are, in truth, deeper and more dangerous than in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s— there are no regulars in today’s game as punchless as Mark Belanger or Dal Maxvill — but the added power at the bottom of today’s lineups has come at the cost of more strikeouts.

The “Three True

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EDWARD THOMA

The Free Press

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Outcomes” (walks, homers, strikeouts) model of team building is breaking the game. The model has spread because it works in terms of wins and losses, but it’s pushing the sport into unwatchability.

And there is no easy, obvious answer, because we can’t unlearn what we learned in the analytics era.

But there has to be a course correction. Baseball cannot thrive with a nohitter every week, cannot thrive with a lack of action on the field, cannot thrive with more strikeouts than hits.

The analytical map I touted for years has put the game on a path to disaster.

Edward Thoma is at ethoma@ mankatofreepress. com. Twitter @bboutsider.