I read an interesting article from someone who tracked every pitch thrown this year compared to prior years. (Amazing that someone would do this.) The author concluded that umpires are calling a higher percentage of low balls for strikes than in prior years. In fact, the strike zone is a full 3 to 4 inches lower than it has ever been. This may be the reason why we are seeing lower batting averages. The Yankees suffered but so did a lot of other teams including the Red Sox. The author also points out the notorious low ball hitters have not been affected as much as others. If it is true, I wonder if this change stems from the pressure to speed up the game.
Personally, I feel like the game is more boring. A two run deficit in the 6th has become almost insurmountable.
There's no doubt that most teams are so stacked with power pitching strike art artists for the last few innings that comebacks are rare. But the Yankees for at least the last few years have been horrible at getting runs in, even from
3rd with less than two outs. Most of them are trying to jack the ball and that includes Gardner who now fancies himself a slugger. Now with Jeter gone, and Ichiro near the end if not gone, that have few guys who don't want to pull the ball, overshift or not. I don't know if that's a product of team philosophy (Steinbrenner, Cashman,Girardi etc,) or the batting coach who the broadcast crew always praised, but it sure has been unproductive. Two years ago, they could claim a lot of injuries. Not so much this year, although they did have a share of guys missing many games off and on - aging team? An after affect of ending steroid use? Anyway, I do want to see what a new hitting coach can actually do for major league batters.
Funny on that low strike stat. At least for the last few month of the season, there seemed to be more above the belt strikes called than ever. It probably is a strike, but it seems like the letter high strike went away with Bob Gibson.
