What's wrong with baseball — and 18 ways to fix it

Lowering the pitching mound was done primarily to reduce the amount of curvature on a curve ball and a sinker. The mound was lowered from 15" to 10" after the 1968 season. That extra 5" that gravity can work on the ball makes a difference. Also the angle of a fastball is coming in at more of a downward angle with a higher mound than with a lower mound. Another way to say it is lowering the mound makes fastballs flatten out a bit. Lowering the mound would likely increase the number of fly balls and home runs. I don't know if this is a good thing.

I've been to several games this year. In two of these games there was never a groundout to the shortstop. Imagine that--no ground balls hit to the shortstop. The ground ball out is becoming rarer. Lowering the mound would make them more rare.

 

Only a few can learn to hit opposite way, and not many for any power!

 

Players are stronger than ever. They swinging the bat faster at balls coming faster. Add "launch angles"....the ball will just naturally go further and higher. Plus, strikes outs will stay high. Pitchers are too good. The ball movement is insane by some of these guys.... And Jordan Hicks throwing a 103+....

I like pitching though... I love to see a guy fool the batter....bring him to his knees as he chases a ball out of the zone that fooled him. That pitchers dual(2 weeks ago I believe)between Flaherty and Buehler(rookies). ..then Nola and Scherzer(2 best in baseball) the next day. Fun to watch



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Better athletes , but worse players, in regards to over all basebell skills!
And pitchers are now trained to just go 5 innings, as afraid to hurt their arms!
long gone are the days Nolan Ryan would pitch 200 pitches a game, or Jack Morris had 135 complete games, denny Mcclain 35 complete games in same year!

 

Nolan Ryan was a rare breed. High pitch counts and a hard thrower. Pitch counts dropped because teams want to protect their pitchers. They throw harder than ever....especially copmared to the 80's which is the last good decade to compare it to. The more recent decades are tainted with HGH and steroids.

Jack Morris has stated is awe of the modern pitcher and ball movement. Even to go has far as to accuse them of cheating. The slider is being used very often now. It is the most lviolent pitch to the arm. It is being used more and more effective than ever....which means it is harder on arms.

And teams have good pitchers in the ball pen. Why would you want to push your starter to 130-150 pitches when you have Miller, Hicks, Chapman, Martinez or someone like them in your bull pen? Go get the fresh arm.


I would put Trout up against any player ever....Trout does it all. Let us not pretend the players of the past were super defenders. The balls they got were coming slower. Mike Schmidt won gold gloves because he could hit....which makes since in bizarro world. Trea Turner and Javy Baez are threats in the field and the plate. Molina, Carpenter, Soto, Cain, Yelich, Harper, Freeman, Wong, Story, Arenado, Seager, Bellinger, Correa, Altuve, Bader, Posey, Betts, Ramirez, Chapman, Judge, Realmuto, Acuna, Ozuna, Simmons, Ohtani, Lindor, Bregman and so on and so on....we have great players today who you can compare to any era. In many ways they are better. As they should be...with the training, weight room...numerous other resources.... and information they have.

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No, no, nope. Players in the past were better defenders. Smarter too. Line drives and ground balls may have marginally higher exit velocities nowadays but I see defensive faux pas every single time I watch a ball game. It's one of the most reliable things about baseball these days. This didn't happen with such high frequency even 15 or 20 years ago, and for sure didn't happen as often in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

There are great defenders nowadays, sure, but the average outfielder is pathetic. You want some laughs? Watch just about any corner outfielder try to catch a ball hit over their head. Comedic!

The average infielder isn't very good. However, most shortstops are significantly better than previous eras. First and third baseman? Terrible (though there are exceptions, of course.)

And, of course, most players have low baseball IQ. In a recent game with a runner on first base, Jose Altuve allowed a fly ball to drop in front of him. He then picked up the ball and completed an easy double play. This was lauded as a super intelligent play and ESPN and MLB gushed about its greatness. This is a play in previous eras that was routine.





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