Baseball is evidently wanting more offense and are therefore focusing on pitchers and the thought that they're doctoring the baseball. But, I think that's ignoring a bigger problem.
Analytics have taken over MLB and now almost every team is built for hitting a ton of HRs and that's about it. Almost no teams play 'small ball', steal a base, teach high average/putting the ball in play, hit-and-run, hitting behind the runner, etc. As a result way too many ABs end up with the ball never being in play. I'm not sure that fans want to necessarily see more offense as much as more activity. Look at a typical NHL game. The score may be 2-1 but there are always a lot of shots on goal, near misses, lots of activity up and down the ice and no one complains if the actual score is low. Watching pitcher after pitcher throw heat and batter after batter either hitting a 450' HR or striking out doesn't make for much action at all during a MLB game.
I won't argue about analytics. But, I go see a MLB once or twice a year and the huge majority of the game is almost no movement/action whatsoever. Waiting for a 3-run HR gets boring pretty quick. Whatever happened to the guys like Rose, Henderson, Ichiro, Boggs, Carew, et al who put the ball in play and created offense by stealing a base, going 1st to 3rd, etc.? Doesn't seem like MLB values those traits anymore.
Imo, it's not the pitching that's the problem. It's the offensive philosophy of everyone swinging for the fences.
Analytics have taken over MLB and now almost every team is built for hitting a ton of HRs and that's about it. Almost no teams play 'small ball', steal a base, teach high average/putting the ball in play, hit-and-run, hitting behind the runner, etc. As a result way too many ABs end up with the ball never being in play. I'm not sure that fans want to necessarily see more offense as much as more activity. Look at a typical NHL game. The score may be 2-1 but there are always a lot of shots on goal, near misses, lots of activity up and down the ice and no one complains if the actual score is low. Watching pitcher after pitcher throw heat and batter after batter either hitting a 450' HR or striking out doesn't make for much action at all during a MLB game.
I won't argue about analytics. But, I go see a MLB once or twice a year and the huge majority of the game is almost no movement/action whatsoever. Waiting for a 3-run HR gets boring pretty quick. Whatever happened to the guys like Rose, Henderson, Ichiro, Boggs, Carew, et al who put the ball in play and created offense by stealing a base, going 1st to 3rd, etc.? Doesn't seem like MLB values those traits anymore.
Imo, it's not the pitching that's the problem. It's the offensive philosophy of everyone swinging for the fences.
