10-07-2022, 02:54 PM
(10-07-2022, 02:08 PM)BostonCard Wrote: https://apnews.com/article/mlb-sports-ba...dium=email
Not specific to the Giants, but:
The league-wide MLB batting average is down to .243, the lowest level since 1968. There have only been five seasons with a lower batting average than this year: 1967 and 1968, and then the dead ball eras of 1884, 1888 and 1908. Several things are believed to be causing this, including higher velocity of pitches — there were 3,356 pitches that came in over 100 miles per hour, up from 1,829 in 2021 and 1,056 in 2019 — and more defensive shifts, coming in at 66,961 defensive shifts this year, up from 59,063 in 2021, itself up enormously from the 2,349 shifts in 2011.
That’s a 30-fold increase in shifts.
BC
It will be interesting to see how the pitch clock and shift restrictions impact the overall batting average. I suggest a multi-point increase is on the horizon.
