[lex24]

https://www.mlb.com/astros/team/front-of...ete-putila

The new Giants GM

Was hoping for someone with more traditional baseball experience.  But he comes highly regarded.  I just hope the Front Office doesn’t skew too far to the analytics side.

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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.

I think it will take awhile to gauge the impact. Contact hitters that lack power (or more precisely dont hit HR’s) are not valued presently.  Banning the shifts may change that a little bit.  But it will take awhile to see if any change comes about.

[lex24]

https://www.mlb.com/astros/team/front-of...ete-putila

The new Giants GM

Was hoping for someone with more traditional baseball experience.  But he comes highly regarded.  I just hope the Front Office doesn’t skew too far to the analytics side.

---

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.

I think it will take awhile to gauge the impact. Contact hitters that lack power (or more precisely dont hit HR’s) are not valued presently.  Banning the shifts may change that a little bit.  But it will take awhile to see if any change comes about.