10-15-2018, 12:35 PM
(10-10-2018, 10:13 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Yes sir,
Small ball has all but disappeared. The HR records keep getting broke every season and that's what people wanna see. Like everything else the specialness of the HR has been diluted. There's guys hitting 40 every year whom wouldn't have hit 20 back in the day.
This. The guys at the top of the HR list are not breaking records, but there are a lot more guys hitting 30+ HR. It is because strike outs don't matter anymore. Everyone is going to an uppercut swing that generates more Home runs but also more strike outs.
It used to be that 100 strikeouts was considered a lot, but this year 153 MLB players had at least 100 strike outs. No ML player had struck out more than 200 times in a season until 2008. Since then it has happened 12 times with 3 different players having over 200 strike outs this year.
In 1988 only 5 players hit 30 HRs, and only 4 players struck out 150 times
In 2018 27 players hit 30 HRs, and 28 players struck out 150 times
