One reason may be that baseballs are somewhat "deadened" this year. 

Not only is it designed to travel less far, its a little smaller and lighter probably allowing pitchers to do more with it.

Slightly smaller = harder to hit, too; contributing to higher K-rate.

Chicks dig the popup!

Edited April 27, 20214 yr by Rounding_Third

4 hours ago, zisk said:

lost Eloy. Not to be racist, hispanics like warmer weather.

I'm half hispanic and all I can say was that the first time I hit one off the bat handle during a spring practice I almost quit the sport ?

4 hours ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

Sox are 20th in ISO, which is why it seems like the offense is worse than it is. The success is being driven by a high AVG and BB total.

Cubs are 3rd in ISO but 11th in OPS. They're hitting almost nothing but homers.

I'd much rather have the high AVG and BB and hope the ISO comes along rather than be maxed out on ISO and having to improve on AVG and BB.

Sox offense really is different this year. Last year it was high K, low bb, high power, this year it is good K to bb and middle of the road power 

Passan had an "interesting" idea on the radio today. 

He believed one way you could help the offense "catch up" to pitchers who are just maxing out on effort is to limit the roster size to 10-11 pitchers on a team. It couldn't be done overnight, or even in a year....this would have to a plan the league and teams commit to on a 5-10 year basis. But the idea is if the starter *in theory* has to go longer in a game or is being counted on to cover more innings, he may not max out on effort with his pitches, instead play a little bit more of the long game. Additionally, it could speed up the game a little bit as you wouldn't have as many pitching changes. 

I'm not a huge fan of it, but I also sort of understand it. I'm really not a fan of where we are at in baseball right now, when 5 IP by a starter is considered a "good start" and pitch count is the absolute king. The game has really changed even from where it was around 2004-2006.