MLB Is in Decline

 

A variety of statistics reveal that baseball — I’m talking about the very product on the field — is in decline.

Batting .300 proved to be quite a rare accomplishment this year. There are roughly 400 non-pitchers on big league rosters at any given time. Yet, only 11 major league hitters managed to bat at least .300 this season. 

Even worse, the league-wide batting average was just .243. You have to go back more than half a century to find this sort of ineptitude. The last time the league-wide average was this low was 1968, when it fell to .237. The year before, 1967, it was .242.

Across the majors, there were 39,677 hits this season and 40,812 strikeouts. That's pathetic. Oddly, just one player (Kyle Schwarber) whiffed at least 200 times. So, that .243 league average was also the result of a lot of weak ground balls, pop outs and fly outs.

Not a single major leaguer recorded as many as 200 hits this season, a stunning decline from what was once common for the better hitters in the game. Hitting has become a lost art.

And only 10 players scored at least 100 runs. Again, that’s just awful.

The fundamentals of the game are in ruins.

The 1968 season was known as the “Year of the Pitcher.” Batting averages and scoring had been dropping for several years, while strikeouts had been rising. Sound familiar? In response, MLB lowered the mound and shrank the strike zone. Then the American League instituted the designated hitter in 1973.

What will MLB do now? Next season will see the adoption of pitch clocks, larger bases, bans on defensive shifts, and limits on pickoff moves. Let’s hope it all results in more action.   

On the pitching side, the numbers show an equally alarming decline.

Just eight pitchers reached the 200-innings threshold, which used to be routine.

Though batters now strike out at a horrendous rate, just 11 pitchers notched at least 200 Ks, which was also routine for top pitchers in previous decades. Why the discrepancy? As noted, starters now throw relatively few innings. So, relievers are making up all those innings that used to be pitched by starters.

Furthermore, just one pitcher won 20 games this year.

MLB is at a crossroads. Games are too long and the action too limited. The ’Three True Outcomes’ (strikeouts, walks and home runs) are killing action because the ball isn’t put in play often enough. This season, 33.5% of all plate appearances ended in one of the Three True Outcomes. It's affecting the game and it's showing up in attendance figures.

MLB attendance was down 5.7% compared to 2019, the season before the pandemic. MLB saw its lowest attendance since 1997. The sport has seen a decline in attendance for nine consecutive seasons, excluding the pandemic-shortened season in 2020. 

To be fair, MLB isn't alone. Average NBA and NHL attendance was down 3.7% and 9.3%, respectively, compared to 2019. 

Where it goes from here remains to be seen. The owners, however, are not struggling.

A report from Front Office Sports said that Major League Baseball is expecting record revenue for 2022, exceeding the $10.7 billion from 2019, the last full season before the pandemic. However, obviously that is due to raising prices for tickets, merchandise, and food and beverage sales.

Baseball needs more than just home runs and strikeouts to be interesting. Let’s hope that the rule changes coming next season help to speed up the game and increase on-field action, which they are intended to do. Baseball desperately needs it.