Quote:
Originally Posted by dkgo
You think the way to reduce strikeouts is to widen the strike zone? What? Forcing players to strikeout or swing at bad pitches isn't going to do any of the things you think it will.
Pitchers are better than ever, especially the bottom half of them. A higher percentage of pitches are 90s+ than ever before. That's why strikeouts are up, because hitting a really fast baseball is ****ing hard. Since it is harder to hit it you are less likely to get several hits in a row, so players try to make their hits count more with homeruns. That's all there is to it.
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Stretching the strike zone would get players to swing earlier in the count, and thus put balls in play earlier. Since they can't wait for that one mistake pitch, it would also drive down homers, and prevent every count from running full, speeding up the game. Since pitchers throw fewer pitches per at-bat, starters can go deeper into the game, requiring fewer pitching changes, thus speeding up the game again.
You must admit that this sounds good on paper.
Maybe too good to be true!