Pitching in Baseball

Throughout the 1990s, and especially in the late 90s, hitting was everything in baseball. Of course, that was the 'steroid era' and balls were flying out of the ballpark at record pace. And even in college baseball there was a final score of 21-14 in the national championship game between USC and Arizona State. That has done a complete 180 over the last 10 years and now pitching dominates.

They changed the bats in college baseball so that there is less barrel on them and that has really changed the way the game is played. In the major leagues, league ERAs are as low as they've been in 30 years. Every team has good pitchers, hardly any teams have multiple players hitting over .300. When you look at a hitter's batting average, you have to say .250 is what used to be .285, and 20 home runs is what used to be 30.

What caused this shift? Is is all steroids? I don't really believe it is all steroids, although that is a major role, for one because some pitchers took them as well during that era. I once heard long time Braves announcer Pete Van Wieren say that baseball way cyclical, for a few years pitching dominates so franchises draft and develop hitters. Then hitters dominate and franchises draft and develop pitchers and so on and so forth.

Reason #1: Steroids. Reason #2: Emphasis on more pitching. Reason #3: In the late 90s baseball was too thinned out. They had just added four more expansion teams within 5 years and their were pitchers in the big leagues who should have been in AAA. Now, the population has grown and there are enough big league pitchers to cover the major league requirement. Reason #4: The strike zone is bigger. They got rid of quez-tech and the umpires are calling the borderline pitches strikes.

I enjoy watching a well-pitched baseball game. A home run is cool, but there can be home runs in a 3-2 game just like an 8-6 game. A well-pitched game is faster, and more exciting as runs are hard to come by. So overall, I think baseball is better off with pitching dominating...but it will change again.

JB