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  • May 30, 2007 09:59 AM ET

Batters are slumping....is it the year of the Pitcher?

CJBOSOX (33-6-0) vs Kalman (22-15-0)
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It doesnt take a baseball analyst to wonder what is going on with the sluggers at the plate. Hitting coaches are working overtime trying to solve the puzzles pieces that is the clubs struggling hitters. Here are Three facts to prove my point. Thru May 26 the leagues runs per a game are at 9.05 down from 9.76 and the lowest average since 1992. The leagues HR's per game is at 1.84 down from 2.22 and the lowest since 1993. The leagues batting average is .258 down from .269 and the lowest since 1992.


Not including the dead ball era, the year of the pitcher will always be 1968, when league batting averages were .231, OBP was .300, and slugging was .340. Gibson had a 1.12 era and we had the last 30 game winner in Denny McLaine, rules had to be changed to help out hitters following that season. Nothing will ever come close again.


The argument isnt saying that this is the year that the pitchers have the best stats. Im just saying that this year the pitchers are doing better than the batters. We have Alfonso Soriano who had no HR's in april. Albert Pujols who has only 7 HR's on the season, and Paul Konerko who is only hitting .201. The Cardinals in a stretch of 7 games started 7 different guys in the leadoff role. Last sunday the cardinals hit a HR for the first time in 93 strait innings. My point is is that there are several big name players who are having awful seasons. No it isnt the YEAR of the pitcher but it is the year in which for the most part the pitcher will dominate the batter


Ok, yeah some players aren't hitting well but you still have many others who you wouldn't normally think of doing very well (like J.J. Hardy and Prince Fielder) Some hitters (ex. Manny Ramierez) historically get off to slow starts, and others like Darren Howard simply are tinkering with their swings still and have yet to get in a groove. Arod set the record for HRs in the month of April, and many others are playing very well. It's too early to say that pitchers are going to be able to dominate batters for the entire year, especially when historically speaking they are not dominating that much


historically means squat. If you look at stats you have several well known sluggers struggling this year i.e J.D. Drew, Andruw Jones, Pujols, Ryan Howard, and Bobby Abreau, all guys who have unusually low batting averages and all guys who dont usually have slow starts. Second You have several pitchers that are pitching with consistancy. There are currently 19 starters in MLB with an ERA at or under 3.00. There are also 18 guys who average 8 or more Strikeouts per 9 innings. These are outstanding stats by the pitchers.


So pitchers are playing well at this point and some well known players (some of whom like Abreu and Jones) are aging and whose swings if you watch Baseball Tonight are off, it's still 2 months into the season so it's far too early to make a blanket statement like this is the year of the pitcher. Again plenty of players are hitting fine, a lot better than people would have expected. This year many well known pitching prospects have been called up (Cain, Linecum, Harren) and are healthy so it could just be new pitching blood being introduced to the league

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May 30, 2007  01:01 PM ET
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Performance enahncing "vitamin" testing perhaps???

May 30, 2007  02:20 PM ET
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It was cold early in the season(snow outs for goodness sakes).Weather is starting to get warmer,and so are the bats.

May 30, 2007  02:26 PM ET
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I have no idea who to vote for in this throwdown. I'm on the fence.

May 30, 2007  02:46 PM ET
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hitting is down B/C this is the "years of no riods in baseball" more clean players means that a lot of HR's have become fly outs, and a lot of roided up sluggers have broken down, or left the game.

 
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