Strikeouts are killing baseball

I don't know that I'd recommend this, because messing with a staple of the game is a huge no-no and we haven't had enough time to see if this is a real change or a blip, but moving the mound back a foot or two would get a lot more balls in play.

I think someone mentioned it upthread, but this is very similar to men's tennis. Players today would blow the 1980s greats off the court with their serving speed. But the sport itself has suffered because of that lack of action.

 

Move the mound back but let guys hit with college bats. In basketball, I'd like to see them experiment with raising the rim and getting rid of the 3-point line.

 

If you put college bats in the hands of major leaguers, you will have pitchers and corner infielders dying. Literally. I am not exaggerating.

 

It came up a little bit on the Price-Eckersley thread, but I'd love to have an accurate measure of the average velocity, say, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 60 years ago, as compared to today. How hard did Koufax actually throw? Wonder if someone could measure that based upon old video. Seems like it should be possible.

 

How much of that is attributable to advances in racquets though? Are there any tournaments that use wooden rackets anymore? Be interesting to see them experiment with them.

 

Make 'em wear helmets with facemasks. Like catchers -- who never used to do that either.

 

Like golf, some of it is attributable to equipment. But some of it is due to advances in training and nutrition. For example, I've been running for about 16 years, and training advice to even novices like me has changed significantly in that time period. Coaches used to be really dumb, in all sports.

 

That would be a little unfair to Koufax, or any pitcher of that era. He didn't have the training methods available to him that are available now. Perhaps he would have grown stronger and thrown harder. Perhaps improvements in medical science would have allowed him to last longer. Some folks might use such data to claim that he wouldn't be as successful today, but growing up in a different era would have made him a different pitcher.

Edit: I see you mentioned a similar point in what you just posted.

 

You are responding to an imaginary post.

 

No, I'm really not. In fact, based on the second thing you posted, you and I are probably in agreement. I'm just pointing to a potential problem with going back and measuring the Koufax's velocity.

 

There's a documentary called Fastball that endeavored to do this. They got the biggest name guys to talk about it, it was really well done.

Chapman once threw a pitch measured at 105. Physicists calculated that if Nolan Ryan's fastest pitch had been measured at the point of release like today, instead of in front of the plate as it was, it would have clocked 108.

I don't think there's a huge difference from Cy Young to Walter Johnson to Ryan to Strasburg. The difference is that the 95-plus guys used to be rare -- you'd see one a month maybe. Now in every series you see at least two starters and every bullpen guy.

 

The point would not be to impugn Koufax. It would be to understand how the game has changed.