What's Going On?

"And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream from the top of my lungs
What's going on?"

- Four Non Blondes

There is something going on.  There has been a trend in Major League Baseball over the last 12 seasons that has been making fans scream - "Whats going on?"  It's a bit of a paradox as well, especially since some fans are clamoring for offense and baseball just can't seem to create more.  We are caught in the ebb and flow of history and the ebb is winning.  For me, I love it.  I've been a pitcher's duel fan forever.  

For the fans of offense, the below graph is rather ominous.  

Runs, after all, are the heart of the game.  It's what wins (and loses) games, and they are on the way down.  There could be a few reasons for this.  One is that "ebb and flow" mentioned above.  Pitchers are a wily bunch and throughout history offense has had its periods of ups and downs.  The other reason could be hitting just plain sucks.  Or, maybe not sucks, but hitters are just swinging a little harder than they used to.  Why?  Well there is this thing called the almighty dollar these days and home runs pay!

Let's take a look at a few more stats shall we?

Season	BB%	K%
2002	8.70%	16.80%
2003	8.50%	16.40%
2004	8.60%	16.90%
2005	8.20%	16.40%
2006	8.40%	16.80%
2007	8.50%	17.10%
2008	8.70%	17.50%
2009	8.90%	18.00%
2010	8.50%	18.50%
2011	8.10%	18.60%
2012	8.00%	19.80%
2013	7.90%	19.90%
2014	7.60%	20.40%

 BB% is walk rate.  This stat represents the percentage of walks for a season.  K% is strikeout rate.  Since 2002 BB% is sinking and K% is rising - both a recipe for disaster if you want to score runs.  The ability to draw a walk is not just a man on base, its a skill that says a batter knows and can control the strike zone.  A strikeout, is simply one of the biggest disasters a batter at the plate can do.  Is the cause of this the wily pitcher or is it the greedy hitter?  Let's look at one more stat:

Season	O-Swing%
2002	18.10%
2003	22.20%
2004	16.60%
2005	20.30%
2006	23.50%
2007	25.00%
2008	25.40%
2009	25.10%
2010	29.30%
2011	30.60%
2012	30.80%
2013	31.00%
2014	31.30%

O-Swing% !!  Raise your hand if you've heard of this one.   It's simple - the amount of pitches swung at that are outside of the strike zone.  A brilliant stat.  Notice how much it increases over the past 12 seasons.  In my opinion this proves hitters are swinging wildly at pitches.  Some may argue that the pitcher is causing this with a better assortment of pitches.  Mmmm, I don't think so.  Pitchers aren't doing anything remarkably different these days.  I always disliked it when they say there hasn't been a .400 hitter since the slider started being used.   Phooey!!  The duck has been around since the prehistoric days.  It may not have been called a duck, but it always quacked.   The slider has been around since the early 1900's (or earlier), it just wasn't called a slider.

Well, something to think about.  In some way I wish offense would improve a little, just not at the hands of the MLB bureaucrats.   Don't outlaw the shift, shorten the strike zone or even lower the mound.  A grass roots effort needs to be done to show players as low as the high school level how to play the game correctly.  This should come from the MLB.

Just my two cents (and that's with inflation).

Thanks for reading

-Tom

My Favorite Autograph

Hey Everyone!!   Its been a very long time since I posted.   I have thought about the blog for a long time and I'm not ready to retire it (like Sheldon retired "Fun with Flags").   But what to write about?  I'm going to keep it simple - my favorite autograph.  I do have one and I bet nobody can guess who it is.

First a little about my autographs.  Yeah yeah, everyone in my family laughs when I break out the autographs.  I'm very proud of them.   All of the autographs I have were obtained via TTM.  TTM stands for Through The Mail.   When I was a kid I used to write a letter to various ballplayers (active and retired) asking for their autograph.  In the envelope was a SASE along with a nice letter and of course, a picture for them to autograph.  
 

You're probably wondering how I got my hands on the addresses of baseball players.  Back in the day there was a book called "The Baseball Address List" and here it is (yes I still have it!!):


I'm not going to bore you with a play-by-play (pun intended) of each letter/autograph.  But, I do want to show you my favorite.  



My collection consists of about 50 or so autographs.  I have my favorite pitcher and hitter when I was younger (Steve Carlton and Dale Murphy). 

But these are not my favorite.

There's an old timer in the collection - Carl Hubbell.  Also my fathers favorite pitcher -
Sandy Koufax.  But these are not my favorite either (awesome pic of Sandy though huh?)






One day when I was watching a game with my father and uncle I was talking about Dave Concepcion and what a great shortstop he was.  While they did not disagree, both of them directed me to a shortstop (back in their day) named Marty Marion.  Apparently HE was the best shortstop.   So I decided to put my TTM talent in motion.  A short time later I received in the mail one of the most beautiful autographs I own. He not was only a slick fielding shortstop but pretty slick with his John Hancock as well:

Hopefully I'll post more often this season, it looks like its going to be a good one.

Thanks for reading
-Tom