There are currently 82 players in PGB hitting below .200
League Batting Avg is .242
League Record Low Batting Avg: .249 in 2019
Strikeouts per Game: 17.61
League Record for Most Strikeouts: 17.06 in 2020
8 teams have On Base Pct below .310
3 teams have Slugging Pct below .400
Scoring is down a run a game- 9.76 runs /game in 2021 vs 10.76 in 2020
Homeruns are down slightly- 2.97 in 2021 vs 3.19 last year
At least our games don't take 4 hours to complete!
So, of course, I turn on the Phillies game last night before going to sleep. It's bottom of the 9th, trailing 1-0. Phils with no baserunners since the 4th (so glad I missed all that...). Cowboy Joe West punches out Hoskins looking... on a pitch that was at least 3" inside. Sigh. McCutcheon draws a walk (a baserunner!). Miller pinch hits (a lefty bat, vs Smith a lefty closer... because Phillies)... he flies out weakly on the first pitch. Sigh. Now a rookie making his very first start (Williams) steps in. Great. So, of course, he hits a walk off HR!
Wow. Baseball eh?
Then... Today... Phillies try to give away another game. Down 3-2 in the 10th in a game they should have won already... and they get walk off 2run single from Segura.
So, yeah. I'm officially just a grumpy old guy shaking my fist at the clouds.
Lol.
The tickets were in the upper corner, probably 550 feet from home, so that didn't help. Scott is right about the joy of being back in the ballpark, but even more than the pace/three true outcomes, I get annoyed with having a barrage of Delta, Best Buy, Pentair, Target, Budweiser, StarTribune, LeafGutter and Treasure Island Casino ads assaulting me nonstop for three hours. But here's the other thing: I still love reading about, thinking about, and talking about the game. Cue the James Earl Jones speech from Field of Dreams...
You guys are nuts! Baseball is back! We can go to games now! 162 games (fingers crossed) this year, alot better than the 60 games without fans last year. My Padres are doing great. How can you pass on free tickets, WTF? Aren't you guys die hard Twins fans? I wish I still lived within driving distance of major league baseball. I think the offense will come back, just be patient. Although, I do think the umpiring the last couple seasons has been horrible. Also, did I mention, My PADRES are doing GREAT!!
Sadly, baseball has become unwatchable
I feel like an old guy, shaking my fist at the clouds.... but MLB games are near unwatchable at this point. They take forever. All strikeouts, walks, and homers. On those exceedingly rare occasions when a ball is actually put into play, the defence is often atrocious. I thought it was just the Phillies that played that way, and that was skewing my opinion of the game in general. I got MLB TV for free from T-Mobile this year and thought, great... I can watch some GOOD baseball this year! Saddened to find that pretty much the entire league plays that way now.
Maybe after this year MLB cracks down on pitchers using illegal substances to get good spin rates and hitting becomes a part of the game again.
I predict that these numbers will look even worse next season. .700 OPS is starting to look pretty nice.