The fact that dudes are actually doing modern lifting programs instead of gambling and smoking cigs and eating gummy bears obviously changed athletes for the better but man, important to not underestimate the impact of rules on the game.
Peak COVID the Chicago local sports network aired a ton of '96 and '98 Bulls playoff games and it was really funny to see what was clearly an incredibly modern defense–Rodman at the 5, long, switchable helping wings everywhere, so cool–stuck in the very stupid illegal defense rules of the era and the incredibly dull offenses that resulted.
(The sheer number of 18 foot spot ups was ofc appalling and another obvious own goal)
Yeah, that was the only thing I could think of, aside from the occasional year where the ball has a little more jump.
The AL batting average is the lowest (.241) it’s been since 1968, which was before they lowered the mound and added the DH. The NL is .247, so not a ton better.
The shift really only became a thing in the late-teens, so the modifications made really only swayed things back to how they were about 10 years ago.
Yeah, but much like modern basketball where analytics suggest player efficiency (layups, low TOs, and 3s!) and not necessarily scoring average dictate the best players, on base percentage and slugging have become more important than batting average in an effort to increase WAR.
OBP is the 34th worst it’s been since tracking began in 1871. Slugging isn’t all that high either. It is in the upper 20% of the history of the game but it’s even with 1977, when the league BA was also 20 points higher.
Sorry, I know this is all baseball talk. To start to redirect it back I’ll just include this.
Yeah, was just saying the value has changed. Used to be .300, 30, and 100 were the targets. Now you can bat .225 and hit 30+ HRs and be looked at differently.
I recently saw an article that brought up advanced stats and looked at Tony Gwynn’s career and how it didn’t show a favorable result. It was outright blasphemy to me.
