 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Today's hitting truly offensive
Posted: Wednesday January 19, 2000 01:14 PM
The 1990s will be remembered as the decade baseball introduced interleague play and the wild card -- and canceled a World Series. But it's also a decade where the bar was raised for hitters and lowered for starting pitchers. At the beginning of the decade, a great year at the plate was still 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. For example, in 1989, Robin Yount won the AL MVP award with 21 HRs and 103 RBI, and there were only six players who hit the 30/100 mark. Now take a look at 1999. There are close to 30 players who hit that. That's unbelievable. I've also been struck by the increase in opposite field home runs being hit these days. Its no longer just the big guys like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa who can power a ball the opposite way. It's second basemen and singles hitters. As I've mentioned before, smaller ballparks, bad pitching, bigger and stronger hitters, and a juiced ball have created this offensive explosion. They've also helped set a new standard for a great year: 40 HRs, 120 RBI. Meanwhile, the number of complete games plummeted in the '90s. Take a look at these stats. In 1989, there was a complete game pitched once every four games. Now it's one every ten. While just plain bad pitching has something to do with this, mostly it's been the further growth of specialization in the '90s. Unless someone like Curt Schilling is pitching, managers no longer ask starters to go even eight innings. They have seventh and eighth specialists, like Texas' Jeff Zimmerman or the Mets' Dennis Cook to get them to their closers. Plus, there are more and more guys like Jesse Orosco and Graham Lloyd who come in and work to just one batter and then leave. And as baseball heads into the next decade, that's a trend I expect to continue.
| ||||||||||||||||
