Rob Manfred says the increase in home runs is not due to the ball or drugs. Players have their own theories, and the catchers may have the best perspective:
“Secondary stuff isn’t as big of a thing as it used to be, I feel like,” Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters said. “It’s now, ‘Can you throw 98, 99?’ And a lot of breaking balls that are hanging end up getting hit out.
“That’s my theory: The types of arms that are getting moved through the system are guys that can really throw hard, and command sometimes comes later for them. But they get to the big league level while they’re throwing hard, and then they learn command. Home runs, more times than not, are mistakes — they’re not the wrong pitch, they’re just mistakes in the middle of the plate.”
Vogt, the Oakland catcher, said he had been calling more fastballs up in the zone lately, because umpires seem more willing to call them strikes. Missing with a high fastball can lead to home runs, of course, and so can a poorly placed cutter. If a cutter does not dart sharply at the last moment, it is just a slower fastball that stays in a hitter’s bat path.
“The cutter has become such a big pitch, and more guys are trying to throw it,” Vogt said. “But a cutter that doesn’t cut is a really good pitch to hit out.”
On top of that, the decrease in offense over the last few years should cause teams to seek out better ways of scoring runs. The home run beats the shift, after all. As we’ve seen with Jose Bautista and Daniel Murphy, players can learn to hit home runs fairly late in their careers.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2a6Yuqy
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