Gene Collier in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette blames the slow pace of play on the velocity of the ball, out of the arm of the pitcher and off the bat of the hitter. Sean Rodriguez backs up the claim:
“The ball’s comin’ off (the bat) a lot harder now,” Rodriguez explained after authoring two dazzling defensive plays that preserved a 1-0 Pirates victory Thursday. “Velo(city) is up, all three of those things (homers, walks, strikeouts) come hand-in-hand with a lot of velo. It’s hard for guys to control that much velocity. And then naturally if you hit it, it’s gonna go.
“I know people say, well, maybe the ball’s a little more dense. I don’t think so. I’ve been in the league long enough to know the ball isn’t going any further because of the weight of it; it’s that the pitchers are throwing that much harder.”
Fastball velocity is at an all-time high, which is metastasizing the batters’ inability to adjust to breaking pitches. In other words, VEE-lo is slowing the game toward a standstill. There’s a solution, of course, and it’s not to lower the mound again. Move the pitching rubber back a little. Two feet ought to do it.
Collier’s suggestion is a good one, and unlike him I don’t think it’s dead on arrival. The mound was much closer in the early days of the game, and unlike the distance between the bases, I don’t think it’s particularly sacrosanct. Baseball might even put in a rule of thumb about moving the rubber back a foot whenever balls in play fall below a particular level.
from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2vWzgtE
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