Major League Baseball is
considering altering the textbook definition of the strike zone for the
first time in nearly two decades, fearful that the proliferation of the
low strike has sapped too much offense from the game, league sources
told Yahoo Sports.
Concern around baseball about the strike zone filtered down to the MLB’s Playing Rules Committee, which must formally adopt a rules change before it’s implemented. The committee will pay close attention to the size of the strike zone in 2015 with an eye on change as early as 2016 after studies showed it has expanded significantly since 2009, coinciding with a precipitous dip in run scoring. Of particular concern, sources said, is the low strike, a scourge not only because it has stretched beyond the zone’s boundaries but is considered a significantly more difficult pitch to hit.
Hardball Times study showed Runs per game fell to 4.07 in 2014, the lowest mark since 1981 and the 13th fewest since World War II. The reason for the runs per game drop is alleged to be the low strike zone.
Since 2009, the average size of
the called strike zone has jumped from 435 square inches to 475 square
inches, according to the article. The results: Pitchers are
throwing more in the lower part of the zone, and hitters are swinging at
an increased rate, knowing the tough-to-drive pitches will be called
strikes.
However, the elephant in the room that no one sees is that the "dramatic" drop off of offense since 2009 is the reduction of PED use in baseball. A major reason for the increased offensive statistics was the use of steroids and HGH. When light hitting second basemen suddenly become home run hitters the era's offensive numbers are out of whack with traditional reality.
Now, since youth baseball, we were taught the strike zone was from the uniform letters (chest) to the knees. It was canon of the sport, just like the distance between the base paths.
The problem, league sources said, stems
from technological leaps that caused unintended consequences. In 1996,
when the league last changed the strike zone to extend it from the top
of the knees to the bottom, beneath the hollow of the kneecap, it did so
to encourage umpires to call knee-level strikes. The lower end of the
zone, in practice, was about three-quarters of the way down the thigh,
so the idea was that by adjusting the eye levels of umpires to look
lower, the result would be a more traditional strike zone.
Then along came Questec, the
computerized pitch-tracking system, followed by Zone Evaluation, the
current version tied in to MLB’s PITCHf/x system. With a tremendous
degree of accuracy – especially in recent years – the systems tracked
textbook balls and strikes, and the home-plate umpires’ performances
were graded on a nightly basis. Over time, not only did umpires’ strike
zones move down to the knees, they went to the hollow and even a smidge
below.
Prior to these changes, hitters were given a healthy sweet zone of the belt to the letters strike zone. Pitchers had a smaller window of opportunity to get batters out. So the development of "trick" pitches such as fork ball which dives from the smaller strike zone to below the knees was needed to equalize pitching vs. batting. But if you watch enough baseball, you can easily tell that there are many hitters who are "low ball" crushers of the ball, like long hitters in golf. In fact, most teams have detailed hitting zone charts for each player (you can see examples in your baseball video games).
Baseball is a profession where players need to adapt their skills. Pitchers had to adapt to a squeezed strike zone that favored hitters. Now that the umpires are calling the low strike, hitters should need to adapt back to the traditional plate coverage from youth baseball drills. But since baseball worries that without big offensive ("chicks love the long ball"), it will lose the next generation of fans to high offensive sports like football and basketball. It is an unjustified fear. Baseball's traditions are what keeps a loyal fan base engaged in the game.
