Or is it?
This year baseball fans have seen unprecedented amounts of near no-hitters, near perfect games, and real no-hitters and perfect games as well. Why?
Perhaps being too patient is part of the reason? Most modern baseball fans remember Nomar Garciaparra. The Shortstop was among baseball's brightest young stars in the late 90's. He arrived around the same time as other young phenoms such as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. Nomar never had a great Hall-Of-Fame type career. He burned bright for a few seasons and then due in part to a tough wrist injury and potentially to PED he faded. Still for a few seasons he was on of the most feared right handed hitters in the game. He hit 373 in 1999 a number which is impressive in any era of baseball. He also did something that almost no hitter skilled or unskilled does in baseball today. He almost always swung at the first pitch. This had it's detractors at the time and in today's game it would be frowned upon by nearly every manager, scout, gm, or writer. But that's what Nomar did. In today's game with it's emphasis on working the count, forcing the pitcher to throw more pitches and trying to draw a walk this type of thing would not be allowed to happen. Nomar would never be promoted through the minor league systems of today's teams. Even if his minor league numbers were great there would be push to get him to be more patient at the plate. Today's top offensive players are just not very likely to swing at the first pitch a pitcher throws. Now, perhaps some pitchers are using that to their advantage?
Baseball is a game where stats truly matter. Even a basic understanding of statistics will allow a fan to understand that because the game has been played for over 100 years and because there are over 150-160 games every year the numbers don't often lie. Statistical irregularities mean more in baseball. They require some thought.
Despite this aspect which makes baseball different from other sports it also has something in common with other sports. Teams look at what works, who is winning championships and then they try to emulate them. The A's use of Eckersley in the late 80's led to the Yankees use of Nelson/Stanton/Rivera throughout the dynasty of the late 90's. Then all teams started to embrace the specialization of the bullpen which led to tightly regulated pitch counts and entire trade deadlines based on contenders acquiring extra arms to provide rest to skilled starters that now throw less pitches then at any other time in the history of baseball.
Like all trends there are reactions made to combat them. If pitching staffs are getting deeper and being asked to work less then hitters will try to make them work more. The best way to do that is to take pitches. The teams that seem to maintain a fair amount of success year in and year out in baseball all subscribe to a similar offensive philosophy. This philosophy first brought into the public eye in Michael Lewis best selling book " Moneyball" is one that espouses patience at the plate. It values a walk, it values working the count. It places a premium on the on-base percentage statistic. Another stat OPS incorporates the importance of power into the equation. It accounts for the combined number when a hitters' slugging percentage and on-base percentage are added up.
The results of teams stressing these stats may now be showing one of it's first possible weaknesses. Why would a skilled pitcher with confidence not throw a hitter, especially one considered slightly below average a first pitch strike? The odds have ALWAYS been in the pitcher's favor but if the hitter is less likely to swing then it would seem to tilt them even more toward the pitcher. This is not the type of thing that needs to effect every batter that comes to the plate to have a big impact. Four hit and five hit games happen all the time in baseball. They're noteworthy in the daily sportspages and on-line but they aren't really historical events. No-hitters and perfect games ( especially perfect games) are. They're tracked by all the major baseball media clearing houses. They are mentioned in the Hall of Fame. It only takes a bloop to ruin a no-hitter or a perfect game but perhaps hitters trying to work the count are putting themselves in an 0-1 hole a bit too often?
None of this should in any way devalue the no-hitters and perfect games that have been thrown this season. Just two days ago Roy Halladay threw the first no-hitter in post season play since Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956. The magnitude of that accomplishment should in no way be denigrated regardless of the reasons behind it's occurrence.
I do wonder if hitting coaches and accomplished hitters are taking notes though.
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