Sports Time Radio

So you don’t think analytics is ruining baseball. Analytics has placed the focus on hitting for power and not being as concerned with making contact or striking out. Well we’ve played about 35 games this baseball season and there have already been four no-hitters or I really should be saying five.

Joe Musgrove started things off with the first no-hitter in San Diego Padres history. Carlos Rodon of the Chicago White Sox threw the second no-hitter this season and then just this week we’ve had two no-hitters thrown. John Means of the Baltimore Orioles just threw a no-hitter on Wednesday; so Wade Miley who’ now pitching for the Cincinnati Reds followed that up with a no-hitter of his own last night. Now when I mentioned that we have really had five no-hitters this season, but the 7 inning no-hitter that Madison Bumgarner of the Arizona Diamondbacks threw technically doesn’t count even though the game was only scheduled for 7 innings.

Now I’ve heard some of the baseball analysts on television trying to sell these no-hitters as the pitchers having too much of an advantage, but is that really the case? Or is it the fact that players are no longer looking to make contact with two strikes and they’re still swinging for the fences. If you think about those two statements it’s quite obvious what the reason is.

None of the pitchers who have thrown no-hitters this season are considered dominant and aren’t even really looked at as big time strikeout guys. With the exception of Means none of the other three pitchers are even considered the best starting pitcher on their team and in Miley case is a journeyman. Yet these four pitchers have found ways to dominant and not allow a hit in a game.

The other interesting thing is that none of these four pitchers that have recorded no-hitters are considered hard throwers. Maybe at one point in their careers they might have been, but Musgrove and Rodon have battled injuries to get where they are right now while Means isn’t hitting 100 m.p.h. on the radar gun any time soon. Miley himself is now on his seventh team in his 11 year MLB career.

The most no-hitters in a baseball season is 12, but that happened all the way back in 1884, but that numbers was reduced to 8 after the redefinition of the no-hitter.

Now they always say that coming out of spring training that pitchers are ahead on hitters, but I don’t think this is the reason we’ve seen four no-hitters already this season. Will we see anymore? Each team still has almost 130 games to play. Do you think we could see that high total of either 12 or 8 reached?

You have to wonder if hitters will be smart enough to start making adjustments and start trying to put the ball in play a little more or if they’ll be so stuck on hitting those home runs that analytics suggest are good for the game that they’ll continue to be made to look bad.

Now if you can believe this Joey Gallo of the Texas Rangers has already struck out 50 times in the 33 games he’s played this season. If Gallo stays on this pace he’ll strikeout 245 times this season. Sure Gallo is one of the top power hitters in the game, but is 245 strikeouts acceptable; unfortunately analytics says it is.

Gallo’s not the only player racking up big time strikeout numbers. Matt Chapman of the Oakland A’s and Eugenio Suarez of the Cincinnati Reds have each struck out 47 times this season while Rhys Hoskins of the Philadelphia Phillies is just one behind them with 46 strikeouts this season. It’s amazing the amount of players that are averaging more than one strikeout per game. Since we’re getting a 162 game season you have to wonder how many players will see that easily strikeout over 200 times this season.

So do you still think that analytics are good for the game?

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