It is harder than ever to hit a baseball thrown by a MLB pitcher. The league wide batting average sits at .236 — one point lower than in 1968, the so-called “Year of the Pitcher.” While hitting strategies that focus on the three true outcomes may bear some of the blame for falling batting averages, innovations by pitchers have surely contributed as well. Pitchers are throwing harder, tunneling their pitches better and game planning more deliberately than at any time in the history of the game thanks to data and training innovations. Oh, and they may be cheating a bit, too.
MLB has signaled a crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances on the ball
