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Disappearing triples! Imploding bullpens! How baseball is different in 2019

It is far too early to say the Red Sox are really in trouble, or Dan Vogelbach is really a star. It is not, on the other hand, too early to say we're really going to see yet another league record for strikeouts, and home runs are probably really returning to the juiced-ball levels of 2017.

In between, though, are a number of ways baseball in 2019 has been broadly different this year than it ever has been before. Sometimes these early-season shifts turn out to be flukes, or seasonal; sometimes, they bear out as real, substantive changes in how the game is played.