Batting Average ain't what it used to be

[Moonlight J]

in 2006, the worst team batting average in my 10 team NL only league was .2675, a score that would have been 5th place this past season.

[james33]

I wonder how well this correlates with K rate, which I believe has increased over the last few years. Fewer Balls in Play means fewer hits, we all know. Another factor could be % of pitches that are swung at, as more teams adopted OBP as a goal.

[Todd Zola]

I wonder how well this correlates with K rate, which I believe has increased over the last few years. Fewer Balls in Play means fewer hits, we all know. Another factor could be % of pitches that are swung at, as more teams adopted OBP as a goal.

BABIP's dropped about 10 points as well

[Moonlight J]

K% & BABIP by year:

2000: 16.5%/.300
2001: 17.3%/.296
2002: 16.8%/.293
2003: 16.4%/.294
2004: 16.9%/.297
2005: 16.4%/.295
2006: 16.8%/.301
2007: 17.1%/.303
2008: 17.5%/.300
2009: 18.0%/.299
2010: 18.5%/.297
2011: 18.6%/.295
2012: 19.8%/.297

[Moonlight J]

I wonder how well this correlates with K rate, which I believe has increased over the last few years. Fewer Balls in Play means fewer hits, we all know. Another factor could be % of pitches that are swung at, as more teams adopted OBP as a goal.

the league-wide K% has gone up each year since 2005

[BuckyBuckner]

My guess is that this is also due to teams putting more shifts on. Guys like Teixeira have seen their average drop significantly in recent years and I think a lot of that is cause of the shift.

[Moonlight J]

some more thoughts on this on a free piece at Rotowire today - http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/sho...e.htm?id=17040