Congrats to Luis Arraez

[CRF]

Don't know if this should go here, or in other baseball. I just want to congratulate Luis Arraez on another great season. He won his second straight batting title. He hit .354 with 203 hits, 10 HR, and 69 RBI. He had an OPS of .862. No matter how you slice it, or if you don't think that BA is a meaningful stat anymore...that's a pretty damn good season. We'll get to watch him in the NL playoffs too. 

[mnfireman]

Congratulations are in order for Luis Arraez on winning back-to-back batting titles, but really!?!? There are 4 qualifiers in the AL over .300, and 5 in the NL. In the AL the the #10 best AVG is .276 (Marcus Semien) and in the NL the #10 best AVG is .285 (Xander Bogaerts). This is 1968 lower-the-mound bad hitting, except that today's pitchers aren't Gibson, Tiant, McLain, McNally, Drysdale, Seaver or Marichal good. As recently as 2020 there have been 20+ .300 hitters in MLB, and 2019 was the last season with no qualified batters hitting less than .200. Different times my friends, different times.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

But nothing. That's part of what makes him so special. 

[2wins87]

2 hours ago, mnfireman said:

Congratulations are in order for Luis Arraez on winning back-to-back batting titles, but really!?!? There are 4 qualifiers in the AL over .300, and 5 in the NL. In the AL the the #10 best AVG is .276 (Marcus Semien) and in the NL the #10 best AVG is .285 (Xander Bogaerts). This is 1968 lower-the-mound bad hitting, except that today's pitchers aren't Gibson, Tiant, McLain, McNally, Drysdale, Seaver or Marichal good. As recently as 2020 there have been 20+ .300 hitters in MLB, and 2019 was the last season with no qualified batters hitting less than .200. Different times my friends, different times.

You're right, todays pitchers are much better.  Everyone throws harder and their breaking balls are designed in a lab to be as close to unhittable as possible. Pitch mix has changed to the point where there isn't really such thing as a fastball count anymore as pitchers throw any of their pitches in any count now.  Conditioning has advanced dramatically (not just in baseball but every sport).

The hitters' training and technology has advanced too. There are high velocity pitching machines and pitching machines that mimic the spin on any pitcher's pitches.  So when I see the low batting averages I can't come to any conclusion other than pitchers are really freaking good now.

[Met Stadium Usher]

Right, congrats to Luis, a wonderful player, so fun to watch.

Regarding batting averages, this boomer says:

All. Those. Damned. Useless. Strikeouts. 
How often do you see two strike swings, or protecting the plate? When you put the ball in play, good things can happen, even productive outs.

My two cents.

[Trov]

9 hours ago, 2wins87 said:

You're right, todays pitchers are much better.  Everyone throws harder and their breaking balls are designed in a lab to be as close to unhittable as possible. Pitch mix has changed to the point where there isn't really such thing as a fastball count anymore as pitchers throw any of their pitches in any count now.  Conditioning has advanced dramatically (not just in baseball but every sport).

The hitters' training and technology has advanced too. There are high velocity pitching machines and pitching machines that mimic the spin on any pitcher's pitches.  So when I see the low batting averages I can't come to any conclusion other than pitchers are really freaking good now.

Also, pitchers now know they are going for under 100 pitches.  They are going about 2 times through order and then out for a guy who throws upper 90's generally and a huge breaking slider.  Knowing you are going to max out allows starters to go all out more so.  It used to be they would pace themselves and would at times pitch to contact early in counts hoping to get a quick out.  

I also feel pitchers are not pitching hurt as much anymore too.  I think back in the day a lot of pitchers were pitching hurt for stretches, where now they will rest, have someone else come up for a week or two. 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

10 hours ago, 2wins87 said:

You're right, todays pitchers are much better.  Everyone throws harder and their breaking balls are designed in a lab to be as close to unhittable as possible. Pitch mix has changed to the point where there isn't really such thing as a fastball count anymore as pitchers throw any of their pitches in any count now.  Conditioning has advanced dramatically (not just in baseball but every sport).

The hitters' training and technology has advanced too. There are high velocity pitching machines and pitching machines that mimic the spin on any pitcher's pitches.  So when I see the low batting averages I can't come to any conclusion other than pitchers are really freaking good now.

Totally agree.  It doesn't matter that today's pitchers aren't (insert cherry-picked name of perennial all-star/hall of fame pitcher here).  Hitters are seeing fresh relief pitchers with 95+ mph pitches in the sixth or seventh inning rather than a journeyman fourth starter at 120 pitches.  Hitting a baseball is very hard and congrats to Luis Arraez for doing it better than anyone else for the second year in a row!  Also, congrats to both the Twins and the Marlins, who were smart enough to deal from their strengths and improve both teams' futures.