Russell A. Carleton

Let’s see if we can catch some flies. This is the percentage of “air balls”—both fly balls and line drives—that made it to the outfield and were then caught by an outfielder. Something happened in the past few years and it’s been sapping the offense out of the game, turning what used to be singles and doubles into outs and at rates that are going to leave a mark.

What happens when you replace one problem with another and no one notices? In the world of pitcher injuries, we may have done exactly this. In the late 1990s, there was an emerging problem in Major League Baseball. Starting pitchers were often being asked to throw 130 pitches in one night, and this seemed to be associated with those same pitchers later suffering catastrophic injuries. At least, that seemed to be the way it worked in the 1990s and 2000s.

An analysis of how likely MLB is to edit its rulebook, and what the effects might be.