NY TIMES
As their strikeout totals piled up last summer, the pitchers for the Milwaukee Brewers hardly noticed. The team was struggling to reach .500 and the rotation had been in flux all year. It did not feel as if the pitching staff was closing in on the record for strikeouts in a season.
And while the Brewers fell two strikeouts short of the single-season record, set by the 2003 Chicago Cubs, their performance seemed more ordinary than remarkable. In 2012, more than ever, the whiff became the norm across the game.
Total strikeouts in the major leagues have risen in each of the last seven seasons, peaking — so far — at 36,426 last year to establish a record, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Eighteen teams struck out at least 1,200 times last season; in the history of baseball, through 2005, there had never been a season in which more than two teams topped that total.
Strikeout rates have been trending upward for most of the past century, but what has happened in recent years seems to indicate something more. Big swings often result in home runs, yet homers peaked in the majors in 2000, three years before steroid testing began. It could be that the generation of hitters raised in the glow of chemically fueled sluggers still tries to hit like its heroes.
The days of a starter going deep into a game and then giving way to his closer appear long gone. Managers now have extensive scouting reports of the opponent’s hitters against his pitchers. This has led to more specialization, more pitching changes — and more strikeouts. Hitters are now facing more fresh arms and ever-diminishing odds.
In 1924, the year with the fewest strikeouts, teams used a single pitcher nearly half of the time. Last season, the average was four per game.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Bryce Harper, 2012 N.L. rookie of the year, hit .174 with two strikes, just below the league average. He was second among rookies in strikeouts with 120, including the one above against the Yankees.
Batting averages have declined for six straight seasons, largely because averages of hitters with two strikes are at the lowest point in the 25 years since the statistic has been kept.Batting averages have remained fairly constant when a hitter has fewer than two strikes in the count...
... but batting averages of hitters with two strikes have fallen, as more hitters stay aggressive with two strikes instead of just trying to make contact. This is largely because home runs are often rewarded with more playing time and larger contracts.