Herald: Shrinkage

[weams]

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox_mlb/boston_red_sox/2014/12/red_sox_focus_is_a_moving_target

Virtually every move the team has made so far this offseason shares one trait, and it's not something you'd find on the back of a baseball card.

With research revealing that the strike zone has dropped by the diameter of a baseball over the last few years, the Red Sox have targeted pitchers and hitters who can control that area of the plate, and it will be fascinating to see if their gambit pays off this season.

[Number5]

[video=youtube;8DoARSlv-HU]

[Can_of_corn]

So you attack them up in the zone.

Seems exactly like what the A's did last season when they stacked the lineup with fly ball hitters. How did that work out after team's adjusted?

[Morgan423]

Indians GM Chris Antonetti - "I'm going to stay away from that level of detail. I'd prefer to keep things at the macro level."

Translation: "I don't want to answer your question, but I also don't want to seem like I'm not answering it. So I'll just say nothing in a few sentences and hope you give up and go away."

[srock]

I can't imagine this low scoring era to last long. My guess is we see a big reversal in the next few years as the power that by influence the umpires to make the zone bigger.

Fans like dingers.

By that leads to the next question. Why is this shift occurring? My guess: Umpires are being influenced by the pitch f/x data and that data is very accurate side to side but not so much up and down. After all, each batter stands differently and is a different height. High and low is an inherently gray area.

[O's84]

[video=youtube;8DoARSlv-HU]

When I saw this thread this was the first thing I thought of and was going to post this.

Love Seinfeld!

[Dr. Unk]

When I saw this thread this was the first thing I thought of and was going to post this.

Love Seinfeld!

They shrink?

[bobmc]

They shrink?

Elainie - "How do you walk around with those things?"

[O's84]

They shrink?

I was in the pool! I was in the pool!

[Dr. Unk]

Good stuff! I watch Seinfeld every night.

[MurphDogg]

[Dr. Unk]

Guess you're not master of your domain.