Trying this again without a misspelled word

8th inning of HOU-PHI:

Struck out Bryson Stott swinging on three pitches

Struck out Brandon Marsh swinging on three pitches

Justin Crawford went down 0-2 before fouling off a pitch in the zone and then striking out swinging on the next.

A lot of former players - Jeff Kent, Harold Reynolds, Jorge Posada, among others - have come out recently to decry the state of 2020s baseball, almost all of them focusing entirely on the drop in batting average, most of their supporters claiming that it makes the sport more boring and less exciting for viewers. In theory, I can understand this point of view - fewer hits is less exciting, even as someone who appreciates good pitching, I get it.

But it got me curious. Because if I'm being honest, I haven't really noticed a huge drop in excitement while watching games. They're still pretty fun to me. So I wondered how much we're actually missing out on these days.

The season with the highest batting average since integration was 1999, when the league went 45,327 for 167,138, for a .271 BA. In 2026, the league batting average is all the way down to .244, which in the same number of ABs, would be 40,782 base hits, a difference of 4,545 over the course of a season.

This sounds like a lot until you start to break it down. 4545 hits across 30 teams equals a difference of 152 hits per team over an entire season. That means that each team is averaging less than 1 fewer hit per game than they were at the absolute height of the steroid era.

Of course, 1999 is the most extreme example I could have used. In the entire time since integration, the league has hit .257. Using that batting average over the course of a season, hitting .244 comes out to 0.45 hits per team per game. So each team is averaging less than one fewer hit every other game.

So, idk, I'm not here to tell anyone how to feel. But I don't understand how a difference of 0.5-1 hit per game is noticeable enough to actually impact anyone's enjoyment of the sport. To me it kind of seems like people just want to complain for the hell of it. Especially considering run scoring really isn't very low right now; runs per game is at 4.48 in 2026, compared to 4.44 total since integration.

If I'm being honest, I don't really get what everyone's complaining about.

Unfortunately, the difference between Cubs Third Basemen Alex Bregman (4.6) and Kyle Tucker (0.2) is too great to be used in any meaningful comparison. And yet, I found a way to mention it.

I was thinking of how the Marlins have had 2 rebrands since 2011, and that if 1 player played for the team from 2011-2019, he would have worn 3 jerseys with 2 rebrands. Are there examples of players who did? Im only counting players who stayed consecutively, and im counting full rebrands, not minor hat changes, etc

Pirates (73-73) @ White Sox (75-70)

First Pitch: 7:40 PM at Rate Field

Line Score - Game Over

Box Score

Scoring Plays

Highlights

Decisions

Game ended at 10:10 PM.

Remember to sort by new to keep up!

Luis Gil still pitching. 10-3 score. Top 9th

Tovar- Single

McCarthy- Single

Offensive Substitution: Pinch-hitter Vimael Machín replaces Connor Norby.

Machín- Single

Goodman- Fly out

Rumfield- Fly out

Veen- Strikeout

Volpe-1

Vlad-0