A collection of headlines from the past week:
Rays pitchers break AL record for strikeouts—9/21
Pirates pitching staff sets club strikeouts record—9/25
20 Strikeouts! Zack Greinke, Angels tie MLB records vs. Mariners—9/26
A's hitters set AL strikeout record—9/26
Doug Fister sets AL record with nine straight strikeouts—9/27
Don't know about you, but I'm sensing some sort of pattern here.
Not only is the major-league average strikeout rate of 7.6 per nine innings this season the highest ever, but the increase of 0.5 K/9 since last season, should it hold up over the final week, would be the largest single-season uptick since 1986.
Note: Sam Miller and I discussed the significance of the strikeout surge on today's episode of Effectively Wild. To avoid having to hear us talk about other topics, skip straight to the strikeout stuff at the 9:30 mark.
Thank you for reading
This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.
Subscribe now
http://deadspin.com/5947034
Isn't that how we are supposed to react when cherished records are approached or broken? Or is that only for when it is people the media don't like hitting too many HR?