The usually reliable Tim Kurkjian acted like a certain former two-time blMVP today on PTI. When asked why home runs were down 9% this year, he spent one passable minute discussing how a majority of ballplayers looked smaller as compared to four years ago, careful not to raise the s-flag, and one banal minute claiming that formerly prolific sluggers such as Sosa, Bonds and Palmeiro were aging, contributing to the lower figure. So far, some poor to average analysis. He then spent one absolutely egregious minute attributing the league-wide drop in taters to a minor resurgence in pitching over the past five years, with guys such as Prior and Oswalt entering the league. TK closes, "so pitching is coming back slowly, with a lot of guys throwing 95 miles per hour." Now if home runs, and runs in general, are down this year, TK, why is improved pitching a causal factor instead of a simple result? Did no good pitchers enter the league between 1987 and 2000? What of Thomas Glavine, Randolph Johnson, Patrick Hentgen, Peter Martin, et al.? And what does velocity have to do with any of it? You have exactly 120 good seconds to set this right, TK.
