Quote:
Originally Posted by Tabe
What's fun about this reply is you didn't answer the question. Do you think Ted's stats would go up playing today? Or would Trout's go up playing in the 1940s? You think Ted hits .400 against the extreme shifts that they play today, with a 2B in shallow RF? No way. But put Trout in the 1940s against no shift?
Actually, yeah, it is absolutely unquestionable. They've been tracking fastball data for years and guys are throwing multiple mph harder now than they were even 12 years ago (2008: 90.9, 2019: 93.4). Do you think pitchers slowed down immediately after Ted retired to about 12 years ago just so the trend could reverse? Nah. Yeah, Ted hit Bob Feller well but how would he do against Aroldis Chapman, throwing 105 from the left side? And so on.
Bottom line: Ted was great but it defies logic to think that baseball is not much harder now than it was 80 years ago.
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I have no real interest in this debate, but you should know that the shift you mentioned was actually deployed to defend against Ted Williams in 1941, so that part of your argument is not accurate. It was literally called the Ted Williams shift.