I feel like my answer could be different soon as I lose more interest in current baseball. Don't read any longer if you don't want to hear a rant based on inside knowledge of the game and current coaching...
I covered minor league baseball for years and talked a lot to the players throughout their career. Around 2017-18, there was a real change in the mindset of the coaching to get as much velocity as possible from the pitchers and combat it with swinging as hard as possible, setting up the game we see now, which is a game of a few high points spread throughout game and not much else. They are trending towards a nine-inning game of home run derby.
The skill level in the minors in 2024 is a far cry from how good it was in 2019 and before. I covered games in person for three levels of play (Low-A, High-A, Double-A) and you pretty much know what a normal Double-A game looks like. What to expect when you watch each level. I watched a lot of Low-A games in 2022-23 and they were worse skilled than the rookie league games just 4-5 years earlier. This year watching Double-A games felt like I was seeing Low-A players at work. This all-or-nothing approach to throwing hard and swinging hard is leading to an awful brand of baseball for the future.
I don't think anyone who has watched baseball for 20+ years thinks the MLB game you're seeing today is the best ever. It clearly isn't. That's partially due to the fact that they use so many big league players each year now (average of almost 1,500 over the last four years), coupled with the dying off of baseball as a participation sport for youth in the U.S. compared to the past. It's also the newer mindset of coaching. Sure these guys throw hard, but that makes the coaching of hitters even worse. The focus on power through swing speed and launch angle. That's going to lead to much worse contact rates than taking a direct path to the ball and shortening your swing, yet the mindset has not changed one ounce. It also won't change because MLB is completely fine with the product on the field now.
I quickly lose interest in current games if my team isn't involved, and even if they are involved, watching the lack of baseball skills and smarts is annoying to say the least. I can't see me remaining a current baseball fan for much longer.
HOWEVER, I have the same love for baseball history that I have always had since a little kid. Yesterday I was schoolgirl giddy over finding the first picture I've ever seen of a guy who played six big league games over a nine-year span. Jim Gray played three separate seasons for the Pirates franchise. I wrote about him in one of my books and spent a lot of time trying to find even a drawing of him. Happiest I've been in a long time over a piece of baseball research.
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