I saw a piece on the MLB network last night about the rise of the three true outcome hitters. They too made the arguement that even the high contact hitters were whiffing more as the rising tide lifts all ships.

 

Thiking about it, the rise of the three true outcome hitters does demonstrate why the Twins pitchers are decreasing in effectiveness also. The Twins pitchers don't have the ability to strike many guys out. Meanwhile they also are resistant to issuing walks, which in the three true outcome model is the lesser of the two evils. This leaves the HR as a higher probability for Twins pitchers than it likely would for other clubs.

 

 

There's a clear logical fallacy to your point here. Having fewer strikeouts and walks does not mean that the Twins will have more home runs or even are any more likely to give up home runs. Those are separate variables. The only way your logic would make sense is if baseball involved no other outcomes - only a HR, a K or a BB was possibly in each at bat. Luckily for baseball fans, this is not true.

 

Twins pitchers may replace those K's and BB's with more ground balls or pop ups or doubles or line drives or hit batsman. The three outcomes are all separate variables which do not directly effect one another.

Does the league going away from steroids have anything to do with rising strikeout rates?

There's a clear logical fallacy to your point here. Having fewer strikeouts and walks does not mean that the Twins will have more home runs or even are any more likely to give up home runs. Those are separate variables. The only way your logic would make sense is if baseball involved no other outcomes - only a HR, a K or a BB was possibly in each at bat. Luckily for baseball fans, this is not true.

 

Twins pitchers may replace those K's and BB's with more ground balls or pop ups or doubles or line drives or hit batsman. The three outcomes are all separate variables which do not directly effect one another.

 

Ya, its science guys. The property of non-effect. A and B have nothing to do with C. Sciene=Fact. Like how ketchup and mustard go together, peanut butter and jelly go together, but ketchup and peanut butter don't go together. Simple science.

The Twins did give up the most homers of any team in the league though, behind only Toronto.

 

There are inverse correlations between K% & BABIP, k% & HR/FB, and K% & LD%

 

If you miss fewer bats then other teams, then you will also miss fewer sweet spots of bats. More balls will be put in play, more balls will be hit hard. Hitting a ball with a bat isn't a totally random event.