The Impending Offensive Crisis

Recent trends and past history regarding offensive numbers indicate that runs per game will likely fall below 4.00 within the next five years, perhaps to levels not seen since 1972 or even 1968. Remarkable declines in hits, walks, and runs per game have created a dire situation for offenses in baseball. In addition, strikeouts continue to rise beyond record levels, and have done so for the first time in history without an accompanying rise in home runs. Singles and triples per game are at record lows, as lineups are dangerously relying on the long-ball. Non-home run base hits are at their lowest level since 1972, along with batting average and hits per game. Ratios of strikeouts to hits, walks, and runs are at all-time highs. Finally, the use of small-ball to create runs has been curtailed as well, allowing for fewer ways to score runs. Sacrifice hits per game are at an all-time low, and stolen base attempts per game are at a 42-year low. As a result of these factors, any significant one-year drop in home runs will prove disastrous for offenses.

(Click through to see the data.)

Mike Trout's Cycle

As most everyone knows by now, Mike Trout hit for the cycle last night, in the process becoming the youngest AL player ever to accomplish the feat. However, Trout also holds a dubious (if trivial) distinction: the lowest known WPA for a player achieving a cycle. As a matter of fact, Trout's is the first cycle to produce a negative WPA:

Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	1B	2B	3B	HR	WPA
Mike Trout	2013-05-21	LAA	SEA	W 12-0	1	1	1	1	-0.012
Rich Gedman	1985-09-18	BOS	TOR	W 13-1	1	1	1	1	0.047
John Mayberry	1977-08-05	KCR	CHW	W 12-2	1	1	1	1	0.068
Candy Maldonado	1987-05-04	SFG	STL	W 10-7	1	1	1	1	0.071
Gil Hodges	1949-06-25	BRO	PIT	W 17-10	1	1	1	2	0.079
Don Mueller	1954-07-11 (1)	NYG	PIT	W 13-7	1	1	1	1	0.083
Bob Elliott	1945-07-15 (2)	PIT	BRO	W 15-3	1	1	1	1	0.087
Eric Valent	2004-07-29	NYM	MON	W 10-1	1	1	1	1	0.089
Cristian Guzman	2008-08-28	WSN	LAD	W 11-2	1	1	1	1	0.091
Greg Colbrunn	2002-09-18	ARI	SDP	W 10-3	1	1	1	2	0.095
Alex Rodriguez	1997-06-05	SEA	DET	W 14-6	1	1	1	1	0.095
Scott Cooper	1994-04-12	BOS	KCR	W 22-11	1	2	1	1	0.096
Jeff DaVanon	2004-08-25	ANA	KCR	W 21-6	1	1	1	1	0.098
Kirby Puckett	1986-08-01	MIN	OAK	W 10-1	1	1	1	1	0.099
Bill White	1960-08-14 (1)	STL	PIT	L 4-9	1	1	1	1	0.102
John Olerud	2001-06-16	SEA	SDP	W 9-2	1	1	1	1	0.107
Stan Musial	1949-07-24	STL	BRO	W 14-1	1	1	1	1	0.113
Mark Grace	1993-05-09	CHC	SDP	L 4-5	1	1	1	1	0.114
Aaron Hill	2012-06-18	ARI	SEA	W 7-1	1	1	1	1	0.116
Todd Helton	1999-06-19	COL	FLA	W 10-2	1	1	1	1	0.121

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Generated 5/22/2013.

The reason for this odd occurrence can be found below the fold:

AL Teams Partying Like It's 1999?

Just a quick observation about the standings at the moment:

The teams with the top four records in the AL: Texas, New York, Cleveland, Boston

In 1999: New York, Cleveland, Texas, Boston