The whole question of why offense is down has consumed my morning. Using the heat maps and pitch specific stats made available by Baseball Analytics, the main difference between 2011 and the same point of the season in 2010 is the mix of pitches thrown. Batters are seeing fewer fastballs and more cutters and sinkers. That’s causing them to chase more pitches out of the strike zone, where success is rare. What I’d like to know next is why the change took place.
I know I’m biased, but perhaps teams saw that “pitching wins championships” in 2010 and are putting more of an emphasis on controlling the game via run prevention. Asking your pitchers to “mix it up” more seems like one way to do that.