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Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich
One aspect that is absolutely overlooked is that defenses are better than ever.
And the numbers back it up. More balls that are hit into play are being converted into outs than ever before. And fielders are making fewer errors than ever before.
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No, the opposite is the case, sort of. Prior to shifts being prevalent, more balls that are put into play turned into hits than at any point in MLB history. In 2017 the NL BABIP was .302, which was as high as it had been since 1930. At that, there was another high-BABIP season in 1922 and then the only other higher-than-.300 years were in the very early years of the two leagues. If anything, the rise in BABIP has helped to offset the massive rise since around 2007 in strikeouts. That said, the changes in BABIP are not huge; we're talking about .290-.300 now vs. .270-.280 in the 50s. What's been driving averages down more than anything else are all the Ks, offset only a little bit (runs per game is offset a bit more) by the increase in HR/9 (people talk about the increase of the 3TO but walks, while they were high-ish in 2020, are still generally in the low to mid 3s per 9 inning which is where they've been basically forever).
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You are right in that the effects will be small.
It would make changes in equipment to try and counteract it even more. Making the standard field glove smaller. Changing the baseball. Making the handle of the bat thicker and more uniform in thickness throughout its body.
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I'm not even too sure about changing the bat size would be that big of a deal TBH, as they aren't particularly heavily inspected prior to games and would need to be to enforce that. I also wouldn't make the glove smaller because, again, BABIP is actually trending fairly high (though sure, reverting to old timey gloves would for sure raise them). Personally my changes would be making the baseball larger and spongier (which you'd have to calibrate in the low minors) and/or moving the mound back (which would also need to be calibrated).