Wklink,
You brought up a good point where skill and execution will become more important again. For the past couple of decades every poor play or sloppy game could be overcome with an onslaught of HRs and a barrage of extra base hits. This simply did not happen in the 60's and early 70's when I played. Now in one week in the ML you see knucklehead plays where both the Yankees and the Red Sox end up with two guys out at third on the same play. You see guys continuosly make running mistakes at the ML and college levels. All this could be overcome because anyone run was not that important when you were going to score 14, 15 or 20 runs especially in the college game. The poor play continued when these guys reached the ML's because they didn't learn this stuff in college or amateur ball. I think players who don't become fundamentally better defensively, base runners, etc. will be driven out of the game.