There are numerous points brought up in this article besides velocity - # of pitching changes, defensive shifts, launch angle swings.  Given this context, I don't see velocity as a problem with the game, but more of a natural evolution of athletic talent.  I tend to fall on the side of "the offense will adjust" and restore balance int the game.

On a related note, I find I really enjoy watching games in which pitchers work fast.  I don't know how to effectively regulate this, but if it could be done I think this would help dramatically.  In my view, slow pitching is strangling the game.

I’ll read the article later. But I believe bad baseball is strangling baseball. There are more swings and misses than contact in MLB now. When I checked the standings yesterday there were only six American League teams within five games of first in May. There are only seven National League teams within five games of first. Other than vying for seeding the baseball season is almost over. And who cares if a pitcher strikes out ten in seven innings. With hitters swinging out of their shoes it’s about as common as day following night.

I’ve been a diehard baseball fan all my life. MLB is losing me. I can’t watch more than a few innings when I even decide to watch. I haven’t watched a full game yet this season. I haven’t even thought about attending a MLB game. I looked at the top ten in each stat category in the paper yesterday. There are names I don’t recognize. I don’t care to learn about them.

I would eliminate pitching changes in the middle of innings and suggest that maybe there is a limit to how many pitchers are allowed throw in a 9 inning game (4 max) with exceptions to injury or extra innings.

The problem isn't that the pitch is too fast.....it's that batters are unable (or in most cases, unwilling) to adjust their swing to the pitch.  90% of the swings in MLB are "home run" swings, no matter the situation.  It's ugly to watch.  Nobody can (or will) bunt to beat the stupid shift, when it's almost a guaranteed hit.  They'd rather swing for the fence and ground out right into the shift.  It's not much better in college and a lot of the games this season were painful to watch.  My son struck out 14 times in 155 plate appearances.  That's and 1:11 ratio.  Most college hitters are somewhere between 1:3 and 1:4.   The guys who struck out the most look just like the guys who strike out the most in MLB....they are swinging for the fence...doesn't matter if they are leading off an inning or batting with guys on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.  They just won't dial back the swing a little and put it in play.  It's not that tough.   Crazy thing is, that a college kid that struck out 50 times in 150 AB's but had 14 HR's is going to get drafted.  Do you really think that if he can't hit college pitching...he'll hit guys throwing 100+?   MLB is too into "power" and not enough into "hitting". 

As sort of a companion piece, Wapo has a story on Driveline and HSBW member Kyle Boddy:

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.b512f48d0a9e

Takeaway Quote:  "

“The pitching has outpaced the hitting lately,” Boddy said. “But its cyclical. Hitters are always going to be behind, because pitchers initiate the action. But we’re going to see it tilt back eventually.”

Boddy doesn’t see Driveline — and its many competitors and collaborators — as ruining the game of baseball, as some would claim. If he has helped convert the craft of pitching from an art to a science, well, maybe it needed more science and less art in the first place.

He may be a mad scientist, and he may have unleashed upon the sport a monster, one that’s measured in miles per hour and devours wooden bats. But at least for now, the monster hasn’t destroyed the entire city.

“The game’s not worse,” Boddy said. “It’s just different.”

BTW I took my 2017 son to Citi Field today, where we watched the Mets finish their sweep of the Nats.  (sorry Twoboys)  It was a good game in a good yard and we enjoyed it very much.  The lobster nachos were good too.