������Ƶ

If you wish to subscribe after reading this sample, please do so here to receive next week's complete edition.

***

CINCINNATI — At his locker in the American League All-Stars clubhouse a month ago, Athletics slugger Brent Rooker and I spent a few minutes talking about the kind of pitching he and his Midsummer Classic teammates were going to face. The National League had just plucked a right-handed rookie who threw a pitch at 103-mph fastball for its roster, and others bring sliders at 97 mph and changeups in the 90s to the mound.

And that’s not just the All-Star Game.

That’s a Tuesday.

“It’s just that over and over and over again,” Rooker said. “I would answer your question by saying I don’t think it’s ever been tougher to hit.”

I asked him if hitters must change how they view hitting statistics or even abandon traditional measures of success like batting .300.

“I would counter your question and say that fans have to adjust their expectations,” Rooker told me. “High-level hitters in this league understand how difficult it is and what good production in this day and age looks like. The fan perception – and I mean on a wide-scale basis, not everywhere – hasn’t caught up to how truly, truly difficult it is to go out there and hit .300 in this league right now. The amount of quality stuff, the depth of bullpens – and you’re not seeing guys over and over again. Starters are coming out and there’s more information on scouting reports. Teams are changing relievers. Realizing how hard it is to hit for high average is lagging behind.”

So, is it time for Major League Baseball to catch up – and rethink the batting title?

During a recent conversation I had about hitting, a member of an NL team said the talk of batting .300 is “non-existent” in the modern batting cage. “You don’t hear it,” added Cardinals manager Oli Marmol. What hitters do talk about is slug, damage, OPS, getting on base, expected numbers, exit velocity, wOBA, and other advanced metrics.

This past week, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced its first new award in several generations, adding a Relief Pitcher of the Year Award to the iconic group of MVP, Cy Young Award, Rookie of the Year, and Manager of the Year. The purpose of the new award, which will be given in both the AL and NL, is to recognize the changing nature of the game (finally, you could say) and the prominence of relievers too often overlooked in the modern voting for the Cy Young Award.

There is precedent for honors changing, evolving, or being added, and the batting title sure seems like it would benefit from an update.

As of Friday morning, there are five batters in the majors hitting better than .300, four of them in the American League and two of them in Toronto, Bo Bichette and George Springer. Los Angeles Dodgers’ first baseman Freddie Freeman leads the NL with a .302 average. That would be the lowest ever to win the NL batting title, dipping below Tony Gwynn’s .313 in 1988. The lowest average ever to win a league batting title came in the Year of the Pitcher 1968 when Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski hit .301.

You don’t have to squint to see the first batting title average that starts with a 2.

“Everybody wants to hit .300 with a .900 OPS,” said Alec Burleson, the Cardinals’ leading hitter Thursday with a .286 average. “I mean everybody would love to hit .300. But just the way pitching is right now, it’s really hard. It’s really hard to hit for high average these days, and so that’s why batting averages are down. I think that’s why other numbers are more important. It is hard to get hits so you want to do more with those hits when you do get an opportunity to get a hit.

“It’s part of my game so I do look at batting average,” he added when asked about high average. “I think it’s still good. But it’s not a tell-all stat.”

A great (and extreme) recent example of that comes launching out of Philadelphia, where Thursday night Kyle Schwarber made history with four home runs, the first Phillies hitter to do that in nearly half a century. In 2023, Miami’s Luis Arraez won the batting title with a .354 average. Astonishing. He paired that with a strong .861 OPS. Meanwhile, in Philly, Schwarber batted a paltry .197. Arraez had 574 at-bats, Schwarber 585. That’s due to the difference in walks, his 126 to Arraez’s 69. Schwarber powered to an .817 OPS. Drill down and their production was closer than their averages suggest. Arraez’s overall production was 28% greater than league average, Schwarber’s 21%. Schwarber had more total bases, 277 to 269.

Arraez received enough votes for the MVP to finish eighth.

Schwarber, bogged down by that .197 average, still received votes and finished 18th.

Evaluations evolve.

Here is Cincinnati, Hall of Fame-bound first baseman Joey Votto never won a batting title. If there was an honor for getting on base at a higher rate than anyone else, Votto would have seven of those titles. Similarly in St. Louis with his contemporary and fellow former MVP. Albert Pujols won one batting title. If the honor went to the greatest OPS in the league, he’d have three (2006, 2008, 2009) and not in all of the years he won the MVP.

Votto would have two.

His first would have been in 2010 when Votto hit .324 with a .424 on-base percentage, a .600 slugging percentage and a 1.024 OPS. He led the National League in every slash line category except for batting average. Colorado’s Carlos Gonzales won the batting title with a .336 average. In fact, from 2010 to 2017, the Colorado Rockies had five different hitters win the batting title. If OPS decided the title during that time, no Rockie would have won.

But Paul Goldschmidt would have.

His .952 OPS in 2013 led the NL. Michael Cuddyer’s .348 average for the Rockies won the NL batting title.

In 2018 and 2019, Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich won the batting title and also led the NL in OPS. And in the shortened 2020 season, Juan Soto did the same. Both were able to hit for high average and also do considerable damage while also making outs at a lower rate than their peers. In other words, a thoroughly productive hitter having a great season by any measure, via Baseball Savant or baseball card.

In the four full seasons since, here’s the comparison.

Batting Average

• 2021: Trea Turner, .328
• 2022: Jeff McNeil, .326
• 2023: Luis Arraez, .354
• 2024: Arraez, .314

OPS

• 2021: Bryce Harper, 1.044
• 2022: Paul Goldschmidt, .981
• 2023: Ronald Acuna Jr., 1.012
• 2024: Shohei Ohtani, 1.036

All four of those OPS leaders won the NL MVP, which is maybe the counterpoint to this question. In an era when damage gets paid and not always hit collection, why not leave an honor for the high-average hitters to chase?

Earlier this season, Post-Dispatch sports columnist Benjamin Hochman asked, “Does .300 matter?” Hochman wrote in the modern game “it’s just a bowling score.” After all, one of the most accomplished hitters in the game and reportedly by far its best bowler, Mookie Betts, has three seasons with a .300 average, one since going to the Dodgers. Hochman asked Don Mattingly, a coach on the Toronto team with two .300 hitters, and even the former batting champ with a career .307 average and seven .300 seasons echoed so many others.

“It’s tougher to hit .300,” he said.

Which is why Burleson was skeptical this week when I mentioned updating the batting title to reflect modern batting. How batters are measured has certainly changed, how batters view and evaluate their production has changed, but if it’s harder than ever to hit .300 someone who can should be recognized.

“I want to have a high batting average because it means I’m getting hits, which in turn means if I’m getting hits some are going to be doubles and homers mixed in,” Burleson said. “We could sit down and talk about this forever. It’s harder to hit in today’s game, which in turn means when you do get hits, what is the quality of those hits?”

CAN JJ SCORE CARDS A BONUS PICK?

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Absolutely he can. The Cardinals’ top prospect has stormed way through Class AAA with another multi-hit game Wednesday to up his average to .336 and OPS to 1.052. That performance prompts intrigue about his arrival in the majors and impact in 2026.

Longest answer: With the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, Major League Baseball and the players’ association created a gadget by which teams that promote their prospects earlier and don’t massage service time can receive a draft pick as a reward. The Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) has resulted in four teams getting an extra draft pick in the top 32 picks over the past three years.

Player eligibility is based on maintaining rookie eligibility for the coming season and the preseason rankings. The player must appear in at least two of the three approved Top 100 (MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, and ESPN). Going into this season, the Cardinals had three prospects who were PPI eligible: infielder JJ Wetherholt and pitchers Quinn Mathews and Tink Hence. Wetherholt is a surefire top-10 prospect entering the 2026 season, and recent first-round pick lefty Liam Doyle is also set to be eligible. An eligible player must then do two things:

• Earn a full year of service time in the rookie season. That’s 172 days, so it means promotion on opening day or within two weeks and spending a majority of the year in the majors.

• Win their league’s Rookie of the Year Award or finish top three in the voting for the league’s MVP or the Cy Young Award.

Seattle’s Jose Rodriguez spent the entire 2022 season in the majors and netted the Mariners’ the 29th overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. In 2023, Arizona and Baltimore each had top prospects spend entire seasons with the club and win their league’s Rookie of the Year Award. So in the 2023 draft, the D-Backs and Orioles received the 31st and 32nd pick, respectively.

But PPI eligibility does not stop with the first year if the player does not win the Rookie of the Year or rank highly in the other honors.

Players who make opening day rosters and continue to gather service time in the coming seasons remain PPI eligible and can earn the team a pick by finishing top three in MVP or Cy Young.

Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn remained PPI eligible throughout this season. Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. was a rookie in 2022. Yet, he just earned the Royals a PPI draft pick in the 2025 draft by finishing runnerup for the MVP in 2024. The Royals received the 28th pick in this past months draft.

That pick alone had an assigned bonus value of $3,282,200.

PPI: the gift with the potential to keep on giving.

ROMERO SCORES RARE CARD

Before he opened the baseball card pack with one of the rarest autographs he’s ever “pulled,” as collectors say, JoJo Romero’s “first big signed card” of the day was closer to home. He sorted through the cards in an early pack this past week and landed a Michael McGreevy rookie card, signed.

Cardinals lefty Romero and fellow reliever Riley O’Brien, who is also card collector, bid on some cards from Miami-based shop on their way to Florida at the start of the week, and that started a conversation with the shop, PullWax. On Wednesday, PullWax brought boxes to the Cardinals’ hotel for Romero, O’Brien, and Andre Granillo to open – and it was there that Romero pulled a Paul Skenes’ autographed card that is one of 49 available.

The limited insert was a green, refractor illustration from a TOPPS Chrome pack.

Romero’s was the top card the trio got from the boxes.

“Ended up getting a lot of Cardinals, actually,” said Romero, who also pocketed a signed Gordon Graceffo card to go with the McGreevy and Skenes cards.

O’Brien is new to the hobby, and two of his top “pulls” have been out of football card packs, he said. Added the reliever: “Been really getting into it.”

1882 vs. 1892 vs. … 1899?

New graphics debuted this past week at Busch Stadium during the Pirates’ visit and they featured sweaty bear cans with crisp, sleek logos on them. The Pirates’ can even incorporated a baseball scorebook behind the Jolly Roger logo. There was something newsworthy about the Cardinals’ can – if you look closely. It reads “Est. 1882.” That’s 10 years earlier than the club usually claims.

What gives?

(Some readers may already know from this story in 2018.)

Well, in the interest of experimenting with new ways to tell old stories like this one, I put together a short video report (read: history lesson) for social media. Got to learn how to do some green screen work and editing. At your site of choice:

***

This week's newsletter also features a rundown on minor-league moves, including rising players and a departing coach, and who had the first overall pick in the Cardinals' Fantasy Football draft. There is much more in the weekly From the 'Pen notes.

The Write Fielder drops every Friday morning around 9 a.m. St. Louis time, and in addition to a lede story like the one above it includes exclusive interviews, deep dives into statistics, crowdsourcing suggestions for the experience at Busch Stadium, and even some travelogue or other personal tidbits from venturing around the majors on the baseball beat.

Join the growing group of subscribers here.