My team, the Saint Louis Cardinals, are pretty bad this year -- bad for the Cardinals, so-so for most other franchises. But actually, baseball itself is pretty bad this year. Batting averages are far down. Stolen bases are down. Runs scored are not far down, which means that guys are hitting home runs. The games take longer than ever. Games that took maybe 1:45 when I was a kid take 2:45 now, and the AVERAGE time is over 3:00. Plenty of nine inning games take around four hours.
Every hitter is Deron Johnson, the slugger for the Reds, the Phillies, and the A's. Everybody is basically Deron Johnson at his best, or Deron Johnson at his average, or Deron Johnson at his worst: a guy with pretty good to lousy batting average, with excellent to middling power, and not much else. Sure, there are exceptions, but the hitting patterns are tiresomely the same from batter to batter.
Every pitcher? There were no pitchers like those of today. Every starting pitcher right now is a very hard thrower with a fastball, a cutter, and a slider. The best of them last 6+ innings; the worst last 5+ innings. So the ballgames are no longer the story of a pitcher against a team. There is no clear narrative to the game. It's an endless series of middle relievers, whose names nobody can remember. The best of the starters, like Jacob De Grom, can go all-out for 5-6 innings and give up nothing, not having to save anything in reserve for the late innings.
Baseball's response is to tinker with a rule here or there. The worst idea is to bring the designated hitter to the NL, severing for good the strange interdependence of offense and defense. I think that the very TOOLS of the game have to be changed, to raise batting averages, not raise but rather lower the number of home runs, and make it possible (or even practically necessary) for starters to go at least 7 innings in a typical start. Move the fences back -- that helps the pitcher. Move the mound back one foot -- that helps the batter. Put a minimum weight on the bats -- that helps the pitcher, and changes the strategy of the hitter. And maybe put a clock on the interval between pitches -- or between a pitch and a throw to a base; violate the clock and a ball is called. That helps the hitter.
I'm tired of guys with records of 12-11 or something like that, winning the Cy Young award. Tired of second basemen swinging all the time for the fences...