Excerpt: "State of the Game, Pt. 2"

"It is possible, and I'll admit this is rank speculation, that the increased velocity engineered into today's pitchers is breaking the dimensions of baseball. We've always known that hard-throwing pitchers have had an advantage; the ability to miss bats and generate strikeouts, a statistical proxy for velocity prior to the 2000s, was the best predictor of pitcher success and longevity. However, not everyone could be Nolan Ryan, and on balance, the pool of pitchers couldn't throw hard enough to upset the balance of the game. Now, they can."