Batters should move closer to pitchers who nibble at the knees.

Obviously, right? So why don't they? They did years ago. Babe Ruth was often standing about even with the plate, not as far back in the batter's box as possible. That way he could force the pitcher to throw the curve ball high enough so that it would be above his front knee as it broke down, unlike today when batters get pitches that bounce in front of the plate while the batter is way back in the box.

About 7 seconds into this film, Ruth swings and his back foot is aligned with the middle of the plate and his front is barely inside the front line, exactly opposite of what we see today.

About 6 seconds into this 1961 film of Roger Maris hitting home run number 60 in Yankee Stadium, you see Maris from the side, clearly several inches from the back line of the batter's box:

So what's different today? Obviously many more pitchers are throwing many really fast pitches, many with Bugs Bunny hop. What tends to be overlooked is that catchers try to get as close to the batters as possible to catch the really low pitches before they hit the ground and to make the pitches look high enough to be called strikes. Catchers used to stand:

Catchers: squat to give signs, then stand to receive the pitch? Is that the evolution? Sunday, April 6, 2014

Pitching has devolved to nibbling at the knees. Monday, June 27, 2016

Yankee pitching coach Larry Rothschild wants his staff to throw lots of breaking pitches. Masahiro Tanaka, who previously pitched in Japan, has really done that and ties to throw all pitches at or below the very bottom of the strike zone.

Many pitchers today do something that would not have been acceptable years ago: bounce pitches even with a runner on third base. The pitchers expect their catchers to handle ridiculous pitches thrown really fast and often off the plate and sometimes bouncing. What the heck?

There is now some inclination to have pitchers throw fastballs high. Duh. But keeping the ball low had become so ingrained that many coaches and most pitchers are reluctant to throw fastballs high.

OK, back to the batters. They have had to become adept at hitting increasingly faster but also increasingly lower pitches. So just about all batters drop that bat head down and generate "false" power with an upward launch angle. If the league fixes the strike zone, which includes making it higher, swings will probably level out. In the mean time batters should move forward and challenge the pitcher to leave his comfort zone. For Tanaka that would mean throwing high fastballs in situations when he does not want to. The batter would be forcing Tanaka out of his comfort zone. Many, if not most pitchers, want to stay comfy. They will not change until circumstances force that. Then batters will have to adjust again.

What's been happening has been pretty much everybody following the same play book. Not only is that boring, it's not effective, especially for batters, who fail in an overwhelming percent of their plate appearances. That mentality is why they stubbornly continue to hit into the shift and then whine about it. Adapt.