Baseball is a difficult sport. That much is an understatement. In most other sports, a transcendent athletic talent can use their athleticism to succeed even at the highest levels. The same is untrue for baseball, as the core battle of pitcher versus batter requires an almost unbelievable amount of skill. Consider: before the season, substantial evidence surfaced about how the Houston Astros were cheating, using sign stealing to gain a hitting advantage.
Yet, every qualifying Astro but one between 2017 and 2018 (Jose Altuve) made an out during their plate appearance over 60% of the time. As a team, a little less than two out of every three plate appearances ended in an out—as one of the best teams in baseball that often knew what was coming.