This offseason, the A’s traded Khris Davis’s majestic long fly balls to right field for Elvis Andrus’ ball slapped through the right side hole. Was there ever a better time to make this swap?
Don’t get me wrong — the home run, and slugging, aren’t going anywhere, but more of those fly balls may be going only as far as the warning track. MLB gets few things right (but enough about blackouts, extra innings and doubleheaders), yet even a broken clock is right twice a day and MLB has hit a rare bullseye in reintroducing a deadened, instead of more tightly wound, baseball.