Kalen: When the strategy is a 6 inning "quality start" followed by a series of pitching changes based upon the premise that a left handed pitcher has to pitch to a left handed batter, etc., the game gets long and boring. No one in baseball is going to admit it but I still have my belief that part of the reason for the low scoring is the ball. Maybe they want to showcase the pitchers as the hitters don't seem to be getting any better. And how about the pitching signs from the dugout - that sure speeds up the game and makes it more exciting.
There's lots of reasons scoring is down, and I don't think anyone can really point to one as the key culprit. Many have been mentioned in this thread. There's no evidence that MLB will allow to reach the public about the ball, so I'll start from the assumption that the ball is the same now as it was a number of years ago, but off the top of my head:
1) Increased testing and penalties for PEDs, not so much for steroids and/or HGH, for which the effect are still inconclusive, but more because of the inclusion of amphetamines in the list of banned substances. Players have been popping greenies like candy for decades. That's a big no-no now. And the restriction on amphetamines affects every day players a lot more than it affects starters who go once every five days. I think this is a really underrated issue, as it doesn't have the sex-appeal of steroid use.
2) As mentioned previously, increased technology in scouting. Some of this is related to defensive positioning, but we're also better at evaluating and compensating players for their defensive ability (defense has long been considered the next market inefficiency). Some of has to do with better scouting of platoon splits. Teams are also investing better in worldwide scouting, and bringing in more good players (more on this below).
3) Random variation. Eras change. Defense and offense have a general balance point, but a few seasons isn't really enough data to find it. Just as there are periods in golf when Americans dominate, and periods where Europeans dominate, there are eras in baseball when pitchers dominate, and era when hitters dominate.
4) The talent pool has caught up to expansion. After every expansion in baseball, offense has exploded. We're well beyond that period now, and the pitching depth has reasserted itself. There are lot more Asians in MLB than there were 15 years ago, Australia is being scouted more heavily, and teams are spending a lot more on their Latin American academies, from which players are not subject to the entry draft.
I understand that some people may not like low scoring games. But the idea that one needs to "hope" that there are more than three runs scored, while hyperbolic, is also a bit ridiculous. The Angels have the best pitching in the AL, and the third worst offense, and their game average seven runs per. Sometimes people just lose interest in sports. I don't enjoy watching golf as much anymore if it's not a major, and Saturdays are especially boring since no one is going to be crowned that day. Personally, I've found that as I've gotten older, my interest in my favorite teams has increased, while my interest in watching the sport overall have decreased. I can't watch a baseball or hockey game between two teams I don't care about (unless I'm physically present at the game), but I rarely miss an Angels game on TV (well, now on my iPad), or an LA Kings game. Some of that has to do with the fact that I can see all those games now. When I was kid, there were less than half the games available, and sometimes national broadcasts were the only things to watch. But I think too often people find that they just naturally lose interest in a sport and look for reasons why, instead of just chalking it up to the fact that people just change. It happens.
And besides, there was a really low scoring game in Cleveland yesterday that had me on the edge of my seat for the final few innings yesterday afternoon. First no-hit complete game from an Angels pitcher that I've ever seen.