SPECULATOR: Wild things—You make my heart sing?

BaseballHQ.com writers have written from time to time about the changing statistical landscape of MLB, and how it affects our own game play. As the pendulum of pitcher vs. hitter has swung in favor of the pitcher in recent years, the most pronounced effects among the rotisserie categories for pitchers has been in the strikeouts category.

The strikeout trend

Consider these MLB trends for the past few years:

Year     MLB k/9
====     =======
2007       6.7
2008       6.8
2009       7.0
2010       7.1
2011       7.1
2012       7.6
2013*      7.6

* - through June 10

In fantasy terms, this effect is unique among the standard pitching categories. Consider:

  • the number of wins available from the MLB stat pool is virtually unchanged...

Almost!

You’re just a few clicks away from accessing this feature and hundreds more throughout the year that have a singular goal in mind: Winning your league. Subscribe to BaseballHQ.com here!

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

More From Speculator

What lessons can we apply from Drew Rasmussen's 2025 breakout to this year's player pool?
Mar 11 2026 8:36am
Applying lessons learned from George Springer's 2025 breakout to this year's player pool
Mar 4 2026 3:04am
This week's exercise is all about picking holes to help avoid early-round busts.
Feb 25 2026 3:10am
Sure, they struggled last year, but if we remove some recency bias, granting mulligans could be a lucrative exercise.
Feb 18 2026 3:06am
Our annual look at who changed their pitch mix the most in-season last year, and (most importantly) whether it worked.
Feb 11 2026 3:06am

Tools