Welcome to Verducci’s View, a new weekly baseball newsletter from Sports Illustratedsenior writer Tom Verducci. Every Monday, Tom will empty out his notebook over email and cover MLB’s hottest topics, provide in-depth analysis through both text and video breakdowns, look forward to what’s worth watching during the week and more. This week, we’re focusing on ABS returns, surprise Guardians breakout Angel Martinez and more.
The edge in Year One of ABS goes to the pitchers. Entering Sunday, major league hitters were hitting .235 in May, the third-worst May ever, edging only 1968 and 1908. Despite the usual speculation (or hope), the cold weather in March/April, when hitters batted .243, did not lead to a warmup of offense. Batting average for the season is down four points from the same date last year, from .244 to .240.
