This is an excerpt from the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things
baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the
field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a
founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for more than 20 years.
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"[Insert “Singles” Pun Here] (1B/PA)
2019 12.9%
2018 14.2%
2017 14.5%
2016 14.9%
2015 15.3%
"Singles are disappearing, and I mean quickly. From the end of World War II up until 2015, singles occurred in 15-17% of plate appearances and about 21% of events on contact. The only four seasons in baseball history in which singles haven’t been above 15% of PAs are the last four. The last time singles accounted for fewer than 21% of events on contact was 1888 (20.8%). The number was 21% last year, and is 19.7% in 2019."
