I just added a few of my own generalizations, but I hope you are right. I like the complete game. As defensive metrics improve, I think that will be vindicated.

2) Petco Park opened in ’04. Comerica opened in 2000. Coors Field went to the humidor in ’02. AT&T Park opened in ’00. Target Field opened in 2010. And Citi Field opened in ’09. I know it’s inconvenient for you to include the entire decade, but newer, larger parks have been part of the overall downward trend. No, Comerica and AT&T didn’t do it all by themselves at the start of the decade, but they certainly have helped overall. I find it curious that you seem to have no problem assuming that a gradual buildup in the usage of PEDs caused a massive one-time jump in offensive levels, but take issue with the notion that a gradual shift to larger ballparks couldn’t have been the reason for offense falling abruptly off that level (hint, the falloff didn’t lineup with testing, either).

3) Presuming the pendulum swinging back to defensive emphasis, yes, really. Do you think a team like the Yankees would have ever let somebody like Brett Gardner play a traditional power position ten years ago? The market inefficiency was to move toward bat-first guys at traditional defense-first positions, not the other way around. The As got the book written about them, but the smart teams were all looking at advanced stats for ways to find undervalued players, and all they could quantify at the time was offense.

2.) What new ballparks- outside of the Mets stadium- built since 2004-05, have been significantly larger in size?

3.) Really?

That might actually be a sign of the apocalypse. I’m flipping through Revelations right now.

So that’s 4 runs in 4 games.

I want to kill myself watching this team.