What your suggesting is to go back and replicate major league baseball of the 1950s. It's a different era today. The ball itself has changed making home runs that much more enticing. Player contracts are more focused on run production than overall baseball ability. There are more players hitting home runs AND striking out than ever before. Fans prefer seeing a home run rather than a bunt moving a player to second. Analytics show that a team that hits more home runs AND strikes out more is usually better off in the standings than a team that is more focused on "traditional" baseball. Now look at the powerful swings that Bellinger and Pederson and others routinely make. Those are not designed to place the ball in play but more to place the ball into orbit.
Personally I think that overall the focus on home runs is hurting the game. I'm tired of watching strikeouts. I enjoy balls in play and fine defensive gems like Machado made the other night.
Changing lineups again is a result of analytics that show overall a right handed batter does better against a left handed pitcher. And speaking of pitchers how many go the full 9 innings like they used to in the 50s. The analytic gurus will tell you that a lowly ranked Padre team would likely -in today's world-beat one of those powerful Yankee World Series teams of the 50s because of the way today's game is played.
Oh well.
