With scoring down, MLB officials take a close look at the sport

Under new commissioner Rob Manfred, it sure looks like Major League Baseball officials are going to take a long and thorough look at the sport with the decline in offense in recent years.

The average big league team scored 4.07 runs per game last year, the lowest in a non-strike year since 1976, when it was 3.99. The Orioles averaged 4.35 runs per game last year, by the way.

Average MLB runs per game through the years:

4.07 - 2014
4.81 - 2004
4.92 - 1994
4.26 - 1984
4.12 - 1974

Along with that, more players are striking out than ever before at 7.73 for every nine innings. That number was 7.13 in 2010 and 2011, 7.56 in 2012 and 7.57 in 2013.

So we are seeing less contact and fewer runs than we have in a long time. Is this something that baseball has to fix and how should the sport's leaders go about doing so?

Manfred raised eyebrows when, in his first day on the job, he talked about looking at eliminating defensive shifts. That seems extreme and very unlikely to happen.

But we could see another potential change that might help the batters and that would be the reshaping the strike zone, as officials are concerned that too many low strikes are being called.

According to the rule book the strike zone is defined this way:

That area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap. The strike zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.

According to Jon Roegele of Hardball Times, the average size of the strike zone was 475 square inches last year. That was up from 436 inches in 2010 and 456 inches in 2012.

You take that stat, along with the increased emphasis in the game on velocity and on a strong back end of the bullpen with flame-throwers, and it may be tougher on hitters now than at any time in the history of the sport.

Wasn't it just yesterday that teams were bashing baseballs in the steriod era?

But at a time when MLB scoring is down, revenues and attendance are up and very healthy. Last year two American :League teams drew 3,000,000 or more fans and 10 drew 2,000,000 or more. In the National League, three teams topped 3,000,000 and 14 drew 2,000,000 or more. That is 24 MLB teams that topped 2,000,000 in attendance last year, including the Orioles, who ranked sixth in the AL at 2,464,000.

Along with strike zone and defensive shifts, MLB's brass is also looking into pace of game issues. They want to reduce the time of the games.

But if the revenue and attendance in the sport is healthy right now, are MLB officials fixing problems that are not really there? Are they overthinking it right now?

What is your take?: Is the decreased scoring an issue for fans? Should MLB officials look to reshape the strike zone? What about the length of games? What changes, if any, does baseball need to take a look at over the next few years?