I honestly have no idea what happened but clearly something changed with the hitting philosophy. Last year everyone’s contact numbers were too high but damage was not being done in the way of XBH. Maybe this year the org decided having a lineup full of slap hitters isn’t ideal and hitting shouldn’t be a “one size fits all” approach.
Maybe its these new pitching sim machines, not sure if they had those last year. But I do know Popkins was pushing for those machines to be used more