Blame Ozzie!
When some of us were kids and Belangers, Hansons and Aparacios were the standard of glovey SS's, you rarely saw the SS backhand one to his right, plant and then gun. "Fundamentals" dictated that you got both feet in front of it, half-skipped and then flipped it sidearm to 1B.
But then Ozzie came along. The Wizard changed everythig for SS's. It wasn't enough to make the plays, you had to look spectacular doing it. The play to the right was born. It didn't hurt that turf fields were becoming the norm, as well. Turf meant ball speed, so SS's could play deeper...had to play deeper. I think the spectacular play, rather than the two-handed scoop, is what lights defensive metrics now. UZR wants to see something that looks hard....not that looks easy.
Get this:
Belanger had a career Rf/9 of 4.93 (Single Season high of 5.47) and a career Fld. Pct. of .977
Aparacio 4.89 (5.7) .963
Hanson 5.03 (5.29) .962
Ozzie Smith 5.22 (5.87) 9.66 (his range was in a league of it's own)
Cal Ripkin 4.73 (5.50) .969
Segura 4.48 (4.73) .974
And last year's two GG winners:
Crawford 4.63 (4.81) .974
Lindor 4.20 (4.37) .975
GG SS's don't get to nearly the amount of balls as SS's of the past. Ripkin, for example, was a multi-GG winner, but never known for his range. He would get to 80 more balls a year than Lindor does. Amazing. The previous 4 GG's in the Al were won by Escobar and Hardy. They get to 4.26 and 4.33 balls per game (Rf/9).
K's are up, for sure. But I wonder how much of the decline in range factor is due to deeper positioning and the reluting back-handed play. In a good year, even Ripkin would get to 190 more balls than Hardy. How amazing is that?