Everyone and his brother throws in the mid to upper 90s now. More than a few relievers touch 100 mph. It isn't even rare anymore. More and more fastballs are virtually unhittable.

The other trend in pitching is an increase in offspeed stuff outside the zone. Those are hittable, technically, but tend to induce bad contact. Also, smarter defensive deployments in the field are swallowing up ground balls.

Guys with patience and a good eye can draw walks by spitting on these pitches, but that results in long plate appearances and walks which are pretty boring. Guys without will strike out.

The "focus on the HR" is because if everyone is going to strike out anyway, you'd better damn well be able to crush it when you do make contact. It is simply too difficult to string together a bunch of singles and play small ball anymore.

There's probably a functional maximum on pitch speeds based on human physiology, but I don't think we've gotten there yet. This will continue, probably, until MLB does something to neuter pitching. A lower mound maybe, or moving the rubber back a few feet. Maybe a slightly larger ball, or do something to the seams, or mark it somehow to make the spin more visible to the batter. I dunno.