What goes around comes around, as evidenced by this brief analytical synopsis from Sports Illustrated numbers cruncher Bill James in Peter Gammons’ review of the first half of the 1987 baseball season:

“Over the past three years, home runs, walks and strikeouts have all increased. Meanwhile, the average length of a major-league game grew from 2:36 in 1984 to 2:49 in 1987. Why these concurrent trends? Longer counts. More hitters are looking for a pitch they can take out of the park — taking one, fouling one off, sorting them out. Fewer hitters are swinging at the first or second pitch. That leads to more full counts, which result in more walks and strikeouts — and longer games.”

It’s said the game always has been cyclical. If that’s the case and you were a baseball fan in 1987, congratulations on completing your first cycle.

The midway point of the 2019 season is upon us, and all we’ve been talking about are home runs, walks and strikeouts, while praying in vain for games that last a mere 2 hours, 36 minutes.

The juiced ball is now so juicy, pitchers have little choice but to try to avoid the barrel of the bat, which means going for strikeouts whenever possible.

“The game has been kind of going that way regardless,” White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito said. “You have the ‘three true outcomes’ approach to baseball (home runs, strikeouts and walks) and all that kind of stuff.

“For me, I’m trying to attack the strike zone, and when I get two strikes on a guy, I want to put him away. I’m never going to go out there as a starting pitcher to keep pitching for a strikeout from the first pitch of the at-bat. I’m just trying to be aggressive, and usually when you’re aggressive, that will lead to the swings and misses and weak contact and things like that.

“For me it’s not a big deal because it’s not just me that’s facing guys with a juiced ball. Everybody faces everybody with a juiced ball, so it kind of balances out, I guess.”

The all-time home run record of 6,105 — set in 2017 — is about to be obliterated. Teams had combined for 3,311 homers entering the weekend, including 1,135 in May, the most in a single month.

Orioles pitchers had served up five or more home runs nine times and 165 overall through Thursday. They passed the 100-served mark in their 48th game on May 21, the fastest in MLB history.

But Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez was the first-half king of the so-called “fat one,” serving up 22 homers in 92 innings for a major-league-worst average of 2.14 home runs per nine innings.

Commissioner Rob Manfred insists the ball is not juiced, offering his own theory on what’s going on.

“We think one of the things that may be happening is they’re getting better at centering the pill, (which) creates less drag,” Manfred told reporters recently. “In addition to that, there’s all these man-made issues: hand-stitched, where it’s stored after it’s made, where it’s stored at the ballpark, who puts the mud on the ball, how much mud they put on the ball.

“It’s really difficult to isolate any single cause. But we do think it’s a drag issue.”

It’s a drag all right, unless you just like to watch home runs and strikeouts.

“I’m normally not into the subplot component of all of this and the conspiracy theorists, but I’m telling you right now, it’s jumping,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s absolutely jumping. Nobody is ever going to admit to it. The wind’s being broken here. It’s really weird.”

No one was breaking wind as much as the Brewers’ Christian Yelich, who had a major-league-leading 29 home runs entering Friday’s games. The Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger and the Mets’ Pete Alonso were tied for second with 27, so there’s a chance for a reprise of the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa race in 1998, albeit without the alleged chemical enhancement or Sosa’s “God bless America” mantra.

Of course, there were more strikeouts (21,115) than hits (20,759) entering the weekend, which means the ball is not in play and there’s generally nothing going on for 3½ hours.

Well, not always.

A recent four-game series between the Rockies and Padres featured a record 92 runs, and Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon went 15-for-24 with four home runs and 10 RBIs. Then again, Sox first baseman Yonder Alonso, who was designated for assignment this week, had a grand total of 39 hits in 67 games, so the juiced ball didn’t do him much good.

The divisional races have been relatively blah, with the Dodgers, Twins, Yankees and Astros getting out to big leads and the Orioles, Blue Jays, Royals and Tigers well on their way to 100-loss seasons.

The players did not go on strike, as Adam Wainwright predicted in February, and all the big free agents — Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel — eventually got paid after a long wait.

The Cubs have been down and up, then up and down, and now are playing .500 ball in June. No worries, though, as shortstop Javier Baez said in late April: “It’s early, man. Right now it can go either way. We’ve seen teams be in first place in the first half and you never hear from them. Just take it day by day and see where we are after the first half.”

The Cubs, picked to finish last by the PECOTA computer analysis, were in first place in the bunched-up NL Central but only 6½ games ahead of the last-place Reds as they entered a three-game series at Great American Ball Park. When they finally reached a deal with Kimbrel on June 5, starting pitcher Jon Lester theorized that the team’s strong play had put pressure on the front office.

“Maybe just raise some awareness that we are a lot better than whatever that computer program said we were going to be and we’re in a good position to make a move,” Lester said.

But the puzzling Cubs are 15-19 since May 22, so PECOTA still might get the last laugh.

It’s early, man. Right now it can go either way.