The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Discuss all things Cardinals Baseball

How will you feel about the DH being implemented across all of MLB?

Hate it
12
36%
Love it
5
15%
EH
16
48%
 
Total votes: 33

User avatar
CardsofSTL
All Hail the GDT Master
Posts: 47817
Joined: April 26 11, 6:06 am
Location: Columbus, OH

The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by CardsofSTL »

How MLB could make a designated hitter compromise and occasionally keep pitchers at the plate
One of the unfortunate rules of this particular plane of existence is that you can't change what is real merely by having contempt for it. So in keeping with the Whether You Like It Or Not Doctrine, you should know that the designated hitter is eventually coming to the National League.

The NL, of course, has never used the DH except in road games against AL teams. The AL, meantime, has used the DH since 1973, but there's increasing momentum for the leagues to have uniform playing rules. That's why the NL is going to adopt the DH, likely in time for the 2022 season. Fans of a traditionalist bent of course don't care for this. Even though pitchers are bad at hitting and gradually getting worse -- they're selected for their pitching skills, not their hitting -- a sizable demographic of fans loathe the idea of the DH in the NL. (This is despite the fact that an NL president first formally proposed the rule back in 1928.) However, the DH is used in pretty much every other level of serious organized baseball, and owners are becoming more and more hesitant to see their expensive hurlers risking injury on the bases and otherwise boring the hell out of everyone at the plate. The DH is coming to the NL whether anyone likes it or not.

So proceeding from that firm assumption, let's concoct a compromise solution that will make everyone slightly mad but at the same time make DH bitter-enders slightly less mad than would the full onset of the DH era in the National League.

The big idea? The home team of a given game gets to choose whether the DH is used.

User avatar
Joe Shlabotnik
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 23105
Joined: October 12 06, 2:21 pm
Location: Baseball Ref Bullpen
Contact:

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by Joe Shlabotnik »

Isn't there a proposal for DH only as long as the starter is in the game? If your going to have a DH, I like that idea. It also helps get rid of the 'opener' idea of using the bullpen to start a game.

User avatar
CardsofSTL
All Hail the GDT Master
Posts: 47817
Joined: April 26 11, 6:06 am
Location: Columbus, OH

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by CardsofSTL »

Joe Shlabotnik wrote:Isn't there a proposal for DH only as long as the starter is in the game? If your going to have a DH, I like that idea. It also helps get rid of the 'opener' idea of using the bullpen to start a game.
I think there are a few different proposals getting tossed around. The one in the article linked above seems unlikely to me. But I give them points for trying to be creative.

User avatar
InvincibleCakeEater
GRB's obsessive compulsive baseball poster
Posts: 28034
Joined: October 12 07, 12:28 pm
Location: Raptured

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by InvincibleCakeEater »

Pitchers hit .128 .159 .163 .322 last year. 50 years ago they hit .140 .183 .184 .367.


It's amazing to me that people willfully want to watch that [expletive].

User avatar
JoeMcKim
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 9077
Joined: September 8 09, 10:56 pm
Location: South County, St. Louis

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by JoeMcKim »

InvincibleCakeEater wrote:Pitchers hit .128 .159 .163 .322 last year. 50 years ago they hit .140 .183 .184 .367.


It's amazing to me that people willfully want to watch that [expletive].
Basically people are fine with having guys hitting at the major league level who couldn't hit at the rookie ball level. I like a lot of the late game strategy that having a pitcher means but not to the point of having an automatic out the rest of the game. Right now when you get to the 8th place spot in the lineup with 2 outs you basically give that batter a free walk a lot of the time because the pitcher batting 9th has next to no chance of getting a base hit. The 8th place hitter who's usually the weakest hitting position player and he gets a free base. So basically means you have 7 real spots in the order that can produce.

User avatar
TheoSqua
Next Gen Wart
Posts: 8895
Joined: April 22 06, 6:53 pm
Location: St. Louis
Contact:

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by TheoSqua »

I really like the idea of tying the DH to the starting pitcher. I also like the idea of letting the home team determine if the DH is in effect for that game. I wouldn't mind tying the 3 batter minimum to the DH as well. Want a LOOGY? NO DH FOR YOU!

tlombard
tl;dr
Posts: 5053
Joined: May 21 09, 12:41 pm

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by tlombard »

I'm all for the idea of having a DH for the starter. Then you have to use pinch hitters the rest of the game for your relievers. That works for me as a compromise as long as it applies to both leagues.

I do not like the idea of the home team choosing whether there is a DH on a game by game basis though. Suddenly you are in a position where if one team has a dominant DH that can change a game with one swing but is terrible at defense (like most DH's are I assume), they can effectively be taken out of a huge chunk of games during the season simply because the other teams don't want to face them and they are enough of a defensive liability that their team can't risk running them out into the field for half of the season. I know that is an extreme example/excuse as to why I don't like it, but it is what it is.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
"I could totally eat a pig butt, if smoked correctly!"
Posts: 27273
Joined: August 5 08, 11:24 am
Location: Thinking of the Children

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

InvincibleCakeEater wrote:Pitchers hit .128 .159 .163 .322 last year. 50 years ago they hit .140 .183 .184 .367.


It's amazing to me that people willfully want to watch that [expletive].
Understood. But, letting them hit also speeds up the game, alleviates stress on pitchers arms, and can arguably bring more strategory into the game though there's certainly a case it doesn't. Plus, who doesn't want to watch Flaherty run the bases...er...well, maybe that's a point in favor of the DH.

I don't think it's as simple as 'do you want to watch a pitcher hit' though.

User avatar
ndistops
All-Star
Posts: 1292
Joined: November 20 06, 9:00 pm
Location: West Michigan
Contact:

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by ndistops »

The DH is arcade nonsense, but the fact is, once they instituted it at so many other levels of baseball, it was inevitably going to result in MLB pitchers getting even worse at hitting. They might as well just get it over with.

User avatar
GeddyWrox
Caught you a delicious bass
Posts: 12947
Joined: April 20 06, 8:43 pm
Location: Please use blue font for the sarcasm impaired.

Re: The DH is coming, The DH is coming!

Post by GeddyWrox »

I'm tired of MLB hemming and hawwing over this. Just do it already. Give us the DH. Haters will get over it.

Post Reply