The DH is coming to the NL (pure speculation)

[GAME05]

as Brewers fans, we're naturally going to look at any solution in terms of making baseball as a whole more competitive for the smaller market teams and a solution that is financially sustainable. but i don't see Selig looking at things that way. i think any change that could happen coming from the perspective of "What would ensure the Yankees get the most TV time?" that's what gets the biggest ratings, after all. who cares about the Brewers, after all, besides Brewers fans? MLB would cringe if it was the Brewers vs. the Indians in the WS.

[DuWayne Steurer]

There was an idea floated by Whitey Herzog years ago that would take out the DH, but allow teams to PH for the pitcher whenever they liked, but the pitcher (or any position player I suppose) would get to remain in the game. The PH would be done after their AB. I thought that was a very interesting idea. Wisconsin high school baseball does something like this with the re-entry rule.

 

I'd be willing to allow that with a baserunner, too. The runner could enter the game to run for another player, but that player could re-enter at the end of the inning and the DR would be done.

 

Just some thoughts.

I actually like that idea a bit. There'd still be some strategy to it, as you have a limited number of bench players, and if you start burning them up in the 2nd/3rd/4th innings, you're limiting yourself later.

[Ennder]

NL teams are already at a severe disadvantage and pitchers clearly don't get enough repetition at hitting to be able to do it at a major league level. The sooner they move to DH in the NL the better. Every year a dozen or more pitchers get injured hitting/running the bases in the NL, it adds up to a significant disadvantage just taking the depleted pitching from injuries into account, not to mention the roster issues etc.

[brettac1]

Totally. I love the DH.

[joepepsi]

I like the DH too. The NL basically uses it for the last 1/3 of every 9 inning game anyway.

[Tbadder]

Not that it would matter, but I would end my 50 year love affair with baseball if the NL adopted the DH. The DH is simply another way to keep big market clubs ahead of their small fry brethren, as if the economical advantages weren't enough. The DH forces the cost of players up, and lets one-dimensional players hang on. In addition it panders to the lowest common denominator--runs, power, ESPN/media baseball. Baseball, which has already lost most of its balance, you'll never see another 82' Cardinals again...is slowly becoming, well, softball--all hail the 10-8 game! Yes I believe the DH is coming as well. It's coming because I can hear the faint strain of the Jaws soundtrack in the background. Oh well, ever forward into the bigger and better.

[Funketown]

The DH is simply another way to keep big market clubs ahead of their small fry brethren, as if the economical advantages weren't enough. The DH forces the cost of players up, and lets one-dimensional players hang on. In addition it panders to the lowest common denominator--runs, power, ESPN/media baseball. Baseball, which has already lost most of its balance, you'll never see another 82' Cardinals again...is slowly becoming, well, softball--all hail the 10-8 game!

I really dislike the DH rule, but in recent years much of what you say has reversed. The days of the $20MM DH seem to be gone, and we're seeing a lot of older guys who just can't play the field on affordable deals. Scoring is way down this year, although I don't have one of those handy graphs.

 

That said, I desperately hope the NL does not adopt the DH. One of my favorite things about baseball is that it requires all players to participate in all aspects of the game. There's something oddly romantic to me about watching a dominant pitcher go to the plate and fail, or watching the brutish slugger fail to field a ball hit within a few feet of him. This failure just makes true "5-tool" players all the more special, and all the more enjoyable to watch.

[jeffy]

Not that it would matter, but I would end my 50 year love affair with baseball if the NL adopted the DH.

 

Yeah, I think I may be done too, should it come. But the Brewers demonstrating that it is really just about impossible for them to really compete with the top teams may just do it, as well. Perfect storm would be the Brewers post season vs. Philadelphia goes about like this series has, the NL adopts the DH, and the Cubs get a GM that can transform them into a NL version of the Yankees.

[madbad2000]

DH is definitely one of the worst things about baseball. I hate American League baseball and loved it when Milwaukee switched to the NL. I wouldn't go so far as to say I would be done with baseball if the DH came to the NL, but it would slip down my list to possibly NBA level if that's hard to believe. Which is an interesting analogy since the NBA "got rid" of defense and geared towards scoring. I really enjoy seeing players have to do everything and play the game. It was an astute comment earlier that the game is going towards softball.

 

Fix the economics of the game, get to a closer level of parity like the NFL and enjoy the success that would entail.

[dadofandrew]

Teams like the Crew can easily get by effectively and cheaply by signing a couple guys like Eric Hinske and Xavier Nady...they provide depth to the corner spots and can platoon if needed at DH. When Braun and Hart was injured, they could have DH'd to ease their way back in. It doesn't have to be a spendy guy, as Thome and others have signed cheaply.

 

It would create more jobs for those players, but they need not be $10M a year types.

[RightFieldCoder]

Funketown wrote:

---

That said, I desperately hope the NL does not adopt the DH. One of my favorite things about baseball is that it requires all players to participate in all aspects of the game. There's something oddly romantic to me about watching a dominant pitcher go to the plate and fail, or watching the brutish slugger fail to field a ball hit within a few feet of him. This failure just makes true "5-tool" players all the more special, and all the more enjoyable to watch.

Instead of a DH, why not go defensive/offensive team? 9 guys play the field and 9 guys are hitting. And players would be allowed to play both. /sarcasim

No, I don't always enjoy watching the pitcher hit. I also don't enjoy watching slappy SS or backup catchers hit. But it's part of the game.

 

[joepepsi]

Every organized league in baseball uses the DH. I am sick of traditionalists. Lets have the DH and win a Championship.

[logan82]

What happens in the AL is that you get worse hitting players at almost all positions because everybody gets moved one slot to the left on the defensive spectrum for a defense first player.

[danzig6767]

Every organized league in baseball uses the DH. I am sick of traditionalists. Lets have the DH and win a Championship.

Why do so many of the DH lovers say this nonsense?

 

It has nothing to do with "tradition" for me or the majority of people who don't like the DH. I simply much prefer watching NL baseball to AL baseball and the by far biggest reason being the NL doesn't have the DH. My belief is confirmed each year when the Brewers go on the road for interleague play. Pretty much everyone i know that's a Brewers fan is glad we play in the NL now and doesn't miss the DH at all. Nothing more to it than that.

 

You and others obviously prefer watching AL style baseball with the DH, more power to you, but for the majority who disagree with you, they aren't 65 year old guys yearning for the old days when baseball was played a certain way. They simply prefer NL baseball, that's it.

[Nottso]

I despise the DH rule, but I might be able to live with it with some minor modification. It would work like this: The SP is tied to the starting DH. If there's a pitching change, there must also be a DH change. Possibly even a double switch where a defensive player is benched, the starting DH becomes a defensive player, and a bench guy becomes the RDH (relief designated hitter).

 

When the RP is replaced, so is the RDH and this continues throughout the entire game. This would keep pitcher's from hitting, eliminate the willy-nilly pitching changes in the AL, and would still involve a lot of strategy; possibly even more strategy than there is now, as it could become rather easy to burn through one's entire bench if not cautious.

 

Thoughts?

[danzig6767]

Never ever going to happen Nottso, way to complicated. It's either going to remain separate in the two leagues or DH for both unfortunately.

[Invader3K]

I think the DH coming to the NL is inevitable, simply because teams want to protect their heavy investments into their best starting pitchers. I remember laughing at the Yankees a few years ago when Steinbrenner mouthed off after Chien-Ming Wang got hurt running the base paths. I'm sure they weren't the only ownership group with concerns about a pitcher getting hurt, though.

[Ennder]

Every organized league in baseball uses the DH. I am sick of traditionalists. Lets have the DH and win a Championship.

I consider myself a traditionalist in most areas of baseball but I'm also a realist and pitchers hitting just makes no sense these days. Even good hitters struggle to hit when they don't get to do it on a regular basis, asking a pitcher to hit at the major league level just makes no sense and making the two leagues different is really bad for baseball.

[ReverendBrewmeister]

Every organized league in baseball uses the DH. I am sick of traditionalists. Lets have the DH and win a Championship.

I consider myself a traditionalist in most areas of baseball but I'm also a realist and pitchers hitting just makes no sense these days. Even good hitters struggle to hit when they don't get to do it on a regular basis, asking a pitcher to hit at the major league level just makes no sense and making the two leagues different is really bad for baseball.

The adoption of the Designated Hitter by Minor League Baseball, NCAA, and NFHS didn't happen until after the American League invented it. But what if MLB got rid of the DH? Minor League Baseball would follow suit, and I would expect that the same thing would happen in the lower leagues.

One reason why pitchers can't hit is not only lack of opportunities in the majors, starters hitting 1 game out of 5; specialist relievers almost never hitting. But there's also the fact that many haven't hit since their entry into professional or college baseball. Take a pitcher who was drafted by an American League team, played in that system, and then was traded to a National League team: he may not have picked up a bat since his senior year in high school.

Uniformity could be achieved either way---DH or no DH---throughout organized baseball; certainly so in the majors and affiliated minor leagues. Unfortunately, the reality with owners and the MLBPA is that killing the DH in the majors is very unlikely. Nate82's original post is much more likely to be true.

My preference is for pitchers to bat. But I also support either full interleague play or none and wouldn't have a fit if MLB went to an Eastern Conference/Western Conference set up. So I don't know if that makes me a traditionalist or not.

 

[Dragonbait]

I'm whole heartedly against the DH, and I'm NOT a traditionalist.

 

I'll put my thoughts into football, Do you want the QB to get hurt... maybe we should stop hitting them. Aren't they more important than 1 pitcher on a 5 man staff?

I understand the econmics are different, but the concept remains the same.

 

If the DH goes throughout baseball... my interest WILL wain.

[jeffy]

I'll put my thoughts into football, Do you want the QB to get hurt... maybe we should stop hitting them. Aren't they more important than 1 pitcher on a 5 man staff?

 

Well, they have kind of done that haven't they? But why not go further, put a a couple flags in the QBs pants, pull the flag out and he is down.

 

Actually didn't they decide they went too far and then back off some on the "protect the QB" rules? (I don't follow football very closely)

[Ennder]

Larry Bowa was just on the MLB network and said he thinks there should be a DH in the NL as well as the minor leagues. He is an old school NL type guy through and through but even he can see how bad pitchers batting is for baseball. Just way too many injuries for way too little gain in strategy. I really do hope it comes to the NL, i think it is probably one of the best things that could happen to the game. If an old NL style guy like Bowa can see the light i can only imagine the rest of baseball will see it in the near future. All it will take is one big name pitcher getting hurt while hitting to make it happen imo. The other sports have realized they need to change to protect the players, baseball has to follow suit since 10+ pitchers get hurt hitting/running every season.

 

On a side note Eric Byrnes also mentioned that they should think about changing the rules for blocking the plate and home plate collisions and I think that is inevitable in the next 20 years as well. You have to do everything you can to protect the players and these changes are not really big deals. They are changes that 10 years after they are made nobody even thinks twice about because they really don't change the game all that much.

[jerichoholicninja]

I would rather watch Yovanni Gallardo jacking homers or Ben Sheets ducking out of the way of pitches a foot outside than some one-dimensional 30-something slugger any day.

 

I understand owners wanting to keep pitchers from the plate but I like each league having different rules. Watching pitchers hit, or at least attempt to hit, is part of the game I like a lot and would miss if it was gone.

[PrinceEatMeat]

I don't see any reason to have the DH come to the NL. Reportedly the amount of interleague games will be the same it is now. The only difference is there will always be an interleague series going on. I don't see why anything would need to change. It's just as much of a disadvantage for AL teams playing in NL parks as it is for NL teams playing in AL parks. NL teams don't have true DH's, and AL teams lose the DH and are forced to hit their pitchers. Even playing field. Absolutely no need to change the rule. It's fair for both sides the way it is.

[pitchleague]

I don't think I could stand watching baseball again without the strategy of double-switches and things like that. That is one of the best parts of having the pitchers hit--watching managers squirm about making a change in mid- to late-ball games.