Unilateral NL DH by 2021?

[weams]

 

[UpstateNYfan]

Well, O's always seem to have deep depth in DH types, maybe open up the market for them.

[weams]

 

[Moose Milligan]

Well, that's good.  Two things:

1.  No one likes watching pitchers hit.

2.  Not many more annoying fans in sports than National League fans who think the double switch is the absolute pinnacle of baseball strategy. 

[interloper]

Do it you cowards!

[DrungoHazewood]

The Lost Cause mythos will have nothing on the NL purists who will go to their graves lamenting the loss of the God-given right for pitchers to OPS .288.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

46 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Well, that's good.  Two things:

1.  No one likes watching pitchers hit.

2.  Not many more annoying fans in sports than National League fans who think the double switch is the absolute pinnacle of baseball strategy. 

Cardinals fans will be inconsolable. 

[HowAboutThat]

 No, please no. Just no. No. One of the best things about baseball is the difference between the two leagues caused by the American having a designated hitter, and the national not. We constantly talk about the need for variety in life, Why in the world who do we want to eliminate it needlessly?

[Moose Milligan]

10 minutes ago, Philip said:

 No, please no. Just no. No. One of the best things about baseball is the difference between the two leagues caused by the American having a designated hitter, and the national not. We constantly talk about the need for variety in life, Why in the world who do we want to eliminate it needlessly?

It'd make life easier.

You don't see the NFC not having field goal kickers and being awarded 7 points for a touchdown while the AFC still has to kick the PAT, right?  Sports should have the same rules across all leagues/divisions.  Being quirky when it comes to rules isn't really something to be proud of.

[OsEatAlEast]

I think I'm in the ultra minority in wanting the AL to go back to pitchers hitting. Not so much for the pitchers having to know what getting hit with a pitch is like. But mainly if a team wants to carry an all bat an no defense guy. I think they should have to pay the price for it.

 

[Oriole1940]

I personally would rather the pitchers bat, but rather than have different rules for the game of baseball as they do now, I would even go along with both leagues having the DH.  I cannot think of another Sport that has different rules for different players.  

[Moose Milligan]

17 minutes ago, OsEatAlEast said:

I think I'm in the ultra minority in wanting the AL to go back to pitchers hitting. 

 

Yup, you are.  In case you wanted to erase any doubt.  

[DrungoHazewood]

I will have one semi-serious problem with the NL using the DH.  Pitchers batting is a great datapoint to help up determine the overall quality of the league.  Pitchers are trained, selected, recruited, trained in a way that completely ignores their ability to hit.  So as the league gets better (or in the case of expansions and wars briefly gets worse) pitcher hitting tends to track that.  And we can use that as a measuring stick for just how good MLB is, and how good it has been over time.

Universal DH eliminates that measuring stick.  But that's probably okay, since we're getting pretty near to a theoretical minimum, and it's not that useful to know if pitchers are 30% of a real hitter, or 32%.

[interloper]

Every team should play by the same set of rules! That's sports! 

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. 

[sevastras]

Madison Bumgardner will retire, he loves hitting