The Elephant In The Room: What Should MLB Do About The DH?

But it’s just so hard to ditch the tradition. I know that’s a lame thing to say, but there’s a … feel to it.

Either way though, it has to be the same on both sides. MLB doesn’t want a situation like you mention above to ever happen, no matter how small of a chance. I’d rather have both leagues not have the DH because like you, I like the strategy and such NL managers have to use. However, I know the time of different rules for different leagues need to end.

Remove it.

I do not want to watch people who are awful at hitting, hit. That being said, if the NL embraces the DH, there are going to be some awful designated hitters, particularly in the NL for a few years. It will also extend the earning years of a significant amount of players, for example, Manny Ramirez might actually be a hot commodity if the NL was going to have DH’s this year.

Watching pitchers try to hit and round the bases is an abomination.

then pitchers should actually practice hitting. It’s ridiculous that pitchers go through the minors only rarely having a chance to hit, then expect them to have more PA in one season then they have had their entire professional careers. It’s pathetic to watch a major league player bat and realistically wonder if a high school player, or at least a minor league player who probably isn’t actually good enough to hit at the major league level, or even high minors, could do a better job than them. That’s what happens with pitchers. Aside from a few rare pitcher, most look absolutely lost at the plate. To send what is essentially an automatic out up there two or three times a game when there are better alternatives seems somewhat ridiculous.

I’m not arguing whether the DH should be in both leagues, only the AL, or neither, just that if pitchers are going to bat that they should be required to actually take their job serious and practice. If it’s decided that’s too much of a risk to a pitcher’s health or effects what they’re paid for, pitching, in a negative way, then introduce the DH to the NL. Maybe then we won’t have to watch players who are absolutely lost at the plate, many of which don’t even put much effort into hitting. If a pitcher isn’t going to make an effort to be a decent hitter, or try to really hit at all, then let more deserving players take that role.

the middle game should be played according to the visiting league’s rules. Let fans see up-close how the other half lives, and make the discrepancy less of a hardship. Maybe that could help ease a transition to uniform rules.

I’ve long thought that if you’re a “baseball player,” you should have to play the game of baseball in each and every sense of the phrase. That means that pitchers hit, or they have to be pinch hit for. They’re players, too, and the rules of the game still dictate that managers can even do such things as swap their RF with their P mid-inning. It’s part of the game.

The fact that DH production has dipped to the point where it’s not even close to being the top “position” by OPS league-wide further dictates that it’s losing its relevance. Beyond David Ortiz (who is 36), is there really any other available player who teams would fight over to add to their lineup…or rather, are teams simply HAVING to add a player just because there’s a position that has to bat 4 times a game that they need to fill?

The one qualm I have with your proposal, however, is the quick 1 year change. Due to draft strategies, existing contracts, and the nature of team’s org charts, I feel like this is something that would have to be phased out rather than instituted immediately. Say, perhaps, the DH will be no more beginning in 2015…this would keep the Royals from revolting (given the money and contract length they just committed to Billy Butler), and would at least give a decent amount of time for teams to figure out what to do with already drafted players that don’t really have a defined position.

But this logic stinks. Just because the leagues are equal in size doesn’t mean they should have identical rules. During a given game, both teams use the same ruleset, and that’s enough.

If you’re desperate enough, drop the DH entirely, but there’s no reason to add it to the NL.

How is it not fair? If teams have the same number of inter-league games, it does not matter make it more or less fair for the Red Sox to have to play real baseball at the end of the season, rather than sometime if May.

What a lot of baseball fans (and self-described “experts”) seem to forget is that a Win in April counts as much as a Win in September. There are no “meaningless games” in a baseball season, all 162 count.

That being said, if “fairness” is the justification for eliminating the DH, then I am all for it.

Talking about the “strategy” surrounding pitchers in the National League, he said, “Oh, yeah. Rocket science.”

1. Adopt the DH in the NL
2. Expand rosters to 27 players
3. Anytime a pitcher is replaced, you must also replace the DH. The rules are very basic. Example: Beckett is the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, and Ortiz is the starting DH. When Beckett is pulled from the game, Ortiz’s spot in the lineup must also be replaced. In other words, a DH represents one pitcher per game. If a manager uses three pitchers in one half inning, he doesn’t need to replace the DH three times, just whenever to spot comes up.

This preserves the strategies that NL fans enjoy, and keeps pitchers from embarassing themselves at the plate, which AL fans enjoy.

I’m a braves fan, so obviously biased towards not having a DH. I mean, how great is it to force a manager to actually make some choices in a baseball game? Managers having to decide whether to take out their pitchers in favor of a pinch hitter is pretty good drama.

At the same time, there’s nothing more frustrating than watching a big inning (i.e. in the 2nd or 3rd innings early in the game) stifled because the pitcher comes up to bat and grounds into a double play. Manager obviously can’t pull the starting pitcher out that early and any hitter on the roster would likely do more than the pitcher.

AL – keep the DH and have the pitcher hit too.
NL – keep pitcher’s spot in batting order and add DH.

In effect, the DH becomes an EH (extra hitter). I consider myself a purist, but I think I could live with this. Better than forcing the DH rule, as currently implemented, on the NL.

At 3:40 pm CST (Monday), 83% of voters in the poll wanted to have the same rule in both leagues (either DH in both, or no DH at all).

That was kind of my point… got to standardize the rules, since realignment’s purpose (or one of the main purposes) is to standardize schedules, divisions, etc.

While I wish they would abolish the DH, the union will never allow the removal of the DH rule because it’s a tool for prolonging players’ careers.