Who’s designated to hit?

Ask most baseball fans if they want to improve the game, and you’ll no doubt come across 3 polarizing issues: Postseason, instant replay, and the designated hitter (DH) rule. The first two are slowly being implemented. It is the latter that is a polarizing issue even today. And unfortunately, it will take the Commissioner of Baseball to put it to rest.

#umpfail (Yeah, I know, it doesn’t involve umpires, but it involves rules… hence the headline listed.) The rule now commonly known as the Designated hitter (DH) is an optional rule where a player who is not playing defense is allowed to bat in place of what would normally be the pitcher during the game. As this is optional, it is possible to forfeit the use of a DH at the start or at any time during the game, whether it’d be by accident or on purpose. This rule was originally conceived in the 1920s, and was almost used by the National League (ironically enough). However, the first real use was actually used by the American league in 1973 on a trial basis, to try to boost attendance. Well, the added effect from adding a DH increased home runs, and attracted fans. The NL balked at the idea promoting the tradition of baseball, and being the older league has drawn fans to their league. The problem becomes when teams from the 2 different leagues meet, such as in the World Series, or lately with interleague play. The consensus is that the home team’s league rules determine the DH implementation. So who wins?

How the fans feel about the DH can be reflected by one of my podcasts, ESPN Baseball Today. Mark Simon (@msimonespn) is a Mets fan, and dislikes the DH. Keith Law (@keithlaw) worked as a scout for Toronto at one time and will not listen to you if you want to abolish the DH. Eric Karabell (@karabellespn) is a Phillies fan, but likes the mix of the interleague and DH rules applying to ballparks. But in general, if this was politics, the NL fans would be registered Republicans, AL fans be registered Democrats, and the independents may claim one team, but are libertarian when it comes to the DH rule applies to home ballparks.

Here are the myths about the DH, and why it should be abolished:

1. The DH prolongs pitchers careers. Not exactly true. Sure, the pitcher doesn’t have to run as much or take BP. But, a pitcher’s workload is directly tied to the number of pitches and innings a pitcher throws. The general guideline of 100p is there to prevent fatigue. But if a pitcher throws 120p a lot (like in no-hitter situations), and throws a lot of pickoff tosses to 1st, that will wear on the pitcher more than 90p and striking out twice.
2. The DH extends the life of position players, who might not last long normally. This is also wrong. Examples include Todd Helton, and Jason Giambi, who might both be a DH in the AL, but still feel like they have something left to play for in Colorado. Helton, especially, showed he had a great year in 2011, after a less than stellar 2010.
3. Pitchers go through an intense enough work that asking them to take BP is more than enough. Sorry Law. If Jamie Moyer thinks he can pitch at 49, then why not?* Realistically, let me split this into starting pitchers and relief pitchers:
   • Starting pitchers pitch once every 5 days nowadays (as opposed to the 1 every 4, or even everyday back in the early 1900s). So in other words, they work less than they did pre-DH rules.
   • Relief pitchers may pitch every day, or once every 3-4 days. This depends on the game. If we make warmup bullpen tosses negligent (to direcly compare to starting pitchers making the same tosses pre-game), an average relief throws 20p per game**. In a 3 or 4 day stretch, they may toss as many as a starter does, and still get a day completely free.
4. The game is more fun with the designated hitter. Try again. Some of the best games are the close games, or even seeing a no-hitter or perfect game (due to the relatively rarity of these games.)*** Even the last game of 2011 showed it was interesting not only because 3 of the 4 games decided the postseason, but that they were all close run games. No one talked about the DH (despite 2 of the games involved AL teams.)
5. No one likes to see pitchers strike out. That’s a partial truth. No one likes to see any strikeout unless a) it’s the opposing team, or b) it defines the no-hitter or perfect game. Besides that, the DH eliminates another strategy: the double switch, where pitchers avoid batting by taking another position (where they’re unlikely to see action for about 2 innings), and another position player takes the pitcher’s spot.

With that said, I think more should be done to eliminate the DH before the commissioner turns the other way. It’s already happening to the All-Star game, and with the Astros moving to the AL next year, it’ll be a matter of time before one side cries louder and gets their way.

Of interest, I had a chat with Brian (@gorox1983) and Nathan (@AvidRockiesFan) where this tweet came up:

@gorox1983 @druidlove Regarding the DH Rule, I think they should do the opposite in the opposite League’s Parks

— Nathan Reedy (@AvidRockiesFan) January 26, 2012

To this, I say, no, No, NO! It’ll confuse players and fans more than anything in interleague games. It’s already bad enough that minor league teams like the Sky Sox have to use the DH when playing AL farm teams at home.

This post thanks the following tweeps: Brian @gorox1983, Nathan @AvidRockiesFan and ESPN podcast hosts Eric Karabell @karabellespn, Mark Simon @msimonespn, Keith Law @keithlaw and the poor bias cat that should have been included in this tweet.

Feel free to discuss your view on the DH… I’m all ears.

On page 2 I’m looking for a list of baseball (or sports podcasts), so I can include in a later blog post. Feel free to leave a comment here, or tweet them to @druidlove. Include name, url (if not found in iTunes), sport, and if it’s on-season or year-round podcast.

Sliding home I’ll give a shoutout to William (@yankee32879) who tweeted this in regards to realignment in 2013:

@druidlove : it should have been the brewers. other than that the astros will get beat a lot.

— William Ruben Helms (@yankee32879) January 26, 2012

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