It's speculated that the reason for this rule is to try and stop teams from using "openers", or pitchers who are only going to go one or two innings, before bringing in the next pitcher. I can say I'm not a fan of the opener, but if a team wants to do it, and find it works for them, like the Rays who just made the World Series, why should they be stopped? I don't understand why MLB wants to always try and elminate creativity or changes to the game. The answer to shifts is to hit it the other way, and the answer to bullpen games is to blow them open. When it no longer works it will go away. Make it not work, don't legislate it away.
Pitchers don't hit because they aren't trained to hit. They rarely hit in college and they rarely hit in the minor leagues, and then we expect them to hit against the best pitching in the world once they get to the major leagues, or at least the National League does. In 2017 NL pitchers hit .125 and in 2018 it was .116. The American League was only a little worse, which is to be expected since they bat even less, hitting .109 in 2018. Just for reference, what is often referred to as the Mendoza line, the batting average at which even a stellar defender isn't worth fielding, is .180. How exciting is that to see someone who is getting out just less than 9 out of every 10 times they come to bat?
Now defenders of pitchers hitting will argue many things. One is that it is "traditional." So was batters being able to tell pitchers where they wanted the ball to be thrown, and also throwing the ball at runners to get them out. But that went away. A second is how great double-switches are. Really? If you want to talk about a suicide-squeez I'm right there, but double-switches? That's ridiculous.
And that's really a huge part of the problem for me, and this proposal, is that what pitchers batting does is to weaken the team on the field, especially in the later innings. At the time when you want your best players on the field, you are removing them for bench players, which lessens the game. And yes I know that occassionally you have starters on the bench to come in, but that's less likely in the playoffs when it's even more important to have your best players out there. And so this proposal wants to take one of the worst aspects of the DH and make it for everyone.
One final argument that people make for the DH is the "strategy" that comes into play using the DH. But, Joe Torre and Tony Larussa, both Hall of Fame managers who managed in both the NL and AL, both said that managing with the DH is harder because in the NL decisions of when to replace the pitcher are made for you. That is, there is greater strategy to be found in the AL.
Whoever came up with this decision needs to be demoted and I truly hope no one takes this seriously let alone having it implemented because it takes a bad situation and makes it worse.
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