Some folks love the home run. They can’t get enough of it. They love watching majestic 450-foot fly balls arch into the seats, sent skyward by men with massive muscles. To others, they would prefer to watch that in batting practice, not in games. With seemingly every player in baseball capable of hitting 20 homers any more – be it launch angle, juiced balls, bad pitching or the fact that every pitcher seemingly throws 95 mph leading to a ton of hard-hit balls – do we really need the designated hitter in baseball? For those missing the hit and run, the stolen base, strategic baseball, this era of baseball is quickly devolving into a high-priced game of slow pitch softball. Games last forever. They are slow. It seems like nearly every at-bat ends with a strikeout, a walk or a fly ball. Is that really what you are wanting to see when you lay out your hard-earned cash to attend a professional baseball game?
THE GAME IS BORING TODAY
One of the biggest issues, complaints if you will, that I constantly hear noted is that games take too damn long, that they are boring and that too much time goes by in a game with nothing happening. In the National League, without the DH, there is a bit more strategery involved. Double-switches, pinch hitting, moving runners along, those are traits of winning baseball in the Senior Circuit. In the American League it’s just blast away baseball. We can disagree with whether or not that style of baseball is boring or not, but it’s certainly more one-directional than the NL game.
DO WE REALLY NEED SOFTBALL PLAYERS IN BASEBALL?
I have little interest watching some 235 lbs. man simply swing for the downs four times a game. That’s not my bag baby. I will grant that many teams don’t use the DH that way anymore, changing who even fills the role in a platoon type scenario. Teams also use the DH to give a guy a rest at times while keeping a potentially potent bat in the lineup. At other times, teams can sorta hide a semi-injured guy at DH for a while as well (this critique, admittedly, is a bit weak). Do you realize that only two DH’s had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title last season (Khris Davis and Nelson Cruz)? Teams don’t use one DH, which is a direct indictment of the next point.
THE DH WAS ORIGINALLY THOUGHT OF EXTENDING PLAYERS CAREER
David Ortiz, the man whose picture accompanied this piece, obviously had his career extended by the DH. Others have as well. A look at some of the guys filling the role today finds names like Khris Davis, J.D. Martinez and Daniel Vogelbach seeing a good deal of work there. Are those guys extending their careers? Not really. There might be a desire to have the Albert Pujols’ of the world be able to extend their career, but do we really need 30, or even 15, spots to make that happen?
DO WE WANT BASEBALL PLAYERS OR HITTERS?
Why are we rewarding one dimensional players?
Defense matters, even as Major League teams are telling us otherwise as they are seemingly willing to play anyone at any position (thinking that their metrics will allow them to position players more effectively to lesson, at least a bit, the need for things like range in the field). Do we want to reward players that are only proficient at one aspect of the game? Further, are DH-types taking the roster spot of younger, perhaps even better, all-around talents? I think that answer, at least in some respects, is likely a yes.
THERE ISN’T MUCH DIFFERENCE IN SCORING
In 2016 teams in the AL produced 0.08 more runs a game than NL clubs.
In 2017 teams in the AL produced 0.13 more runs a game than NL clubs.
In 2018 teams in the AL produced 0.05 more runs a game than NL clubs.
The truth is that the DH really doesn’t add much offense to the game, despite what folks think.
It’s not the early 1970’s anymore. We don’t need the DH to jumpstart offense in 2019.
ARE DESIGNATED HITTERS THAT PRODUCTIVE?
Last season the DH as a position posted a slash line of .248/.325/.449 with a .774 OPS.
Last season the outfield position had a slash line of .256/.328/.425 with a .753 OPS.
Last season first base had a slash line of .253/.333/.438 with a .771 OPS.
Hell, the league average last season was .248/.318/.409 with a .727 OPS.
The designated hitter was better than the league average, but it’s by a lot less than you thought it would be I would bet.
INTERLEAGUE PLAY
I’m a traditionalist. I detest inter-league play. I have never paid for tickets for an interleague contest unless it’s playoff time or an All-Star Game, the rightful times for the leagues to match up. Whether you agree with that position or not, and let’s hope you do, there’s a bigger issue at hand here than my old foggy outlook. MLB has set up a system that is unfair to the competitive balance of the league. In going for the almighty dollar, they have forgotten the most elementary of points – the game needs to be fair. Interleague play isn’t.
Why?
American League teams have a masher to fill the DH spot. National League teams have to turn to a backup infielder to fill the DH spot when the games are played in an AL park.
When the interleague games move to National League parks NL teams get to role with their traditional lineup. However, AL ballclubs often end up having to bench their leading run producer.
Does either scenario seem fair to you? Obviously, it’s not.
Worse yet, even if we move beyond the idiocy of having leagues with different rules face each other in the regular season, we have a messed-up scenario once the World Series rolls around. “When you’re playing a championship, that determines the best team in the world, it should be an even playing field. It’s the only sport like that with different sets of rules in different leagues,” Astros’ pitcher Justin Verlander said. Mr. Kate Upton is one hundred percent right (I can’t be the only person who thinks that Kate is more of a middle round pick than a star, can I?). How do we allow this to be the case? Either we need to get rid of the DH in its entirety, or we need it to be used in both leagues.
PITCHERS CAN’T HIT
Who wants to see a pitcher bat with the likely outcome being a strikeout or a weak tapper to an infielder? This is a valid point that cannot be easily refuted (if it actually can be). When I was a kid, the pitcher was also the cleanup hitter. The best players pitched and hit. That’s not how it is now. Many pitchers stop hitting in high school as the DH takes over. Asking someone who hasn’t hit regularly since they were 15 to take hacks at the Major League level, well, we often see the futility of that attempt. This is the one argument for the universal DH that I will accept, but it doesn’t change my overall view.
It’s time for baseball to rid itself of the DH.
There’s no need to artificially inject offense into the game in 2019. That era has passed.
There’s no need to glorify one dimensional players.
There’s no need for rock’em sock’em baseball without any strategy.
I’m out on the designated hitter, and so should you be.
