When will the National League wake up on DHing?

[Mantle Drunk]

well how about designated Free-Throw shooters in basketball? Just send your "elite" FT-shooter to the line on ALL ATTEMPTS. I mean, people pay to see the ball go through the hoop.

Which is more exciting watching people shoot FT's or somone hitting a HR? No one goes to a game to see FT's people go to baseball games to see pitchers and batters battle it out. Not to see a pitcher kill rallys or coach make managerial moves that really aren't that difficult to make.

 

[Bilz]

This is a chicken/egg argument. If the DH was never created, most pitchers would be able to hit. The idea of pitchers as "specialists" is silly. They should be the most important players on the team. Not only stopping the other team from scoring, but producing runs themselves.

If that's the case, most position players should be able to come in and be effective pitchers when needed.

The DH isn't why pitchers can't hit. It's the fact that very few of them would even be in the major leagues if they didn't have the ability to throw 95mph. Just like very few 1st basemen would last in the league as a shortstop and very few catchers would last in the league on the mound.

At very low levels, you have the guys that can dominate the competition in all areas. The quarterback that could be a star receiver or DB if he wanted to be. The guy that can score the most points on his basketball team and also be the best rebounder and passer. The guy that is the star pitcher and also leads the team in home runs. That's just a big fish in a small pond. Once he's in a bigger pond, it's rare that he can dominate in every aspect of the game. These pitchers out there batting .150 were probably dominating at the plate in high school and maybe even college.

 

[jfkennedy]

I remember when I was younger Tony La Russa would bat our pitcher in the 8th spot because of McGwire (and then Pujols) hitting 3rd.

To me there's nothing wrong with having the pitcher hit. Maybe managers should give their pitchers more BP. I was just at a game where Adam Wainwright had two hits, one a double. Then again, we also had Rick Ankiel who turned out to be such a decent hitter that he transitioned easily into playing OF.

And most AL managers use the 9th spot like it's the pitcher's spot and still put their worst hitting starter in that spot, so I don't see what the big fuss is.

 

[nyknick]

The whole Taiwanese stock market depended on his performances and then he ran bases in interleague play

Then he moved on to NL