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Saturday, 26 October 2013

You are not welcome: Why a national obsession with offence is screaming for an MLB wide introduction of the designated hitter rule

Posted on 11:01 by RAJA BABU


While opinions on it's being instated still vary, the Designated Hitter Rule has without a doubt made baseball a more offensive game.  

In the 2013 MLB regular season, AL playoff teams combined to win 470 games. That is just 1 more than the cumulative wins total achieved by the NL teams in the same positions. These blatant numbers show with firm certainty that there is no obvious mismatch in the talent of these two leagues yet when you look at the runs scored column, the equity all but vanishes. AL playoff teams scored 3,861 times in 2013 and worked out to produce a team by team average of 772.2 runs per season and 4.76 runs per game. By comparison the 3,452 runs compiled by NL teams drops the NL playoff team average to 690.4 runs per year and 4.26 runs per game. 

As you attempt to take in those numbers, it also deserves mentioning that although top batting average hitter: Miguel Cabrera hailed from the AL, the NL boasted 8 hitters in the top ten of the batting average list. When you move over to the home run total, the NL domination of the leader board remains ever present with 4 guys on the list and a good 10 more if you extend the list to the top 20 long ball hitters. The National League is not one devoid of power and as you look at its lineups, it succeeds at everything the American League does and is in some was better. The one exception to that statement was profiled earlier with the runs scored analysis and is shown once again in the individual RBI statistics. The NL had just 2 hitters in the top ten list of RBI hitters.   

To provide a logical reason for this AL dominance the one difference between the skeletal build of an AL team in comparison to an NL team can be pointed to.

For most pitchers, their coaches do not even trust them to hit as even guys who snagged 25 to 50 game appearances rarely got to notch more than 2 or 3 at bats a game. What’s worse is the fact that even when these pitchers came to bat, their lack of knowledge and poise when trying to say, pull the ball, translated into a seemingly endless barrage of ground ball outs and failures in clutch situations. Take Dodgers pitcher Zach Grenkie for example. He started 29 games in 2013 and notched 58 at bats. He clocked 19 hits and even 3 doubles but only drove in 4 runs. His failure to produce with men on base is shown by the weak stature of that last number. For another example, I give you Rockies righty: Tyler Chatwood who led all MLB pitchers with 7 RBI's in 40 at bats. He grabbed 12 hits and worked out an acceptable average of .300. The only problem there is the fact that when you compare him to other fielders and DH's that hit .300, his average of .175 RBI's per at bat is baby like. 

Pitchers come to bat and most of the time they walk back to the dugout, victims of strike outs or easy force outs at 1st. DH’s however are much different. While many do not hit with the power that guys like David Ortiz do, they are singles machines and routinely march in averages in the high 2 hundreds. Pitchers get out, and DH's often do not.  

But there are still the doubters so teams are forced to compromise meaning that the enforcing of the DH rule is determined by which ball park a game is being played in. When the AL gets games at home, they get a DH, when the NL gets games at home they get the privilege of having their each pitcher strike out 4 times a game.  

All joking aside, Red Sox fans have seen first-hand what happens when they lose the DH position. It is no secret that they would not be half as good without David Ortiz so therefore even when he cannot play his natural role of designated hitter they cannot afford to let him sit. So he is moved to first base and for 6 or 7 games a year you see big old David Ortiz in the field. He is never lost there as let’s face it, first base is not the hardest position in baseball. Ortiz has not committed an error in 4 years (21 starts), but nevertheless, those 6 or 7 games do damage to the mental routine of a guy who prior to those scattered starts at first had often spent 50+ games watching while his team was defending. It wrecks his routine and at several points in his career has sent him spiraling into hopeless slumps.  

"Even Papi struggles." Ortiz said back in August when he went 0 for 22 following a few starts at first base. But if he was simply allowed to be designated hitter full time, he might not have to struggle. 

It has happened throughout all professional sports. That is leagues trying to spawn more and more offence. The MLB took the first step down that path with the introduction of the DH rule to the AL but almost half a century later it is time to seal the deal, abandoning the prospect of a power hitting pitcher and bowing down to the rousing sounds of balls careening off the bats of designated hitters across the MLB.  



But in the meantime, David Ortiz will return to first base for 3 out of 4 games in this 2013 World Series and risk the possibility of a slump simply because his is just too good not to. 
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