Why the DH Rule sucks (illustrated)
The DH Rule and why it sucks (illustrated because it's a Thing now)
Rule 6.10 in the Baseball Rule book is known as the Designated Hitter Rule. In brief, it says that a hitter can be designated to hit for the pitcher during a game, so the pitcher does not have to hit.
Traditionally in baseball, all nine players have to play both defense and offense. It's one of the defining things about the game and was in effect from the beginning of the modern game to 1973.
Here's the thing, not all players are good at both defense and offense. The most glaring example of this is the pitcher. Unlike the other defensive positions pitching is a pretty specialized skill and it's one that has to be practiced constantly (but not too constantly). Therefore, pitchers don't practice hitting all that often and, in fact, aren't encouraged to do so because the motions are different enough that there's concern a pitcher could strain something.
[In 2012 when the US Open Golf Tournament was held in San Francisco, one of the pros game to AT&T before a game and he and some of the players took swings from home plate. Matt Cain, who, like many baseball players, loves him some golf, wanted to participate. He was pitching that day and he had to get permission from both the manager and the general manager before he could even swing a golf club because omg he could hurt himself. He and the pro both landed ball into the water outside the park and a good time was had by all. Later that day, Cain went on to pitch the 22nd perfect game in major league history.
Matt Cain launching a golf ball into McCovey Cove. They should let him do this more often.]
Anyway, since pitchers don't practice hitting, they're usually not very good at it. In fact, most of them are quite bad. This leads to a fair amount of strategy, particularly in the later innings of the game when you get into relief pitchers and pinch hitters coming in to replace pitchers who are leaving the game.
The DH rule is designed to take the bat out of the pitchers' hands. Instead of the pitcher hitting, the Designated Hitter bats for him. The DH doesn't take the field to play any defense, he just bats and then sits on the bench.
The idea had been bandied about at various times in the history of the game but then, in the early 70s) several factors combined to make it a Thing. For a lot of reasons (football, TV, white flight and other stuff), baseball's popularity started waning in the 1960s. In 1968 the pitching was so dominant that the year became known as The Year of the Pitcher. This was seen to be boring, because there is a persistent media narrative that people want to see not just hitting, but power hitting.
So the idea that you could put some big galoot into the lineup to hit the long ball was very compelling. Charles O. Finley, the owner of the Oakland A's and also one of baseball's biggest showmen started pushing for the DH rule and in 1973 it was voted on by both leagues. The American League (which includes the A's) voted yes and the National League voted no. There's a long story about a fishing trip and the NL vote in there, but I'm 500 words in and haven't even started ranting yet, so I'll spare you.
So there's the background. The DH exists partially because fans supposedly want to see power hitting.
Here's why I think it's an example of all that is Bad and Evil in Baseball.
1. It goes against the traditional rules of the game. Now I am not a huge traditionalist when it comes to traditions that suck, like, you know, not letting Black people play the game. Or the rule that says that it's perfect okay to crash into a catcher blocking the plate, which leads to things like frequent concussions, nerve damage due to neck trauma and guys fracturing their fibulas and suffering torn ligaments. I'm even okay with the concept of reviewing bad umpiring calls and I'm starting to come around to the idea that maybe we should let the players show a little swag when they do something incredible.
But one of the cool things about baseball is that every defensive player has to hit and every offensive players has to defend a position. You have to be able to throw the ball, catch the ball and hit the ball. Now maybe you're a lot better at one of those than the others, but you still have to at least try to do the others.
2. Watching pitchers bat is...kind of humorous, actually. Almost all of them are bad at it and most of them are resigned to being bad at it. Most of them can at least attempt to bunt if there's a runner on base, but if there isn't, they usually go up there and start hacking away. Relivers are even worse that starters because they have fewer at bats and some of them don't even bother with batting practice.
Giants reliever Santiago Casilla at bat. Trust me. This is hilarious.
Sometimes, however, magic happens. Madison Bumgarner, our hard throwing lefty starter, has managed to hit two home runs in his first three seasons (and one month) in the big leagues. Even more magical was what happened in the 2012 post-season where in a four game stretch each Giants' starter batted a run in.
In Game one of the 2012 World Series, Barry Zito gets an RBI single off Justin Verlander, widely touted as being one of the best pitchers in the game of baseball today.
3. As I said above, there are all kinds of complicated strategies a manager can use when pitchers bat. For example, say his pitcher is having a very good game--he's pitching well and although it's late in the game, his pitch count is low. Only thing is, the team isn't scoring any runs for him. [This is, unfortunately, a problem the Giants have. At one point the Giants were so bad at getting Matt Cain run support that any pitcher not getting run support was said to be getting "Cained."]. Now all of a sudden, you have a runner in scoring position with two outs and the pitcher is due to bat. Chances are good that the pitcher can't bat the run in, so do you pull him for a pinch hitter? Even though he's pitching really well, what if that's your only chance for a run? And that's a relatively easy situation--if it's late in the game, unless the pitcher is pitching a no hitter or a perfect game, nine times out of ten you pull him for the pinch hitter.
There are much more complicated strategies than that one and it's one more thing that makes baseball a complex game.
4. If, for whatever reason, a pitcher feels he needs to deliberately hit a guy (as opposed to mistakes, which happen), he has to stop and think about it. In an AL game, the pitcher never bats, so any retaliation involves another player getting hit. In an NL game, there's a chance you can go up there and get hit yourself. This is really a minor consideration, but still....
5. The DH rule was shoved down the throat of baseball by Charles O. Finley. [Fun fact, at one point both Mrs Fields (the cookie lady) and MC Hammer (before he was MC Hammer) both worked for Finley and the A's.] Finley was the kind of guy who would do anything to get people to come to the yard. In 1970, he challenged his players to grow mustaches as a gimmick and put up $300 for the winner. The winner was pitcher Rollie Fingers, whose handlebar mustache became a trademark of his.
Rollie Fingers. Who wants a rule that was the brainchild of the guy responsible for this?
Okay, on second thought, that's a pretty awesome mustache and Rollie Fingers was an amazing pitcher, so really #5 was up there just so I could include a picture of him.
The one good thing about the DH? When AL and NL teams face each other, they use the rule of the home team. So when the Detroit Tigers came into San Francisco for the World Series, we got to see Justin Verlander and Doug Fister take at bats. If watching NL pitchers bat is funny, watching AL pitchers bat is awesome. They have no clue whatsoever.
The downside of that aspect is that NL teams don't have a guy who is used to sitting on the bench except to bat and so the NL DH usually isn't the best hitter on the team.
For me, it's mostly about wanting to see all nine players field and bat. Not for the hilarity of the pitchers' at bats, but just because that's a thing I like about the game. Even the specialists have to at least try to do more than their one thing.
Also, I don't like being told that as a fan, I shouldn't like seeing good pitching, that I should only care about power hitting. Well the fact of the matter is, I love me a good pitching duel that ends in a 2-1 win. Do I want to see my boys knock the occasional ball out of the park? Sure, it's fun. But it's not the only thing.
Finally...I managed to do this whole thing without a gratuitous Brandon Belt picture. Well technically you an catch a couple of glimpses of him in that gif of Zito getting the RBI because Belt was the runner he knocked in. And I just now noticed that he's the runner on 2nd in the Casilla at bat, so you can see his back there as he takes his lead. But still...
Belt started out as a pitcher and if his arm hadn't given him trouble in college, he'd have continued to pitch. Ignoring the fact that we wouldn't have drafted him, we'd have been able to see him pitch as well as hit.
Brandon Belt pitching in college.
If you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back because jfc, 1700 words on the DH?! All
helens78's fault.
crossposted from http://telesilla.dreamwidth.org/350584.html |
comments | you can comment at my DW using OpenID
Rule 6.10 in the Baseball Rule book is known as the Designated Hitter Rule. In brief, it says that a hitter can be designated to hit for the pitcher during a game, so the pitcher does not have to hit.
Traditionally in baseball, all nine players have to play both defense and offense. It's one of the defining things about the game and was in effect from the beginning of the modern game to 1973.
Here's the thing, not all players are good at both defense and offense. The most glaring example of this is the pitcher. Unlike the other defensive positions pitching is a pretty specialized skill and it's one that has to be practiced constantly (but not too constantly). Therefore, pitchers don't practice hitting all that often and, in fact, aren't encouraged to do so because the motions are different enough that there's concern a pitcher could strain something.
[In 2012 when the US Open Golf Tournament was held in San Francisco, one of the pros game to AT&T before a game and he and some of the players took swings from home plate. Matt Cain, who, like many baseball players, loves him some golf, wanted to participate. He was pitching that day and he had to get permission from both the manager and the general manager before he could even swing a golf club because omg he could hurt himself. He and the pro both landed ball into the water outside the park and a good time was had by all. Later that day, Cain went on to pitch the 22nd perfect game in major league history.
Matt Cain launching a golf ball into McCovey Cove. They should let him do this more often.]
Anyway, since pitchers don't practice hitting, they're usually not very good at it. In fact, most of them are quite bad. This leads to a fair amount of strategy, particularly in the later innings of the game when you get into relief pitchers and pinch hitters coming in to replace pitchers who are leaving the game.
The DH rule is designed to take the bat out of the pitchers' hands. Instead of the pitcher hitting, the Designated Hitter bats for him. The DH doesn't take the field to play any defense, he just bats and then sits on the bench.
The idea had been bandied about at various times in the history of the game but then, in the early 70s) several factors combined to make it a Thing. For a lot of reasons (football, TV, white flight and other stuff), baseball's popularity started waning in the 1960s. In 1968 the pitching was so dominant that the year became known as The Year of the Pitcher. This was seen to be boring, because there is a persistent media narrative that people want to see not just hitting, but power hitting.
So the idea that you could put some big galoot into the lineup to hit the long ball was very compelling. Charles O. Finley, the owner of the Oakland A's and also one of baseball's biggest showmen started pushing for the DH rule and in 1973 it was voted on by both leagues. The American League (which includes the A's) voted yes and the National League voted no. There's a long story about a fishing trip and the NL vote in there, but I'm 500 words in and haven't even started ranting yet, so I'll spare you.
So there's the background. The DH exists partially because fans supposedly want to see power hitting.
Here's why I think it's an example of all that is Bad and Evil in Baseball.
1. It goes against the traditional rules of the game. Now I am not a huge traditionalist when it comes to traditions that suck, like, you know, not letting Black people play the game. Or the rule that says that it's perfect okay to crash into a catcher blocking the plate, which leads to things like frequent concussions, nerve damage due to neck trauma and guys fracturing their fibulas and suffering torn ligaments. I'm even okay with the concept of reviewing bad umpiring calls and I'm starting to come around to the idea that maybe we should let the players show a little swag when they do something incredible.
But one of the cool things about baseball is that every defensive player has to hit and every offensive players has to defend a position. You have to be able to throw the ball, catch the ball and hit the ball. Now maybe you're a lot better at one of those than the others, but you still have to at least try to do the others.
2. Watching pitchers bat is...kind of humorous, actually. Almost all of them are bad at it and most of them are resigned to being bad at it. Most of them can at least attempt to bunt if there's a runner on base, but if there isn't, they usually go up there and start hacking away. Relivers are even worse that starters because they have fewer at bats and some of them don't even bother with batting practice.
Giants reliever Santiago Casilla at bat. Trust me. This is hilarious.
Sometimes, however, magic happens. Madison Bumgarner, our hard throwing lefty starter, has managed to hit two home runs in his first three seasons (and one month) in the big leagues. Even more magical was what happened in the 2012 post-season where in a four game stretch each Giants' starter batted a run in.
In Game one of the 2012 World Series, Barry Zito gets an RBI single off Justin Verlander, widely touted as being one of the best pitchers in the game of baseball today.
3. As I said above, there are all kinds of complicated strategies a manager can use when pitchers bat. For example, say his pitcher is having a very good game--he's pitching well and although it's late in the game, his pitch count is low. Only thing is, the team isn't scoring any runs for him. [This is, unfortunately, a problem the Giants have. At one point the Giants were so bad at getting Matt Cain run support that any pitcher not getting run support was said to be getting "Cained."]. Now all of a sudden, you have a runner in scoring position with two outs and the pitcher is due to bat. Chances are good that the pitcher can't bat the run in, so do you pull him for a pinch hitter? Even though he's pitching really well, what if that's your only chance for a run? And that's a relatively easy situation--if it's late in the game, unless the pitcher is pitching a no hitter or a perfect game, nine times out of ten you pull him for the pinch hitter.
There are much more complicated strategies than that one and it's one more thing that makes baseball a complex game.
4. If, for whatever reason, a pitcher feels he needs to deliberately hit a guy (as opposed to mistakes, which happen), he has to stop and think about it. In an AL game, the pitcher never bats, so any retaliation involves another player getting hit. In an NL game, there's a chance you can go up there and get hit yourself. This is really a minor consideration, but still....
5. The DH rule was shoved down the throat of baseball by Charles O. Finley. [Fun fact, at one point both Mrs Fields (the cookie lady) and MC Hammer (before he was MC Hammer) both worked for Finley and the A's.] Finley was the kind of guy who would do anything to get people to come to the yard. In 1970, he challenged his players to grow mustaches as a gimmick and put up $300 for the winner. The winner was pitcher Rollie Fingers, whose handlebar mustache became a trademark of his.
Rollie Fingers. Who wants a rule that was the brainchild of the guy responsible for this?
Okay, on second thought, that's a pretty awesome mustache and Rollie Fingers was an amazing pitcher, so really #5 was up there just so I could include a picture of him.
The one good thing about the DH? When AL and NL teams face each other, they use the rule of the home team. So when the Detroit Tigers came into San Francisco for the World Series, we got to see Justin Verlander and Doug Fister take at bats. If watching NL pitchers bat is funny, watching AL pitchers bat is awesome. They have no clue whatsoever.
The downside of that aspect is that NL teams don't have a guy who is used to sitting on the bench except to bat and so the NL DH usually isn't the best hitter on the team.
For me, it's mostly about wanting to see all nine players field and bat. Not for the hilarity of the pitchers' at bats, but just because that's a thing I like about the game. Even the specialists have to at least try to do more than their one thing.
Also, I don't like being told that as a fan, I shouldn't like seeing good pitching, that I should only care about power hitting. Well the fact of the matter is, I love me a good pitching duel that ends in a 2-1 win. Do I want to see my boys knock the occasional ball out of the park? Sure, it's fun. But it's not the only thing.
Finally...I managed to do this whole thing without a gratuitous Brandon Belt picture. Well technically you an catch a couple of glimpses of him in that gif of Zito getting the RBI because Belt was the runner he knocked in. And I just now noticed that he's the runner on 2nd in the Casilla at bat, so you can see his back there as he takes his lead. But still...
Belt started out as a pitcher and if his arm hadn't given him trouble in college, he'd have continued to pitch. Ignoring the fact that we wouldn't have drafted him, we'd have been able to see him pitch as well as hit.
Brandon Belt pitching in college.
If you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back because jfc, 1700 words on the DH?! All
helens78's fault.
crossposted from http://telesilla.dreamwidth.org/350584.html |
comments | you can comment at my DW using OpenID