I'm honestly OK with everyone having the DH or no one having the DH, but as you guys have said, they have to pick one or the other and go with it at this point. The league office has consolidated everything to the point where the American League and National League are essentially two separate conferences in the same league instead of two different leagues. In fact, the time to decide one way or another was when regular season interleague play was implemented. I can understand two separate sets of rules when you're still using the pretext that the AL and NL are two separate leagues that only meet in the World Series. That's obviously not the case anymore, and the MLB has much more central power than it did decades ago. By now, it's past time to play by the same rules.
Imagine an NBA where there was a three-point line for games hosted by former ABA teams but no three-point line when traditional NBA teams were at home. Imagine an NFL where two-point conversions were only allowed when AFC teams were at home (the AFL originally had it).
Except the pitcher doesn't really go any longer in the AL than they do in the NL. AL teams on average get about 15 innings more out of their starters than an NL team does (or about 1% more innings).
This is certainly true and mostly because it is pretty rare for the NL pitcher to come up in a situation where PH for him actually changes anything. It happens like one time per week and the rest of the time the 'strategy' just doesn't matter.
Do you really think that the NL vs AL strategy difference is deciding when to PH for the pitcher?
kab21 wrote:Maybe some like the strategy but I would prefer to see the starter go that extra inning or so instead of the army of RP'ers that we see in both leagues.
Except the pitcher doesn't really go any longer in the AL than they do in the NL. AL teams on average get about 15 innings more out of their starters than an NL team does (or about 1% more innings).
Does this negate some, or all, of the strategy the NL supposedly incorporates by not having a DH?
daullaz wrote:I'm honestly OK with everyone having the DH or no one having the DH, but as you guys have said, they have to pick one or the other and go with it at this point. The league office has consolidated everything to the point where the American League and National League are essentially two separate conferences in the same league instead of two different leagues. In fact, the time to decide one way or another was when regular season interleague play was implemented. I can understand two separate sets of rules when you're still using the pretext that the AL and NL are two separate leagues that only meet in the World Series. That's obviously not the case anymore, and the MLB has much more central power than it did decades ago. By now, it's past time to play by the same rules.
Imagine an NBA where there was a three-point line for games hosted by former ABA teams but no three-point line when traditional NBA teams were at home. Imagine an NFL where two-point conversions were only allowed when AFC teams were at home (the AFL originally had it).
kab21 wrote:Maybe some like the strategy but I would prefer to see the starter go that extra inning or so instead of the army of RP'ers that we see in both leagues.
Except the pitcher doesn't really go any longer in the AL than they do in the NL. AL teams on average get about 15 innings more out of their starters than an NL team does (or about 1% more innings).
Does this negate some, or all, of the strategy the NL supposedly incorporates by not having a DH?
Not at all. There is very little strategic difference between the two leagues in the first 6-7 innings of typical games.
Except the pitcher doesn't really go any longer in the AL than they do in the NL. AL teams on average get about 15 innings more out of their starters than an NL team does (or about 1% more innings).
This is certainly true and mostly because it is pretty rare for the NL pitcher to come up in a situation where PH for him actually changes anything. It happens like one time per week and the rest of the time the 'strategy' just doesn't matter.
Do you really think that the NL vs AL strategy difference is deciding when to PH for the pitcher?
Pretty much. Occasionally you double switch if the7th or 8th guy made the last out and you are still in the middle of the game. The majority of games you go with a 1 IP RP for the 7th/8th/9th so what happens in the 5th/6th is usually the only real strategy involved. It is just one of those things that people make a big deal out of that isn't a big deal on a daily basis. Now in the most important games it is a bigger deal as you saw in the NL playoffs last year with a lot of pitchers being yanked really early in games and teams actually using most of their bench/bullpen each game, but day to day that just doesn't happen.
The traditionalists will say 'this is how the game is supposed to be played' but that isn't even really true. The game was usually played with just 1 pitcher the whole game and not using 4 pitchers per game and that pitcher would play the field on the days he didn't pitch. The game has changed in so many ways that there is no 'right' way to play it at this point.
The strategy isn't even really strategy. It's just shuffling around a bunch of crappy hitters so that the even crappier pitcher doesn't have to hit. People make it seem like AL is checkers and NL is chess. They're both checkers, it's a very simple game.
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