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Tuesday, June 23, 2020 |
MLB 2020 Season Announced, Stupid Rules Ensue
MLB has announced there will, in fact, be a 2020 major league baseball season, which surprised the hell out of me. There will be a 60-game schedule, with opening day on July 23 or 24. The schedule will be optimized for in-division (regardless of league) play to minimize travel.
Rob Manfred is using this opportunity to annoy us with other stupid rule changes, including the runner on second rule for extra innings, which is un-American and probably a commie plot. Likewise, National League teams will adopt the designated hitter at home, which was an inevitability but is there some reason to think anything other than that a pandemic was a convenient excuse?
Play ball, but stop annoying me, Manfred.
Rob Manfred is using this opportunity to annoy us with other stupid rule changes, including the runner on second rule for extra innings, which is un-American and probably a commie plot. Likewise, National League teams will adopt the designated hitter at home, which was an inevitability but is there some reason to think anything other than that a pandemic was a convenient excuse?
Play ball, but stop annoying me, Manfred.
Labels: dh rule, stupid ideas
Thursday, January 03, 2013 |
The New Schedule And The Looming Threat Of The National League DH
Eno Sarris at Fangraphs on how the new schedule will affect the NL's use of the DH. Basically, it comes down to: keep a full-time DH (i.e. pretend you're in the AL anyway), use a pinch-hitter, move an aging or bad-glove guy into the slot, or most intriguingly, add someone to the roster in June. Andre Ethier, whose contract is now pretty pricey for a guy who can only hit righties, starts to look a little better in that light.
Update: Interesting idea from Baseball Prospectus' Russell A. Carleton: let the teams decide whether they want to use the DH in their home park for the whole year:
Some time prior to the free agent period starting (so before the World Series ends), teams are required to make a decision. For the next season, they can decide whether their home park will be a DH park or a pitcher-batting park. The decision holds all year, but teams can switch back and forth from season to season as they desire. Everyone submits their choices in a sealed envelope and they all get revealed live. How fun would the day after that be?
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 |
Al Yellon On Why The NL Will Adopt The DH By 2012
Al Yellon thinks the NL will adopt the designated hitter rule by 2012. I'm not sure I agree on the timeline, though he makes the interesting point that the next labor negotiations will undoubtedly provide a strong impetus for both sides to get this done. The bait for ownership is protecting their expensive pitchers:
There are millions of dollars invested in pitchers like [Ubaldo] Jimenez, who is signed through 2012 with a couple of relatively inexpensive (for today's market) club options for 2013 and 2014. And teams don't want investments like this injured while doing something that isn't their primary responsibility -- batting or running the bases.My view is that the DH saves pitchers (something Al notes) from the vicissitudes of the basepaths, and simultaneously gives guys like Jim Thome a position where they can be of some value rather than being a nuisance on the field, even at first. The former is a risk ownership wants removed; the latter is a carrot for the players. This should be a no-brainer.
Labels: dh rule
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 |
Universal DH Highlights All-Star Rules Changes
The DH will be used in every All-Star game starting this year according to the AP, even in games taking place in NL parks. Also, the roster will expand to 34 players.
Under a change that runs contrary to normal baseball rules, each manager may designate a position player who will be eligible for re-entry to the game if the final position player -- at any position -- is injured.Previously, there was a special All-Star rule allowing re-entry only to replace an injured catcher.
Labels: all-star game, dh rule, rules
Friday, April 04, 2008 |
That's Right, The DH Is — Smarter
Let us put both the lineups together
And find out which one is smarter
The pitcher can't hit, and out he goes
The DH is great and the other blows
And find out which one is smarter
The pitcher can't hit, and out he goes
The DH is great and the other blows
— with apologies to Harry Belafonte and King RadioI wouldn't go so far as to say that "real fans" love the DH, which brings up the hoary subject of "what is a real fan" and all the silly preening that implies; after all, the implication is that the author is right, and if you were a "real fan", you'd agree with him, too. But for the record:
- The pitcher's hitting skill is infinitely less valuable than his pitching skill. Jake Peavy with a .000 average is still a valuable commodity.
- Watching the pitcher hit is dull, as he will either bunt or make an out with much more regularity.
- Managerial pinch-hitting-for and other maneuvers designed to compensate once, say, the eight-place hitter reaches base are predictable as the clock and add nothing to the game.
- The most damning fact of all: baseball itself uses the DH at almost every opportunity in the minor leagues except where two NL teams meet. Otherwise, the DH is used, even when only one team's parent is an AL club.
Labels: dh rule
Saturday, June 16, 2007 |
Another Reason To Hate NL Rules: Jered Weaver Jams His Shoulder Sliding
Buried in this ha-ha-only-serious notes piece about today's game comes this shocker:
‹Older
Weaver probably wouldn't admit it, but he looked gassed. He needed 95 pitches to get to that point and got out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the second inning and a two-on, one-out jam in the fourth.Great — so interleague play, in which the pitcher gets to pretend to be a position player and swing a bat, possibly causes Jered Weaver to acquire yet another potential injury. Hey, National League: get over yourselves. Your minor league teams (below high-A or whenever they play an AL team's affiliate, regardless of which team is home or away) and all the NCAA teams use the designated hitter. The Giants even used it in spring training at home this year. Time to get rid of the hitting pitcher.He also jammed his right shoulder a bit in the third when he slid hard into second base on Chone Figgins' fielder's choice grounder. Weaver had reached on his first big league hit, a single to right field.
"I was trying to break up a double play — it was fun," Weaver said. "But I know now to pull off or to not go in too hard to second."
Labels: angels, dh rule, injuries
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