DH or no DH? Should baseball get rid of it or use it for all games? (Your opinion on the DH)?

Question

I'm not asking which league you prefer. I just want to know what people think of the DH.

Answer 1

It actually offends me as a baseball fan. The DH takes away from the intellectual aspects of the game. Where is the strategy when lineup #s 1-9 do nothing but smack the ball. It you play the field, you will step in the box, and if you step in the box, you go out and play the field. When was the last time you saw more then 1 double switch in an AL game. This forces thinking and late inning match up decisions. The DH also negates the 1st rule of the game, its played 9 ON 9 PERIOD. The game is more then just home runs, theres bunts, hits and runs, and stolen bases. Just another reason why the NL is known as the senior circut.

Answer 2

Use it for all games for sure.

Baseball in played with the DH through all levels until a player gets to the Bigs. There are reasons for that. This allows more players to get playing time in the lower levels. Minor League baseball all the way down to Little League. Because of this, most Big league pitchers have not hit since they played as a position player too. In most cases it takes the player all the way back to high school. The most popular part of baseball in the past 10 years has been offense, so it seems dumb to have a player who hasn't hit for years to all of the sudden have to hit. I think it is fun sometimes to watch pitchers make fools of themselves hitting, but I believe it would be much better for the quality of the game to have the DH in both leagues. It seems really dumb to me that 8 hole hitters are pitched around so that a team can face the pitcher instead. I also think that a pitcher should have to face the 9 best hitters of the opposing team.

The last set of rational that supports the use of the DH full time is that good pitchers have great value to teams and all you do by making them hit, is increase the possibility of injury and having a great pitcher potentially losing his carreer doing something that he is not good at.

Baseball fans also seem to discount the fact that National league pitchers face 8 man lineups and American league pitcher have to face 9 real hitters. Actually National league pitchers are only pitching to 7 man lineups because of what I stated early about be able to walk the 8 hole hitter to get to the pitcher. It makes legitimately compairing the lifetime statistics of two pitchers who spend their carreers in different leagues impossible.

It is not reasonable to keep the no DH rule in the National league, just of the purpose of tradition which is the most often used arguement against the DH.

Answer 3

The DH is a horrible rule! It was created in an era with a lot fewer teams, and a lot fewer jobs for major league caliber players.

The position devalues career numbers and records. Can you compare Edgar Martinez' numbers to Pete Rose? Pete didn't sit for 90% of game action. Edgar, more often than not, did sit when his team was on defense, or the other 8 batters in the line up were involved.

People brag about Ortiz, and Molitor... but hey, if you are so bad in the field that you're a liability then you shouldn't be on a major league team.

MVP? How can a guy win Most Valuable Player when he does not PLAY in the field. The award is NOT MVH, as in most valuable HITTER.

The rule takes strategy out of the game, as well as encouraging activity like the brawl between Texas and Anaheim. If a pitcher has to step into the batter's box, he may think twice before unecessarily 'plunking' a hitter.

Answer 4

I think baseball needs to decide one way or the other.

I like the DH personally, because I like to see the most skilled possible players doing what they do.

I don't want to see pitchers hitting. They can't hit, they have no business doing it. And it drives me crazy that national league lineups are so soft as a result of their feeble 7 and 8 hitters (who presumably are there for speed, defense, flexibility, etc.) The bottom line is that with one or two exceptions, National League teams are garbage offensively.

Look at the world series and the all-star game for like the last 10+ years. And interleague play. For the most part, the NL is an obselete, inferior league.

They need to balance things out for the sake of the game. So keep the DH or dump it, but do something.

Answer 5

The DH takes a lot of strategy out of the game. But, having grown up with the system, I like it.

I do like a suggestion I read earlier this season from Tigers' closer Todd Jones, though. He wrote an article proposing that during interleague play, MLB should do the opposite of what it does now - the teams should play WITH a DH in National League parks and WITHOUT one in the American League ones, just to give the fans an opportunity to see something different from what they usually do.

Answer 6

I say dump the DH. Not because I like to see pitchers hit, but using a DH takes away from the drama of the game. Using a DH makes the m anagers job easier too.

Pitchers usually don't last an entire game, so pinch hitters, position changes, all add to the game's intrigue.

Answer 7

I think they should keep it, I mean it's pointless to have the pitcher go up there and strike out three times a game, and the stategy isn't really that much different in the NL, if you're pitcher's pitching good you leave him in, it's that simple. The NL game is boring with all the bunting and small ball, look at how the AL takes them behind the shed in interleague play, people want to see offense, look how many Big Papi's or Travis Hafner's that might have never had the chance to play if there were no DH in either league.

Answer 8

I think there should not be a DH. Every player in the lineup should hit and play the field. They are a team and all members of the team should have the same opportunity to play both offense and defense.

Answer 9

The DH is good for baseball Older players that are still talented hitters can still hit every day even if you wouldn't want them in the field. Secondly more runs in a game bring more fans to the game.

Answer 10

I'm an AL fan, but I'd like to get rid of the DH