In spite of not being renowned as particularly proactive commissioner, no other in MLB’s history has overseen as many changes to the game as Allan “Bud” Selig has. While Selig has garnered the reputation as someone who has altered the league to serve his own interests, the quantity of changes can be attributed to the fact that his twenty-two year tenure as commissioner is the second longest ever. During his tenure, Selig welcomed four new franchises to the league, realigned the divisions, expanded the playoffs twice, implemented instant replay reviews, instituted interleague play, and put in place a PED drug testing system which may be the strictest of all the American pro leagues.
Selig’s timing has never been great; the drug policy that was enacted in 2005 would have certainly been useful in 1993. And the same sentiment can be applied to the recent addition of instant replay reviews, another alteration that had a nearly universal advocacy well before the change was adopted. But for better or worse, its difficult to deny Selig’s business aptitude, as many of the changes he implemented can be directly linked to an increase in revenue for the league, teams, and players alike. Upon his departure, Selig will leave the MLB in the best financial state the league has ever been in.
But enough about Selig, he is retiring and someone new will soon be in charge and the game will continue to change. Over the next couple of weeks / months, I’ll be writing about some of the ways that I’d like to see the league evolve under the new commissioner, whomever that may be. Today, I'll be writing about why the National League should adopt the Designated Hitter rule.
Bartolo Colon’s at-bats have certainly been one of the highlights of the 2014 season for me, albeit for all of the wrong reasons. He assumes a position in the box that is more of an awkward hunch than a hitter’s stance. His swings and misses have been so wild, he should think of investing in a chin strap. Having hardly any experience putting a ball in play, when Colon finally accomplished that feat, he carried the bat with him on his futile run to first base.
While Colon is a particularly bad hitter (0 walks and 73 strikeouts over 131 career plate appearances,) his inaptitude probably draws more attention because he is so overweight. As of June 19th, the Mets are posting a .135 OBP, a number that would be much lower if Jacob deGrom hadn’t gone 5-for-12 upon his call up. Unfortunately, the problem is not exclusive to the Mets. The Dodgers of 2013 and the Nationals of 2012 are the only two NL teams whose pitchers were able to post an OBP of at least .200 during those seasons, while the MLB’s three-season average for pitchers is .147. Since an OBP of .147 is essentially an automatic out, watching a pitcher’s at-bat is probably the most irritating part of a the game for me.
There are outliers of course, but you’d have to go back several decades to find an era of baseball when pitchers could be considered respectable hitters. Larger rotations and less innings-pitched have resulted in less at-bats for pitchers, diminishing their skills at the plate. Additionally, since 1973’s inauguration of the DH rule in the American League, even the minor leagues affiliates of National Leagues began to adopt the rule too. This has created a situation where pitchers who may have been skilled batters in high school or college, will have zero chance to develop those skills against a higher level of competition. And the skills that they did have, are likely diminish from an absence of practice.
The minor leagues adaptation of the DH rule is an easy one to understand, as it affords franchises an opportunity to develop more hitters than they otherwise would have been able to. I believe that the NL adaption of the DH rule would have the same effect in the big leagues, providing an additional position to develop young players who would otherwise be benched, creating new value for the franchise.
If that is not incentive enough for the NL to adopt the DH rule, interleague play should be. Teams from the AL has won more interleague games than the NL for ten years running, and are 14-of-18 overall. There’s a difference between having a couple pinch hitters on your bench versus having a designated one, and teams from the AL have been able to exploit that inequality of rosters year after year. The fact that interleague play is now spread throughout the entire season, is another disadvantage to teams in the National League. When interleague play was limited to a few weeks per season, teams had a greater opportunity to juggle their roster for a stretch run where it’d make sense to carry an additional hitter. I may be speculating, but I’d imagine that NL teams are now less likely to tweak their rosters in preperation for interleague series because they are now one-and-done.
This type of scheduling surely creates headaches for AL teams as well. Pitchers on those teams are now expected to take batting practice throughout the year, which may be fun for the players, but probably frustrating for coaches. And as pitchers already tend to be the most injury-prone guys on the team, I’m sure it’s no fun from a general manager’s perspective either, watching a million dollar investment put their bodies in harm’s way for the sake of a mostly fruitless exercise.
As it stands now, the player’s union is in favor of bring the DH rule to the National League, as it means more employed players. Owners are against it, because it would mean an increase in payroll. However, teams are constantly becoming smarter, and I believe that it is a matter of time before they realize that adopting the rule in their league will serve to not only their best interests, but also to the best interests of the game as a whole. Purists will be upset, as they were when the DH was brought to the American League. But ultimately, bringing designated hitters to the NL will make for a more competitive game, add value to franchises, and protect the health or pitchers, which is why it is a change to the game that I’d lobby for if I was the next commissioner of baseball.
* SPECIAL NOTE: On June 18th 2014, Bartolo Colon collected his first hit of the season. a stand up double.
Next time, I’ll write about closing the Adderall loophole, MLB’s favorite PED.
