I disagree with that assessment. Having Scherzer or Kershaw or Degrom on the mound made the decision of whether to PH in the 6th different than if someone else was on the mound

Not just the greats,but also good pitchers have to make decisions about.Taking into consideration your overworked bullpen

No strategy?? That's crazy man. The usage of your pitcher is ALL about strategy. Whether to PH or not. And when If you're going to. MANAGING the GAME!! That is essential strategy!

You’d think, but even with all the hypotheticals, pitchers are still automatic pinch hits from the 7th inning on, and I’d even go to say from the 6th inning on nowadays. Prior to the 2020 season, when they announced there was gonna be a DH in the NL, I looked at how many times a pitcher had an AB in games where they were tied or trailing in the 7th or later. From 2008-2019, there were less than 5 ABs from pitchers in those scenarios. Front Offices aren’t gonna let their best pitchers wear out by season’s end as evident by the amount of pitchers who pitched over 180 innings this year, analytics say don’t let a pitcher pitch a third time thru the order, and most pitchers aren’t good enough to go 6 innings. We’ve long known that outs are the most precious thing in baseball, so managers aren’t gonna give them away for free. And personally, I’m not a fan of pitchers sitting there watching three strikes go by, then calling it strategy when a double switch happens in the 7th. All you did was move your pitcher to the back of the lineup, a chimp could do that.

Seriously, the number of times where is ACTUALLY a decision to make is so small in the modern game as to be negligible. And if the tradeoff for giving up those nominal situations is (a) every day getting to see someone who can actually hit 4-5 times a game rather than an automatic out AND (b) getting to keep a good pitcher on the mound for another inning or two? That's a no brainer. The positives of the DH far far far outweigh the negatives in my mind.

This argument might have made a modicum of traction in say 1975. It's just silly today.

I've lived in an NL city for the past 15 years, and while I occasionally go to a game, I mostly can't stand the NL. I'd rather drive 50 miles to Baltimore and see two mediocre AL teams than drive 10 miles to DC and watch two good NL teams. The NL game just bores me. And I ain't some kid; I'm over 50.

Posted by contrarian23 on 3/17/2022 6:53:00 PM (view original):
I've lived in an NL city for the past 15 years, and while I occasionally go to a game, I mostly can't stand the NL. I'd rather drive 50 miles to Baltimore and see two mediocre AL teams than drive 10 miles to DC and watch two good NL teams. The NL game just bores me. And I ain't some kid; I'm over 50.

I'm a fan of an AL team and I'll admit the DH adds excitement. However, I do enjoy watching NL games because it feels more strategic. I would argue the quality of your manager and bench was far more important in the NL. Also, if you were a bench player on an NL team, your chances of appearing in a game were much higher. I'm not some curmudgeon that's going to stomp his feet and scream about the universal DH, but I do feel like the game is losing a little something. Managers can pretty much just set their lineup for a game and not worry about much outside of how to use their pitchers.

It also surprises me that players want a universal DH. One guy doing the majority of the hitting for pitchers, instead of that role being split between 3-4 people, takes away some job security for those bench players, IMO.