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Should Pitchers Hit?

I have a friend who is a Cubbie.  He's usually miserable as far as emotion applies to baseball.  Like I said, he's a Cubbie.  But he always watches baseball.  From what I can tell, life as a Cubbie is hard.  He tracks the game with fervor, knowing as much or more about the game compared to any pundit that I could name.  We argue about pitchers going to the plate.  I don't want to see pitchers flail away.  My hardened friend is certain the DH is an abomination and the (use your "get off my lawn" voice) junior league whippersnappers are playing a bastardized version of the game.  I'm not sure that a DH would help the Cubs.  I'm not sure that a nuclear war that destroyed every city on the planet save Chicago would help the Cubs; they would just lose to the White Sox.  That's not the point.

Santana tagged his first long ball in his career last night for the Mets to beat the Reds, while holding Cincy to no runs whatsoever.  Should pitchers hit?  Should Edgar Martinez be in the HOF?

17 replies on “Should Pitchers Hit?”

is the “get off my lawn” voice different than the “get off my mound” voice?
I like the league differences – but it does put an undo stress on AL pitchers in interleague games. Shoot Lester was thisclose to a grand slam for his first hit (he has an RBI but no hit now).
Yes Edgar should be in the HoF – but not Damon!

Absolutely not. AAAA is the only professional league in the Universe that doesn’t use a DH. Baseball is pretty boring to begin with, let alone having pitchers hit. Not even mentioning the additional risk that hitting adds i.e. Wang and Clay got hurt running bases.
No thanks. DH is better.

i’ve always considered myself a baseball purist, reluctant to see change…but, the one major exception i made to that was accepting the dh as a good change for baseball…yes, i’m old enough to remember when the dh came in, and i had mixed emotions, but i slowly was won over on the idea…baseball has evolved into a game of specialists…you don’t have pitchers hit for the same reason the yankees don’t give derek jeter a regular role in the bullpen…as for rarities like santana’s homer, yeah, once in awhile the sun shines on a dog’s butt…i watched i think the same mets team a couple of nights ago…bases loaded, 2 outs, pitcher up…3 pitches later, whiff, inning and rally over…now i’m not saying an al team’s #9 hitter wouldn’t suffer a similar fate, but at least the guy knows what a bat looks and feels like…i like a good pitchers duel as much as anyone, but we don’t seem to be suffering a lack of those…and a no-hitter/perfect game is still one of the most exciting events in sports, and we seem to get our fair share of those, despite the lack of automatic outs in the al…
“…AAAA is the only professional league in the Universe that doesn’t use a DH. …”
i can’t say this with certainty krueg, and i may be way wrong, but i thought the nl was pretty much alone in organized baseball [at all levels] in persisting to avoid using the dh…i’ll bet some of these guys haven’t swung a bat since little league…

I’m pretty sure that is the true. All the professional leagues in Asia use a DH, college, the minors, the plutar league in the crab nebula…all of them use a DH.
Who the hell wants to see a pitcher bat??? I don’t.

The answer is no, but it’s not because of injuries (how many NL pitchers get hurt while batting or running), but the simple boredom aspect of it. For example, if I had the back of the lineup up, with two outs, there is almost no question as to who I’m going to pitch around and who I’m going to pitch to; the pitcher makes the game shorter, and blows up pitching stats at the same time.
On another note, after reading today, I think there is a good chance that the Red Sox pick up Papi’s option next year. Who would have ever thought that a year – or even six months- ago?

RE: Papo – I don’t think they pick it up, I think they may negotiate another longer deal with lower AAV. DHs aren’t getting paid huge $$ right now.
Can I also say – if Ben Zobrist was on the sox, I would love it, but I really can’t stand the guy playing against the sox.

Have you guys been voting??? I think I have to be up to at LEAST 500 votes for Swish…voting all day long at work.
For the record, Youk definitely, no doubt, without a question, is better than Swish and deserves to be there…that being said, we YF’s cannot allow it to happen!

I’m not voting. I think Youkilis was not the best first baseman, therefore, I’m not going to lobby for him to be a bench guy. Swish is having a career year, and his manager is the manager of the AL squad, so let him have his 15 minutes. I’d rather the Sox didn’t participate at all in this stupidity.

Sorry, k, but I’d rather have Youk. Since the Yanks will be in the Serious, they need the win for homefield advantage. Youk gives them a better chance, however slim, of that win. Konerko too.
I’m glad though Swisher has been recognized for the first time. That’s got to be a treat, esp since it’s something his Dad did once too.

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