[BtownJay]

Okay, fine... not that i want to, but i'll post it...

My rebuttal...

I would love to know what makes the DH any more ridiculous than any other position in professional sports. It’s a position much like the kicker in football actually. They don’t play every down, they don’t have to take the field to prevent the other team from scoring. They are sent in to do a certain job… much like the DH, right? Interesting. So in a way, getting rid of the DH would be like getting rid of the kicker. Why can’t players who play every down do the kicking for themselves? Why must we bring someone else in to do it?

What does giving teams in the NFL free extra points have ANYTHING to do with the DH? What do teams get for free when they use a DH? If we got rid of the kicker, we could use that roster spot to give younger prospects a chance to play. You see how retarded that sounds? Now lets think about this for a minute. If you have the DH spot, wouldn’t it create a chance for younger prospects to play? Instead of that guy DHing, he would be at 1st base or somewhere in the outfield right? Wouldn’t that be taking a spot that a prospect could potentially play? For example, last season the Phillies had Jim Thome and Ryan Howard (you know the rookie of the year) who both played 1st base. Mr. Howard missed a lot of playing time because the Phils had to use Thome at 1st. If the National league had a DH position, the rookie/prospect would have been able to play more. Well, so much for that prospect theory.

Why the DH came to be really has no relevance here at all. The fact is it makes the game better now. Do you really care why it was started over 30 years ago? So the NL has a couple of players who are among the lead leaders… what does that even have to do with a DH? How much better are the DH’s hitting than the National league pitchers? How many rallies are stopped because the pitcher comes to the plate?

I was at the Mets vs. Giants game a few weeks ago. I couldn’t believe how perfect that game was for my argument. The game went 12 innings, and the teams had to use a total of 15 pitchers. Because there is no DH, the managers had to take their pitchers out of the game early to pinch hit for them. Well, that’s no big deal, that’s a good strategy battle between the teams right? During that one game, yes. But after that game, the teams bullpens were over used and filled with tired arms. Another interesting stat from that game… Mets leadoff man, Jose Reyes, came to the plate 6 times. And wouldn’t you know, he lead off the inning EVERY time he came to the plate. That means, that the pitchers/pinch hitters (aka, not good enough to start players) ending 6 of the innings and rallies. Talk about a game being frustrating and a big let down. You get excited, runners on second and third, two outs… ohhhh, and here comes the pitcher. Wonderful. I guess they should have used strategy and pinch hit for the pitcher in the 3rd inning.

A lot of people like to argue that some pitchers are actually good hitters. Which I fully agree with. Look at Kerry Wood, he’s currently 3 for 6 and has been known to hit the long ball. Bronson Arroyo has two homers this year. Tom Glavine, Mike Hampton, and Greg Maddox have been pretty solid at the plate through out their careers. So for argument sake, lets say every team has one pitcher who is a relative stud at the plate. That means, once every 4 or 5 games you are going to have a hitter who is competent in the #9 hole. You know what, do me a favor and let me know when that game comes around so I can tune in.