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I was surprised to hear Rob Manfred say earlier this week that he thought the designated hitter did not fit the National League.
This is the guy, after all, who proposed launch clocks, starting a runner at the second base during extra innings, a higher hitting area and other blasphemous changes to great game.
Major League Baseball cleverly observed on Dan Patrick's ESPN radio show, the senior circuit is the last league at any level that does not allow the DH. The adoption now, said Manfred, would make this unique brand of baseball extinct.
Off. The word itself is an end that even Manfred can not digest.
The DH strips tactics that managers have traditionally used to make ninth place in the batting order (or eighth if you are Tony LaRussa) something other than an automatic exit.
There is a generation of fans in the AHL cities who have never seen a sacrifice or a double change. The senior circuit fans, meanwhile, know that's the game behind the game that has made the National Baseball League the favorite brand of purists like me.
But here's the thing: designated hitter or not, this game may be off.
We all had a good look at 21st century baseball during All Star Week, while Monday's Home Run Derby was powered by Tuesday's Midsummer Classic. The 10 races of the match crushed the previous six-star record in 1951. It was in extra innings, in fact, before one of the 14 points of the match was scored without the benefit of the long ball
. Of the total 90 appearances of the plate, only half resulted in a ball in play. The remaining 44 ended in a home run, strikeouts or a walk.
"I understand perfectly well that it's there that the game is unfolding," the Los Angeles Dodgers' Ross Stripling Los Angeles pitcher told the Associated Press, "and I think this game has summarize that. "
This is the boom or bust nowadays even in the National League.
This season threatens to be the first in the history of MLB where players produce more batting strikes than shots. In fact, it is time to break Canada's record for the 12th consecutive year.
Meanwhile, the sluggers of the game are only slightly behind the record pace of 2.28 strokes per game of last year.
Cardinals pitcher Luke Weave abandons a sacrificial rifle during the 2018 season. It is something that no longer happens to baseball.
In proportion to the sharp increase in home runs and strikeouts, the tactics of small balls, such as sacrificial battles, offenses, throws and stolen bases. The systematic manufacture of the tracks is a thing of the past.
Consider: In 2009, there were 1,635 rifle sacrifice attempts. That number has been declining every year since baseball is running for half that number in 2018. According to baseballreference.com, last year's average of .21 sacrifices per match was the lowest in the world. baseball history.
All this is encouraged in an era of advanced statistical metrics, whose practitioners insist that there is a greater chance of scoring a rider from the first base with none other than scoring them from the second to last.
With more withdrawals, managers now trust fewer players to handle the hit-and-run. With more home runs, there is little emphasis on moving riders into the pointing position.
"Everyone throws 97 to 100," said Washington pitcher Max Scherzer to Ronald Blum. "You're not going to chain three strikes like that, so everyone is swinging for the fence."
So what is the strategy now for ninth place in the batting order, which this season has a .115 / .146 / .150 collective slash line? Let the thrower soar and hope for the best?
There is no game behind this match. I do not understand why the designated hitter has no place in baseball.
It pains me to say it, but as long as the game of the National League has already become, there is no reason not to feed the masses. "Little desire for the long ball by also giving them the DH."
Todd Eschman is the sports editor of the News-Democrat de Belleville. He can be reached at [email protected] or at 618-239-2540.
