Baseball
Related: About this forumJohn Smoltz 'guarantees' MLB will change one rule
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Jayson Stark of The Athletic , who popularized the idea, dubbed it the "double hook." The idea is fairly straightforward. When a manager removes his starting pitcher from the game, he loses his designated hitter, too. The manager is thus incentivized to keep his starting pitcher in the game as long as possible so he can keep his DH in the lineup, too.
Four years ago this would not have been practical. Now that the National League has adopted the DH rule, it is. Smoltz is a fan. So is current Texas Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the MLB Players Association's bargaining committee.
MLB was intrigued enough to test the idea in the Atlantic League in 2023 . Smoltz thinks it could potentially reach the major league level someday.
"Two, three years ago people lost their mind on the shift, the base-stealing, and the pitch clock (rules) and the game's better for it," he said in an interview with John Ourand on The Varsity podcast . "The game will be better for it once this comes into place. People will throw their arms up and complain but In six months to a year you'll never know the difference."
Drum
(9,663 posts)🤔
underpants
(186,195 posts)If a pitcher cant go any more they shouldnt be forced to.
NoRethugFriends
(2,893 posts)MiHale
(10,623 posts)Pitchers are different beasts
thats why the pitch count exists. How would injuries to starting pitchers be handled look at the Tigers this year.. we actually had bullpen days of pitching
chaos baseball. Starters in those games went one, maybe two innings, then the switches took place.
The nuances would be too much to rule upon.
cloudbase
(5,724 posts)rubbersole
(8,292 posts)Only 8 hitters in the lineup after the starter leaves? Could be an advantage in some situations. Getting a certain position player to the plate earlier might help.
dem4decades
(11,849 posts)You're going to pay a DH, usually a fan favorite, millions of dollars to play half a game?
And unlike when Smoltz played, pitchers are now tuned to go 5 or 6 innings, they all get Tommy John surgery if they pitch too much.
The fans won't like it, the DHs won't like it, the pitchers won't like it, who likes it?
wysimdnwyg
(2,250 posts)Scenario A: The pitcher goes six innings (commonly considered a quality start, but already becoming more rare as pitch counts are reduced and most starts only last five and change). The DH is removed, resulting in the need for a pinch hitter - or the pitcher bats - at least one, often twice. If the team gets lucky, the DH made the last out and theyre leading after 8 1/2 innings at home, but even then theres a decent chance of at least one AB for the pitchers spot.
This is more or less the ideal, and is reasonable.
Scenario B: The pitcher goes five innings, which is pretty typical today. The pitchers spot likely comes up two or three more times. That means two or three pinch hitters.
This is starting to get questionable under todays roster restrictions which only have 13 position players, including the DH.
Scenario C: A bullpen game that runs through six, perhaps even eight or nine pitchers. Your DH probably starts as a bench player so your best DH can be brought in to hit in a big situation. With five position players in addition to the eight regular starters, youre almost certain to have to use all five to hit through the course of a game. That includes your backup catcher, so you better not have anyone get hurt during the game. And that its over after nine innings.
Unless the roster rules are changed, this scenario just doesnt work.
Outlook: You might as well go back to having the pitcher hit, and that is a complete non-starter for the players.