Last Night's World Series Game May Have Been The Last Time We Will Ever See Without A Universal DH And That Is Music To My Ears
If you had Kendall Graveman potentially being the last pitcher EVER to have an at-bat come down and collect your door prize. With the World Series now guaranteed to finish in Houston we may have just seen the last scheduled at-bat by a pitcher, and that is a great thing for baseball. No one, and I repeat, no one wants to see pitchers hit. They just don't. With the collective bargaining agreement expiring on December 1st it's expected that the universal DH will be put into play. If we're being honest this should have happened years and years ago. The National League is stuck in the 1970s and they're obsessed with having their guys hit, it makes no sense. And don't say it's strategy, it's not. Putting in a pinch hitter in the 5th when you have one out and a guy on third and your pitcher up isn't strategy, it's dumb.
It blows my mind that this is still a thing. Imagine if the AFC was allowed to use punters but the NFC didn't. In what world does this make sense? Hopefully the CBA can get this straightened out and we won't have to see guys going up there with 0 intentions of putting on a competitive at-bat and watching 3 pitches right down the dick. And don't say "BUT BARTOLO HIT A HOMER!" he hit one. One. Leave it alone. Don't bring up Shohei Ohtani and compare him to other pitchers hitting because he is a unicorn. Pitchers will still be able to pinch hit if they want, but thats up to the managers. If you want to pinch hit Madison Bumgarner instead of an actual bat, go ahead. According to CBS Sports pitchers hit a combined .110 at the plate this season. Chris Davis thinks that stinks.
Baseball needs all the help they can get right now. World Series ratings are way down, don't you think one way to get more fans and younger kids into the game is more runs? Higher scores, more home run numbers from DHs. Why would anyone in their right mind want to watch John Means hit when he goes to Nats park over Trey Mancini? We don't want to see guys like Edgar Martinez and David Ortiz hit bombs in the DH spot? I can't and won't ever understand anyone vouching for pitchers to keep hitting. Like I said above, you can still go ahead and bat the pitcher instead of the DH like the Angels did with Ohtani, but I don't expect to see that happen when teams will have a full bench of capable hitters.
Ask Jacob deGrom if he wants to keep hitting after he hurt himself on a swing this year, ask Zac Gallen who hurt his arm on a swing. And I've heard the argument for "well they're baseball players so they should hit and pitch, everyone else has to." That's dumb. That is like asking why don't quarterbacks play both ways in football. These guys are so dedicated to protecting their bodies and making sure they're good to go every 5th day they shouldn't have to be going out there and risking tearing an Achilles while running to second, or pulling an oblique on a check swing. I know they do it in college but the bigs are another animal. We saw it in 2020 during the pandemic season and it seemed to be the one rule changed that people actually liked. I just don't understand why people wouldn't want to add one more capable hitter to a lineup instead of a pitcher hitting. The DH also extends the careers of players who flat out can't play the field. Should Nelson Cruz have to retire because he's old and can't play the field? No, he's still a really good hitter who any team would want to have, the DH spot lets him extend his career.
Lets hope that the CBA gets this thing going and pitchers hitting is a thing of the past. No more pitchers trying to bunt and not being able to connect, no more guys wearing jackets when they get on base, no more pitchers standing in the box with the bat on their shoulders just waiting to go back to the dugout. Give me the big boppers, give me more homers, give me pitchers focusing just on their pitching game instead of trying to not hit into a double play.
RIP to pitchers hitting.