Mains: NL managers, strategy, and bench utilization
From SABR member Rob Mains at Baseball Prospectus on June 26, 2019:
I am, I suppose, a soft proponent of the universal designated hitter. I support it, but not vehemently. It’s just my opinion. And here’s the thing about opinions: We all have them. And they’re all, in one way or another, kind of irrational and stupid. Favorite band, preferred beer, politics, the DH. We have our rationales, and they are, let’s face it, not entirely fact-based.
But the argument about the DH, unlike, say, the Budweiser-versus-your-favorite-craft-IPA debate, does lend itself to some facts.
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League average each year is 100. Almost uninterrupted through baseball history, pitchers have become worse hitters compared to everyone else. They’ve never been good. But they’ve progressed through stages, going from bad to awful to really awful to cover-your-eyes to I-don’t-know-that-I-can-trust-you-to-bunt. Even the pitchers we think of as good hitters are “good” only compared to other pitchers.
Read the full article here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/51111/flu-like-symptoms-nl-managers-strategy-and-bench-utilization/
Originally published: June 27, 2019. Last Updated: June 27, 2019.