Proposed New Designated Hitter Rule for Both Leagues

[Bark's Lounge]

I know the DH is a hot button topic, and I understand both sides of the argument. MLB has stripped us baseball enthusiasts of a lot of tradition the last 20 years and I do honor and appreciate the tradition MLB has bestowed upon us before those happenings.

 

I really would like to see the pitcher keep hitting in the NL and I have been long a proponent of having a 2-way player. Rick Ankiel was a phemomenal pitching prospect with the Red Birds, his run was short because of head issues, but he did go back to the minors and turned himself into a position player, he had some very good success in the bigs at first, but after 1.5 years the league caught up to him. Too bad for Rick, but I do believe in the coming years, we will see more multi-dimensional players (pitching and hitting).

 

There was a 19 year old (Shohei Otani) in the Nippon league who did it during the 2014 season. I think this is going to be the next big thing in modern professional baseball.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/japan/player.cgi?id=otani-000sho

[Paul Pleiss]

Why can't pitchers be hitters in both leagues? If you want to change the DH, get rid of it in the AL. Pitchers hitting isn't something that needs to stop, it needs to happen more often, which maybe, MAYBE leads to more hitters becoming occasional pitchers so they can bat the following innings. Let's make it happen.

 

More pitchers hitting, more hitters pitching.