The end of pitchers as hitters but not hitters as pitchers! – Ep. 202

Thanks to Mark Rickard for the show concept!  

With some sense of certainty this will be the last year in MLB in which there will not be a DH in the National League.   This will be negotiated as part of the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Player’s Association and MLB in what promises to be an acrimonious negotiation.  No pitcher has finished the season with a .300 average since 2008 when Micah Owings hit .304.  In general MLB pitchers are lousy hitters and getting lousier. Why? Because it’s hard!  And they don’t get much practice, and they are discouraged from hitting once they decide to be a pitcher primarily.  

We talk about the best hitting pitchers, and the worst. We also talk about position players getting into games to pitch which happens more than a handful of times each season.  But going forward after this season, aside from Shohei Otani, pitchers will pitch and hitters will hit and occasionally take the hill in a game that does not matter! 

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Almost Cooperstown