Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright recently went down with a season-ending Achilles injury, an injury he suffered during an at-bat, and it has prompted another round of "should the NL have the DH?" debate. There are staunch defenders on both sides.
Earlier this week Nationals ace Max Scherzer told our Jon Heyman he "wouldn't be opposed" to seeing the DH in the NL. "If you look at it from the macro side, who'd people rather see hit -- Big Papi or me?" added Scherzer. "Who would people rather see, a real hitter hitting home runs or a pitcher swinging a wet newspaper? Both leagues need to be on the same set of rules."
Other pitchers have been asked about the DH in recent days and just about all of them are against it. They want to hit and they think it adds to the strategy of the game, the usual arguments. On Wednesday, Nationals GM Mike Rizzo became the first executive to weigh in on the debate since Wainwright's injury, and he is decidedly anti-DH.
Here's what Rizzo told 106.7 The Fan’s Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on Wednesday, via CBS Washington:
"Well I have a lot of thoughts on it," Rizzo said. "I hate the DH. I always have hated the DH. I would hate to see the DH in the National League, and I love the National League brand of baseball. Now I worked with the Chicago White Sox for years, and the Boston Red Sox for years in the American League. I'm a much bigger fan of the National League style of play, with the pitcher pitching and all the [strategy] that employs. That simple enough for you?"
Hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Rizzo is anti-DH and that's great. It would be sort of weird if he was the GM of an AL team with that opinion, but he's not, so it makes sense.
Personally, I'm a pro-DH guy. I don't want to watch pitchers hit. I find the "strategy" argument to be hollow -- "more moves" does not equal "more strategy," and many NL decisions like pinch-hitting for the pitcher or sac bunting are no-brainers -- and I think baseball would benefit greatly from implementing the DH in the NL. More offense means more young kids are watching.
Either way, no matter if you're pro-DH or anti-DH, it seems this is a discussion MLB and the MLBPA will have at some point in the future. The union figures to be pro-DH because it means more high-paying jobs (full-time DHs would be replacing a bench players), so it really comes down to the owners.
