All AAA And AA leagues have the DH unless it’s two NL affiliates. The default is the DH. A and below always use the DH. All the international leagues use the DH.
And they play decent baseball in the AL.
So you have all these pitchers that come up and don’t bat in don’t bat in high school or college. They don’t bat in low minors. When they finally advance they start hitting, but only in like half the games. And they hit like it. Pitcher batting averages have steadily declined.
The NL is literally the only league on Earth that plays baseball this way.
I’m not sure if I want the switch. I can see it from both sides. But to say if you don’t have the DH, it’s not baseball, is ludicrous.
Sure, but the obvious counterargument is that the answer is to eliminate the DH everywhere. I'd far prefer that. I think it should matter whether your pitchers can hit or not. I mean, why don't we suddenly start DHing for catchers? Most of them aren't good hitters either.
For the same reason, I favor the minimum batters for pitchers and 12-pitcher roster limit. I'd prefer to keep it at 25, but I see the need to appease the union and there might be some quality benefit.
Over-specialization is part of what made football tedious and unwatchable and it's doing the same to baseball. By that I mean "too freaking many relief pitchers" and "the DH."
