I wonder if the rules would allow for putting a lefty pitcher in left field a righty on the mound, and have them swap positions back forth as necessary.
If not, they should. If you can change pitchers without substituting, I don't see a reason to prohibit it - assuming no warm-up tosses each time.
I’m not sure that it’s that “obvious” that the entire baseball world should change to fit the 15 teams in the National league.
Because all the schools and lower leagues have gone to the DH, you are being selected to be a pitcher based solely on your ability to pitch. Ability to hit is meaningless. So then the first time you’re regularly batting it’s agajnst majors league pitching? It’s a set up for failure and it’s not what I expect out of professional sports.
The best two pitchers at hitting over the past decade have been MadBum and Greinke. They have wRC+ of 51 and 54 respectively. All of the hype about Max last year? WRC+ 47. The same as Chris Davis, who was the worst regular hitter in baseball last year.
Why should the entire world have changed to fit what were then 12 teams in the American League? I'm not of the school that "because that's how everyone's been doing it for X years" is really a valid argument. That's a major cause of pitchers becoming more and more laughable as hitters. And I don't even mind the ones who can't, just like I respect the tradeoff inherent in putting Matt Adams in left field. I don't believe you should get a free hitter who can't play the field, nor should you escape the penalty for having a pitcher who can't hit occupying a lineup spot for 6+ innings. If you suck at something that is integral to the game, you deserve to have it exposed.
And it's not about how objectively good or bad you are, it's about your marginal benefit or detriment over the alternatives. I wasn't being entirely rhetorical when I asked above why there should not be an additional DH for catchers. Sure, they suck at hitting less than pitchers, but it's also a unique skill set that few players fill, and most of the ones who do can't hit. Why allow the DH for pitchers and not catchers, then, save for the arbitrary line in the sand saying that catchers as a group are acceptably bad hitters and pitchers aren't?