# MLB: April 2015 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 5, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893 "2015-04-05T18:32:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/221 "2015-04-28T20:07:58Z")
I seem to recall there was a minor league team a few years back that did sort of thing as a stunt. They wanted to set a record for lowest attendance ever, so they shut everyone out. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/222 "2015-04-28T20:12:14Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I seem to recall there was a minor league team a few years back that did sort of thing as a stunt. They wanted to set a record for lowest attendance ever, so they shut everyone out. [You are correct.](http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/stories/2002-07-08-nobody-night.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/223 "2015-04-28T20:31:57Z")
Madison Bumgarner called Max Scherzer out today because Scherzer called for the DH in the National League, and Bumgarner said if he didn’t want to bat, he shouldn’t have signed with an NL team. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/224 "2015-04-28T20:33:32Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Ohh yeah, that reminds me, Rod Allen has been demoted into a rotation with Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris for Detroit’s broadcasts. One more reason to be happy about the new season. Bit of a call back to myself, but some unfortunate news. I had wondered why they had announced Gibson, but then I hadn’t heard him all year. I guess he’s been unwell, and he’s been diagnosed him with Parkinson’s. > **[Kirk Gibson diagnosed with Parkinson's disease](https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2015/04/28/kirk-gibson-diagnosed-with-parkinsons-disease/)** > > Former Detroit Tigers right fielder Kirk Gibson has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, according to his current employer Fox Sports Detroit. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/225 "2015-04-28T20:41:58Z")
I’m okay with the status quo, but I cringe every time I watch most of the Yankee pitchers “hitting.” I haven’t noticed an epidemic of pitchers getting hurt running the bases or swinging a bat. Having no DH in the nl parks adds a little flavor to the game. I do wish there were more good hitting pitchers, though. Most likely in part caused by the overall decline in offense, pitchers reached an all-time low in 2014, collectively batting .122. They also struck out in 37% of their at-bats. If those numbers continue down, I might change my mind on the universal DH. On a different note, is offense on an uptick so far this year? With 10 percent of the season gone, it seems that way anecdotally but I couldn’t find the right stat in a search. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/226 "2015-04-28T21:26:55Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Dodgers have lost pitcher Brandon McCarthy for the next 1.5 seasons. UCL injury looks like it’s going to need Tommy John surgery to fix. Time to call up the AAA boys for their shot at the majors. How many more times are we going to have to see this happen before the National League comes to its senses and adopts the Designated Pitcher rule?!? ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/227 "2015-04-28T21:36:41Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > How many more times are we going to have to see this happen before the National League comes to its senses and adopts the Designated Pitcher rule?!? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/228 "2015-04-28T21:41:13Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > On a different note, is offense on an uptick so far this year? With 10 percent of the season gone, it seems that way anecdotally but I couldn’t find the right stat in a search. Slightly, but back to 2013 R/G, so not much: > **[Major League Batting Year-by-Year Averages | Baseball-Reference.com](https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/bat.shtml)** > > Major League Batting Year-by-Year Averages, Batting Totals and more on Baseball-Reference.com That is still VERY low compared to the last 20 years. Last year was the lowest since the strike and this year is tied for 2nd lowest. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/229 "2015-04-28T22:07:34Z")
It looks like Victor Martinez was the best hitting DH in baseball last year (going by batting average, because it’s easy to work with). He went 188 for 561, for a batting average of .335. The last year that I could find cumulative batting average for pitchers was 2013, when pitchers as a whole batted .132. That’s like a big difference, right? Well…it all depends on how you look at it. Martinez appeared in 151 games last year, so his 188/561 works out to 3.71 at-bats, resulting in 1.25 hits, per game. If we give our prototypical .132-hitting pitcher 3.71 at-bats per game, he’ll grind out .49 hits per game. So Martinez is worth just over 3/4 of a hit each game. And that’s the best-hitting DH in the league; if we use the league average for all hitters (.251 last y), they would produce .93 hits per game in those 3.71 at-bats, so not quite half a hit more than pitchers. Personally, I’d much rather see all 9 players on the team playing offense \*and \*defense than to keep around some guy who can’t play defense at all, just so we can see an extra hit every other game. Basically the DH means taking a guy who fails at hitting 87% of the time, and replacing him with a guy who only fails 75% of the time, but can’t play the other half of the game. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/230 "2015-04-28T22:19:52Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > And is Scherzer right? Wouldn’t you rather see Papi at bat than him anyway? Admit it, yes you would. Well, Ortiz’s batting average for 2015 _is_ currently about forty points higher than Scherzer’s lifetime average of .159, so I guess you have a point 🙂 Wait, what am I saying? An Ortiz at bat goes like this: Walk up slowly to the plate. Adjust batting gloves. Take practice swings. Put one foot in the box. Remove foot. Adjust batting gloves again. Put foot back into box. Adjust helmet. Put other foot into box. Take a pitch. Step out of the box. Adjust batting gloves. Adjust helmet. Look down to third base coach. Take more practice swings. Repeat till the end of the at-bat, which results in Ortiz reaching base on a routine grounder to the infield that is fumbled by the second baseman and ruled an error, at which point he stares daggers up into the press box in hopes that the call will be reversed… Yeah. Maybe I’ll take Scherzer. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/231 "2015-04-28T22:27:24Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Well, Ortiz’s batting average for 2015 _is_ currently about forty points higher than Scherzer’s lifetime average of .159, so I guess you have a point 🙂 > > Wait, what am I saying? An Ortiz at bat goes like this: Walk up slowly to the plate. Adjust batting gloves. Take practice swings. Put one foot in the box. Remove foot. Adjust batting gloves again. Put foot back into box. Adjust helmet. Put other foot into box. Take a pitch. Step out of the box. Adjust batting gloves. Adjust helmet. Look down to third base coach. Take more practice swings. Repeat till the end of the at-bat, which results in Ortiz reaching base on a routine grounder to the infield that is fumbled by the second baseman and ruled an error, at which point he stares daggers up into the press box in hopes that the call will be reversed… > > Yeah. Maybe I’ll take Scherzer. 🙂 The new speed-up the game rule doesn’t allow batters to take both feet out of the box any more. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/232 "2015-04-29T03:13:10Z")
The DH is a waste. It would be better to let pitchers learn to hit the ball. Look at Zach Greinke; a career .214 hitter who hit .328 in 2013. He is at least as good of a batter as the average 8 hitter in the NL our 9 hitter in the AL. If we take the bat out of his hands we might as well take it out of other great defenders who aren’t great hitters. I think if you can’t pay both ways you font belong in MLB. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/233 "2015-04-29T03:38:51Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > BTW, [Max Scherzer agrees.](http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12769662/max-scherzer-injured-batting-advocates-designated-hitter-rule-national-league) If that’s what Max Scherzer thinks, he should’ve signed with an AL team. Which is pretty much [what Madison Bumgarner said](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2015/04/27/madison-bumgarner-takes-a-big-swing-at-max-scherzer-over-comments-about-dh-rule/). > [@](#): > > “It’s a beautiful game to me the way it is,” Bumgarner added, to the Mercury News. “That’s obviously the way baseball started and I’m a traditional guy. I’m not much for change. I know people argue both sides, but for me, from what I see, it’s a more challenging game. It’s more challenging for managers. There’s so much more that goes into it in the National League than, `Let ‘em pitch until they can’t get outs anymore.’ ” [Adam Wainwright himself is another pitcher who disagrees.](http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/wainwright-fueled-by-talk-that-season-is-over/article_e909d7e7-f00d-516e-9402-faa9aed82e79.html) > [@](#): > > Another thing that Wainwright doesn’t like is the talk of using the designated hitter in the National League. Washington pitcher Max Scherzer expressed that feeling after injuring a thumb while hitting and hearing of Wainwright’s injury. > > “I couldn’t disagree more,” he said. “I love Max, but I just think baseball is a National League game. I wish both leagues would convert to National League baseball. I understand why people would say that, but you can’t point to another instance almost that the pitcher got hurt, whether or not it was their Achilles, doing that kind of thing. … I think baseball is a beautiful game and I hope it doesn’t change too much.” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/234 "2015-04-29T11:30:41Z")
> [@Adam Wainwright](#): > > I just think baseball is a National League game The rest of baseball disagrees with you, Adam. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/235 "2015-04-29T11:33:58Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > An Ortiz at bat goes like this: You left out the part about standing in the box wondering how far \*this \*blast would go, while the pitcher drops his hands to his waist in disgust, then taking half an hour to jog around the bases. > [@](#): > > Yeah. Maybe I’ll take Scherzer. How you can find that entertaining or even interesting is baffling. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/236 "2015-04-29T12:54:08Z")
Oh, just FTR, our bar trivia team last night was “For The First Time In History, A Bar Trivia Game Outdraws A Major League Baseball Game”. We won the game \*and \*the free pitcher for best team name. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/237 "2015-04-29T14:00:27Z")
Yankees place Tanaka on the DL with a right forearm strain. Expected to miss a month but I wouldn’t be optimistic about that time frame. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/238 "2015-04-29T15:26:48Z")
My that Braves v. Nationals game was like a movie. Braves up 9-1, Washington storms back to win 13-12… on a 3 run HR in the 9th inning by Dan Uggla. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/239 "2015-04-29T15:30:07Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > How you can find that entertaining or even interesting is baffling. Different strokes for different folks. I don’t understand how people can think it’s interesting to have a specialized player who doesn’t play defense - and likewise a specialized player who doesn’t play offense. Why not have a Designated Fielder while at it? I mean who wants to see the .230 hitting amazing fielding SS hit? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893/240 "2015-04-29T16:55:58Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > The DH is a waste. It would be better to let pitchers learn to hit the ball. Look at Zach Greinke; a career .214 hitter who hit .328 in 2013. He is at least as good of a batter as the average 8 hitter in the NL our 9 hitter in the AL. No he isn’t. By the standards of a position player Greinke is a dreadful hitter. No position player could last as a major league regular hitting the way Greinke does. Maybe you’d tolerate a backup catcher with a good glove for a little while hitting like that, but only if there weren’t any ready replacements or you had a lot of injuries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-april-2015/716893.md?page=13)