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Old 04-15-2012, 09:12 AM
steve B steve B is offline
Steve Birmingham
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: eastern Mass.
Posts: 8,087
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Some interesting ideas.

I'm not sure about going to 8 batters. The game has so much that seems to revolve around 3 and 9 that having an 8 batter lineup would feel very wrong.
It would also change the number of at bats, and when the later at bats happened. Strategically you might not want a power hitter in the 3 and 4 spots anymore, depending on lineup you might want them in 2-3or maybe 6-7

Putting the DH in the field makes it Softball.
One league I played in had a DH and an extra hitter. We got to year 3 before someone pointed out we were also letting the pitcher hit.....I don't think the 12 man lineup helped us.


Increasing the roster? That could actually happen, the players union would be for it, and probably some owners. Of course there would be more grousing about playing time. Some teams would add pitchers, some batters.

How about reducing the rosters? That would force teams to carry fewer specialized pitchers. That would make the choice of substitutions more interesting since they'd have to decide on the timing. Lineups would change too, likely heading toward more alternating left/right than now, or loading a certain section of the order with lefthand batters.

While the NL game is more complex and traditional, I think it's that style of game that has led to the abundance of specialized pitching and pitch counts, neither of which I'm all that happy with.

Steve B
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