Appeals: Change the rule so that a manager’s challenge of a umpire’s call has to be appealed to another umpire. Original umpire cannot retain the discretion of having his own call seconded or reversed (other than ball or strike). That cost a perfect game last year and takes away from the sport. And put a 5th ump up in the booth to see all possible replay angles. Put a DL player or a coach from each team with him to keep him honest.

Any chance (or any thoughts) about getting a uniform strike zone?

4 team, 5 team, 6 team divisions. Unfair to some, scheduling likely not easily balanced, bad idea, change it. If Houston won’t willingly move to the AL West, move Bud’s Brewers to the AL Central and the KC Royals to the AL West. 2 Leagues, 3 divisions each, 5 teams each. 2 teams always either in interleague play or having a travel day.

Balanced schedule: Best I can come up with is 168 games. Cancel 4 off days in April, and add 2 day-night doubleheaders. A team plays each of its 4 division rivals 6 games at home and 6 games on the road, total 48. It plays each of the 10 other teams in its league 4 home games and 4 away games, total 80. It plays each of the 5 teams in the other league’s same geographic division (AL East plays NL East, etc.) 2 home games and 2 away games, total 20. And it plays each of the other league’s other divisions’ 10 teams 2 games a year (NL East plays each AL Central team 2 away games this year and each AL West team 2 home games this year, next year the home stands and away games alternate), total 20. 48 + 80 + 20 + 20 = 168. Union wouldn’t balk if roster size increased by 1 or 2.

No DH in any regular season game until game goes into a 10th inning; save the strategy of removing or not removing the pitcher who has an at-bat coming up, and the double substitution strategy. Protect the pitcher by awarding him (and any baserunner at the time) 2 bases if he is hit by a pitch. So DH only in extra innings, All Star games, and all post season in both leagues.

Appeals

As batters, Brewers pitchers have 54 strikeouts and 91 plate appearances that didn’t end in a strikeout. The Brewers have played 69 games and their pitchers have 22 hits, just 6 of them for extra bases. Four of their starts have more that 25 at bats, and none of them has a batting average over .171. Two of them are slugging under .154.

Please don’t pretend your pitchers can hit, Skipper. They can’t.

But you also don’t end up having to keep Baez in a game against the Cubs for 4 innings cuz you have no one else to pitch.

If you don’t like to watch a pitcher have to hit, why do you want to watch bad shortstops and catchers hit?

Seriously, I don’t like the DH as I believe it takes too much strategy out of the game (sacrifice bunts, the double substitution, whether to pull a pitcher or let him finish the inning if he’s to be coming up to bat). The only pro-DH argument that does make me think twice is the one about risking injury to a pitcher at the plate on or the basepaths.

But as I said on another thread, I would allow the DH in all games once it’s tied after 9 and starts into extra innings. Let’s get these extra long games to finish up a little quicker and not have both teams fielding their last players.

Jus’ sayin’

I loved watching the Expos play ball. When the pitcher came up to hit I knew I could go to the bathroom, get a drink, make a pass at my girlfriend/wife; anything that took the same amount of time as a strike out. Then, if their was the old NL double switch I had something to watch and think about. I really miss that as a regular feature in my life. But, no doubt about it, I prefer designatedhitterball.

You know what I think I’ll do? When I head to the States next season I do believe I’ll include me so Feesh games as well as some Cubs games. Florida is not that far from Illinois is it? Don’t matter. I’ll figure it out come the time, but I want to see for myself if that stadium you lot got there is as bad as you say it is. I read somewhere that I won’t have trouble finding a seat.

Well, thbbbbbtt, to both of you. Thbbbbbt I say! I hope the drool hits you. I like the DH. They can hit. Most are spare 1st basemen, right fielders, or flat out sluggers who aren’t as defensively talented as someone else. If we leave Posada out of this that is. Jorge is a situation all by himself.

In fact I like NL rules too. I can see both sides of this thing and sometimes I watch Al games, sometimes NL and I like them equally. I say leave it alone. I like the 2 league system.

The Phillies have a prospect in Matt Rizzotti who is almost useless to them because he’s a lefty hitting first baseman. One of their top prospects is Jonathon Singleton, a lefty hitting first basemen who they’ve been trying to force into left field. They had to trade Jim Thome away for 10 cents on the dollar because of Ryan Howard. The Reds have Yonder Alonso wasting away in Louisville because he’s not gonna take at-bats away from Votto. They were vilified for taking alonso in the first place.

No one would call the Yankees or Red Sox stupid for drafting a first basemen because Texeira and Gonzalez are gonna be there for the next decade, because bashers can always DH. They’re still a possible destination for Pujols or Fielder.

If the Braves were picking 15th in this year’s draft and they had a catcher as their top ranked player, they’d probably pass because they have McCann. If the Twins were in the same position, they’d probably take the catcher because they could move him or Mauer to DH.

Further, who wants to see a pitcher risk getting hurt by swinging the bat or running the bases (see Chin-Ming Wang). Much more entertaining — for me — to see a pitcher try to get professional hitters out as opposed to facing the functional equivalent of a college player every ninth batter.

Why stop at the pitchers? Why should a hitter like Ted Williams have to play LF? Should we have some guy that can really field with a great arm and speed play LF for him. Should another guy with great speed run the bases for him when he gets on? What makes the game great is that a player (yes, even a pitcher) has to hit, field, and run. Teams balance players out in all those areas. It makes for a more interesting mix and IMO a better game.