@westside-steve said:

Sure....but since nearly all pitchers are notoriously poor hitters it never happens. There have been times when a pitcher had to hit because or substitution applying where the team "lost" its DH......but I know of no occasion where a team purposely made one of its pitchers a DH on his off day from pitching.

@westside-steve said:

hey guys I have a question for anybody that knows Major League Baseball rules better than me which should be all of you. Hypothetically could a pitcher also play DH in the games he's not pitching?

WSS

@browns149 said:

Seeing the defense step forward and play an offsides "trap" is lame IMO

@londonbrown said:

I should have been more specific, if there is a defender in the box, then the offense shouldn't be offsides.

@londonbrown said:

Well, just like cherry pickers in basketball, there would be ways to deal with these guys as well.

@browns149 said:

A player would just stand in the box for 90 minutes

@browns149 said:

Guaranteed the best hitter on almost every little league team in America is also a pitcher. They start specializing them in high school and it gets worse in professional baseball. Keep them hitting and they'll get there and then they may think twice about drilling someone.

@baconhound said:

the DH should be in both leagues.

Watching 42 year old 300lb Bartolo Colon hit is OBSCENE

There should be no offsides on players in the box. But players shouldn't be able to "Cherry pick" the whole time

@gftchris said:

Well, Major League baseball is not Little League, where the best kids could play any position. But, like Little League, it is not against the rules to move players around, including the pitcher. But in MLB each player is so specialized at their positions it doesn't work well to move people around. Especially pitchers. There are specialties within a pitching staff. You have the starters, the long relief, set up men, closers. Again, no, the rules don't require this kind of specialization, it is just a fact of life now in the MLB if you want to win.

Except for some utility men who can fill in at multiple positions, baseball players are not "jack of all trades, master of none". They are expected to be masters of their trade.

Plus, every player must bat.

Your proposal would change the structure of the game. My simple solution for soccer, eliminating the offsides rule, is sweet and simple....and no more revolutionary than when the NFL disallowed the bump and run. It opened up the game to provide more offense.

That is why you see in this draft the WRs at such a premium...and the RBs relegated to a lesser role.

Not trying to go all gipper and change the rules, mind you. But in cricket, particularly the limited overs variety, each bowler (pitcher) can only bowl a maximum of 10 out of 50 overs. So, you have 5-6 people out of the 11 who can bowl. You have 7-8 of the 11 who can bat, and you have of those a few 'all-rounders'.

But I'm sure there are reasons baseball's the way it is and if it works, don't change it.

The DH should be in both leagues

@gftchris said:

Some guys you might call fat could really play.....including the greatest ever:

@gftchris said:

They usually have to cart them to the plate and use a few people to prop him up. After he hits they have a designated runner to run the bases. He then gets carted to golden corral for the buffet.

@gftchris said:

Yea, but it rarely is an option. I just heard a stat this morning where pitchers...in both leagues, are batting all of .089. (yes, that would be very very bad for a regular player). On average I suspect that DHs bat close to .300. Only with very rare exceptions would a manager allow a pitcher to bat for himself if he could use a DH.

@the-gipper said:

I've seen pitchers pinch hit in games too. CC Sabathia has done a few times.

@westside-steve said:

Theoretically, sure. It may have happened at some point. There have been a few pitchers that have been really good hittlers.