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National League vs American League (the debate)
Sorry guys, but I gotta start this up. I just watched a great Dodgers/Diamondbacks game that could have never been quite as interesting had it been in the American League.
The big difference between the two leagues is the designated hitter. Only in place in the American League, this is a position that comes to the plate in place of the pitcher. The DH doesn't go out on the field to play defense, so his ONLY job is to hit the ball and run the bases. This means that it's usually a power hitter.
The very presence of the DH turns the typical American League game into a hitting game. Since most of the lineup is capable of smacking the ball hard, very little attention is played to the little things like stealing bases, bunting and pinch hitting.
In the National League, there is no DH, so the pitcher has to bat as well. It's pretty much a forgone conclusion that the pitcher is a worthless hitter and 9 out of 10 times is just as good as an out. This gives rise to a whole new strategy when the games are close. If you're deep in the game and you have a successful pitcher on the mound, you're tied or down by a run, and his spot is coming up to bat: do you pinch hit for him or leave him in to make out, but continue to pitch the game?
The very presence of the pitcher in the lineup forces a complicated challenge of juggling spots in the lineup with pinch hitters and limited substitute players. Here's a good situation that happened today (maybe a few things incorrect, but it's still the same situation):
The Dodgers were down by 1 in the 8th inning. The hottest hitter in the league, Paul Lo Duca, was getting the day off, so he was on the bench. 1 out. The Dodgers NEEDED to make a run right then and there, and the catcher's spot was up the bat. David Ross was filling in at catcher for Lo Duca, but the manager Jim Tracy had decided to draw his ace from his deck and he lifted Ross for a pinch hitter, Jason Grabowski. The tactic here was to hold Paul Lo Duca over the D'backs heads. He wasn't gonna play his card yet, because 1st base was open and if he sent Lo Duca up there, they would just walk him.
Grabowski got a hit, followed by another hit from Alex Cora. They had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Paul Lo Duca still couldn't hit because 1st base was open for them to walk him, so they pinch hit for the pitcher with Robin Ventura. That's strategy. Now, unfortunately Ventura struck out. Dave Roberts drew a walk to load the bases, though. So now with 2 outs, bases loaded and nowhere to put Lo Duca, Jim Tracy put him in the game replacing Cesr Izturis, who just happened to be the Dodger's 3rd best hitter on a 14 game hitting streak. Now that's strategy of course, it didn't work out because Lo Duca, the league's hardest man to strike out, struck out. Oh well. But the point of it all was that it was interesting, exciting and suspenseful to watch.
The Dodgers mounted a run in the 9th and the guy who replaced Grabowski in the lineup and Cesar Izturis on the field, Jose Hernandez, who was batting .366 at the time, was at the plate with 2 outs and a runner on 3rd. He struck out. Blame the hitting coach on that, but it goes to show that there is much more going on in a National League game.
There are other differences between NL and AL games. As mentioned, the AL is mostly about power and hits. The NL is more about strategy and manufacturing runs; stealing bases, sacrificing, squeezing, making contact. We saw the 2002 Angels incorporate these NL tactics into the AL game and they ended up as champions. As a result, we then started to see more AL teams pull the same tactics last year.
AL teams complain that they are at a disadvantage during Interleague play on the road because their game is disrupted by the loss of a key spot in the lineup AND their pitchers have EVEN LESS skill at hitting than the NL pitchers. This alone is a good reason to tip your hat at the National League.
That's baseball. Anyone care to disagree?
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