From the very moment Ron Blomberg stepped to the plate on April 6, 1973, the designated hitter rule has been one of the most heated arguments in all of baseball. With this being the penultimate year of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, the traditionalist who dislike the DH appear to be losing the argument as it is oft reported the universal DH is a fait accompli.

Much of the arguments in support of a universal DH surround aesthetics of the game while rationalizing the implementation will be good for the game. What is interesting about many of these arguments is the underlying data is rarely analyzed. To that end, here is a look at the current data and the universal DH arguments.

No One Wants To See Pitcher’s Hit

Looking at attendance figures, the last time an AL team had the highest attendance was 2010. This year, three of the top five and six of the top 10 teams in attendance were NL teams. By the same token, nine of the worst 11 teams in attendance were AL teams.

This is something which holds true year-in and year-out. If the DH is really a drawing point for fans, it’s not showing up in attendance figures.

Pitchers Kill Rallies

The scenario always painted is based loaded, two outs, your team down one, and you lose because the pitcher comes up to the plate. Frankly, this doesn’t happen.

On that front, from the seventh inning on, NL pinch hitters have a 78 wRC+. That’s slightly higher than AL ninth place hitters with their 77 wRC+. Fact is, when the game is on the line, NL and AL teams are sending the same caliber of hitter to the plate.

As for the pitchers being rally killers, it’s hard to argue they’re not even if the case is grossly overstated. In 2019, there were 2,079 PA by batters with two outs and runners in scoring position. Only 97 of those PA (4.7%) were from pitchers.

Really, as we move towards increased bullpen use, pitchers are not batting much at all. In 2019, Stephen Strasburg led all pitchers in plate appearances averaging 2.3 plate appearances per game. This is just further evidence pitchers are out of the game with the game on the line.

Really, when you break it down, pitchers aren’t getting the plate appearances in high leverage situations proponents of the DH want you to believe.

DH Means More Offense

Now, there’s no doubting a DH is a better hitter than a pitcher. After all, in 2019, DHs had a 104 wRC+ as compared to the pitchers -18 wRC+. That’s an astronomical difference. Even with the difference between the two, it’s not making the difference in run scoring and offense as people will have you believe.

In 2019, NL teams hit .251/323/.431, and AL teams hit .253/.323/.439. On average, NL teams scored 4.8 runs per game, and AL teams scored 4.9 runs per game.

Even with disparity in the caliber of hitter a DH is to a pitcher or even a NL pinch hitter, in terms of runs per game, there isn’t a real discernible difference between the leagues. The reason for that, as noted above, most pitchers get two PA per game, and pitchers not batting in high leverage situations.

DH Keeps Veterans Around Longer

This has always been a curious argument. At its core, this argument is saying fans would want to see older players with diminishing skills over exciting young players.

Putting that aside, that’s not how teams utilize the DH. Last year, the 10 batters who had the most PA as a DH were:

If you’re looking to discern a pattern here, it is these are players teams have decided they don’t want in the field. That applies to the 22 year old reigning AL Rookie of the Year to the 2013 AL MVP.

Looking at Cabrera, he is a DH not because teams want to see him finish up his Hall of Fame career and give him a chance to put more numbers. Rather, it is because he has a long-term deal, and the Tigers have to play him somewhere.

Cabrera and players like Cruz are a dying breed in the AL. Teams are increasingly using the DH for poor fielders or as a way to keep players fresh. Accordingly, Hall of Famers like Vladimir Guerrero aren’t being given the same opportunities to hang on to compile for a few years at the end of their careers because teams want to move in a new direction.

Pitcher Injury Concerns

Whenever this issue comes up, we undoubtedly hear about Chien-Ming Wang‘s season ending injury. It was unfortunate, but let’s revisit it.

Wang injured himself running. It did not occur into a base or in a collision with a fielder. Rather, he injured himself stepping on a base. Realistically speaking, this is no different, than pitchers running to cover first, which is something Wang had done countless times.

Another factor with respect to Wang’s unfortunate injury was it occurred over a decade ago, and we haven’t seen another pitcher suffer a similar injury since that time. We also very rarely see pitchers suffer injuries batting, and those who do rarely suffer significant injuries.

When re-examining Wang’s injury, this is something which happens maybe once a decade, and perhaps not even that frequently.

MLB Is Only League Where Pitchers Hit

This is just flat out false. In fact, the NPL Central League also has pitchers batting. When you look at it that way, the two very best professional baseball leagues have pitchers batting.

In the minors, we also will see pitchers batting when NL affiliates square off against one another.

Overall, when you incorporate Triple-A, three of the absolute best baseball leagues in the world have pitchers batting. In reality, it is only the lesser professional leagues who have implemented the universal DH.

Perhaps, this is indicative of the substantial number of baseball fans who love the National League style of baseball. Those fans opine they prefer the strategy associated with the game. Whether or not you agree with them, the data shows the National League brand of baseball generates higher attendance and larger revenues while having a game with substantively speaking the same amount of offense.