Stephen Frazier gave up a long homer to Otis Nixon and said:
 SF> on his butt. And why do you confine it to just first basemen? Secondly,
 SF> which NL first baseman would you replace with one of your DHs?
Fred McGriff for starters. Hell, I'll even add Mitchell in LF (Especially 
since Cincinnati felt that they could easily replace him). Ryan Klesko is 
another. That's for starters.
Why don't some of the DHs play first? Well, in the case of a player like 
Frank Thomas, his pride cometh before the team's benefit. They could replace 
him with a better fielder but his pride won't let him admit that the team 
would be better off.
 SF> True, but pitchers have to be multi-dimensional in the AL. And if you
 SF> say there is less or no strategy in the NL, then I think I can see you
 SF> don't really know baseball.
I've been watching baseball LONG before there was a DH and even back then I 
felt that pitchers were useless as batters.
 SF> Punting indeed! Do you know how many pitchers in the NL have been
 SF> used as pinch hitters?
I don't have the numbers from this year but I will soon. As for 1995, 13 NL 
pitchers were used as pinch hitters and none of the usual suspects (Glavine, 
Smoltz, Maddux, etc.) were used. For all that effort, they went 2 of 11.
 SF> Do you know how many NL pitchers have more homers and RBI than some
 SF> position players in EITHER league?
Gee, I'm sure that ANY pitcher that hits one home run or drives in one run 
can find a player that they've *beaten* in the other league. For the most 
part, they're useless. If they weren't, they wouldn't be asked to bunt as 
much as they are.
 SF>  You are obviously thinking of what happens when your average
 SF> AMERICAN league pitcher strides to the plate with a bat in his
 SF> hand:)
Funny, Todd Stottlemyre, who had all of 1 career AB in the AL, was one of the 
"better" hitting pitchers when he moved over to the NL last year.
 SF> Actually, it's the AL 19-17 but who's counting?
You are and you're right, I miscounted one.
 SF> It's a test of the two teams on the field, which is all we have right
 SF> now.
Puhleeze. Why is it "all we have right now" and the World Series isn't?
--- TrekEd 1.00
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