One Important Rule Change
How to keep position player's from pitching and other notes
Three things from the past couple of weeks:
A New Rule for the DH
I personally loved the pitcher’s spot being in the lineup in the National League for 146 seasons. But I accepted that fans were sick of seeing pitchers in the batter’s box. Teams were sick of risking the health of their arms. The final season without the universal DH, 2021, saw pitchers hit .110, managing just 462 hits in 4,196 at bats. They also laid down 425 sacrifices. But chicks do not dig the bunt and so baseball added the DH to both leagues. Now every professional league in the world has a designated hitter.
So we can agree that the move was in the interest of entertainment. No one wants to see pitchers hit, so we put a rule in to close that chapter of baseball. From 2021 to 2022, the 9-hole hitter’s batting average shot up from .166 to .234 in the National League, plus 80 more home runs.
Do we also agree that position players pitching is terrible entertainment as well? It’s also unfair to the winning team.
Let’s start with facts. In 2025, 28 teams have marched a position player onto the mound. The Dodgers lead the way with 194 pitches thrown this season by non-pitchers. That’s the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are paying their pitching staff $156,871,688 this season, yet have put a position player on the mound in 9 games this season, or 10% of their games played. Nobody paying $100 or more to get into Dodger Stadium came to watch Kiké Hernandez (average pitch velocity of 54.1mph) or Miguel Rojas (47.9mph) lobbing pitches that barely reach the plate.
And it’s getting worse. In 2023, MLB added that position players can pitch only if the situation meets one of three criteria: extra innings, the losing team is down by at least 8 runs, or if the winning team is up 10 or more in the 9th. In 2008, three position players pitched. And all three averaged at least 72mph: Jamie Burke (81.8), Tony Pena Jr. (86.0) and Aaron Miles (72.2). In 2025, we are already at 45 different players just past halfway through the season. Only 4 have an average pitch speed above 70mph, and 15 are below 50mph. I bet over half the people I’ve interviewed could top 50.
Why is it a bad thing? Aside from just looking stupid, it’s an unfair advantage to the team using a position player. If a team gets blown out, naturally that means the pitching staff got rocked and had to throw a lot of pitches. Do that in the first game of a series and suddenly the entire strategy changes for the losing team. Having to burn through your bullpen to slog through 9 innings means you won’t have as many arms the next day or two. Maybe the starter needs to give you a couple extra innings the next night to give the pen a break. And maybe knowing that, that starter eases up a tad to save something in reserve for the 6th or 7th inning. And then the opposing lineup gets easier pitches. And when they get to the bullpen, they’re facing either less talented arms forced into high-leverage situations, or tired arms who had to pitch the 8th inning of a 15-4 loss the night before.
Now that you can bring a position player in to finish off a game that you weren’t coming back to win anyway, you save a few innings on your pitching staff for tomorrow. And maybe you’re up 2-1 in the 8th and you now have a fresh setup man ready to help lock down a win. What’s the upside of blowing a team out then? Wouldn’t you be better off winning by only 7, a comfortable lead but at least they have to use a real pitcher?
I have two ideas to put an end to this. Because remember, if we got rid of pitchers hitting because no one wanted to watch it, we can get rid of players pitching, too. First, we could set a minimum velocity. Kind of like how NASCAR has a minimum lap speed. The average position player pitch speed this season is 58mph, the average by a regular pitcher is 89mph. Maybe if you don’t top 64mph, you’re tossed. Of course, that would probably get someone hurt, either the hitter or the thrower.
Instead, here’s the rule. Teams can use a position player in any game at any time, no more criteria to meet. But if you do, you automatically sacrifice the DH for your next game. Meaning if you bring your backup shortstop in to throw an inning, tomorrow you’ve gotta have your pitcher in the lineup. You’re going to have to choose between using an extra pitcher in this game, or most likely having to use extra ones tomorrow because you pinch hit for your pitcher in the 4th inning and took him out early. It’s a simple rule that should halt this nonsense. Right now, teams can use this trick to punt on a game they’re going to lose anyway to better position themselves tomorrow. This rule will close that loophole so that if you do choose to throw in the towel, you put yourself in an even worse starting position the next day.
And if the Dodgers complain? Maybe they should have spent some of that $150mil on some arms that can stay off the IL.
Pitchers Can Still Be Stars
The Brewers had their largest crowd of the season… on a Wednesday afternoon game in June! And against the last place Pirates, too! The crowd of 42,774 was bigger than even the home opener as fans packed American Family Field to see rookie Jacob Misiorowski match up against Paul Skenes. Skenes is the reigning Rookie of the Year, soon-to-be two-time All-Star, and as of this morning has a career ERA of 1.95 in 42 starts. Misiorowski is a top pitching prospect who debuted in June and was 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA for the month. On top of that, his fastball averages 99.2mph, and he’s already thrown 68 fastballs over 100mph in just 4 starts. That’s already the second most among all starting pitchers in the league this season. So the 6’7” righty is already a mix of Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan… if they averaged less than 5 innings a start.
Though the state of starting pitching is at an all-time low in baseball history, games like this prove that star power on the mound still matters. Yes, the big-name position players are a draw. When Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers visit, the home team makes a lot of progress toward their ticket revenue goal. But even Aaron Judge can’t homer every game, and the best hitters still have 0/4 nights while batting every couple innings. With an exciting starting pitcher scheduled, you can buy tickets early and know your guy will be there delivering. When he’s going against another star, it generates even more buzz as both pitchers elevate their games to see who blinks first.
I don’t know the answer to pitcher health, but I do hope we’ve reached the low point of starting pitchers lasting barely 5 innings and turning into a march of the bullpens. While I was still in California from around 2008-2011, I had the luxury of going to either Giants or A’s games, and I would often go whenever the starting pitcher was worth the bridge toll. Tim Lincecum was must-see. Dan Haren was fun. Tim Hudson was my favorite. Felix Hernandez in Oakland was great, as well.
If I’m in a leadership position in MLB, I’m looking at the huge crowd on an otherwise rainy afternoon in Milwaukee, where the crowd was 17,000 fans fuller than their weekday average to date, and realizing star pitchers are the golden goose. Whatever keeps them on the mound 6, 7, 8 or *gasp* 9 innings and out of elbow braces, we have to try to save starting pitching.
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