[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

What strategy? I see NL fans talk about this all the time, but it just doesn't exist anymore. I always found the "strategy" argument to be overrated, and modern evolution of baseball has made it even more so.



My points:



1) The decisions on whether to let the pitcher hit should ALWAYS have been straightforward and an easy call 90 percent of the time. It isn't that difficult unless you're a stone-cold moron like Mike Matheny. Same thing with the double switch. If you have a working understanding of baseball, the calls weren't hard.



2) Teams realizing you shouldn't let 90 percent of SP face a lineup the 3rd time through has made the decision even easier/more automatic.



3) Pitchers have become so bad at hitting, watching them hit is like watching an athlete from another sport try to hit. It used to be that pitchers, on average, could approximate around 60 percent of the value of a regular everyday player. Not that bad. It's down to 35-40 percent.



4) Associated with teams not letting SP go into the 3rd time through the lineup, SP just don't go as deep as they used to go. If they're getting pulled after the 5th or 6th anyway, the "strategy" of the decision is taken away.



5) For all the "strategy" that comes around letting the pitcher hit in the 5th or 6th inning, you have the 2nd, 3rd, 4th... when pitchers kill lots of rallies and also take the bat out of the 8th place hitter's hand, as well.



6) The specialization of the bullpen and extreme focus on power arms and power stuff has made pinch hitting even more challenging. PH used to be able to come in and give a quality at-bat and maybe take advantage of a tiring SP. Now, they're coming in to face a flamethrower (and possibly a flamethrower who comes in specifically to have a hand-on-hand matchup advantage, though some ability to do this will be restricted by the 3-batter minimum).

Exactly what I was getting at there hasn't been strategy in the game in a long time.

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