19 May 2011

Jim Leyland can take his DH and shove it

Tigers manager Jim Leyland, not one I've known to run his mouth, recently suggested that MLB do away with Interleague play.

In part, he said
"I think this was something that was certainly a brilliant idea to start with," Leyland said of interleague play. "But I think it has run its course. It's not really doing what it was supposed to -- there's no rivalries for most of the teams. I'm sure it helps the White Sox a little bit when they play the Cubs at their park, but it doesn't help Wrigley because they pack Wrigley anyway most of the time."
also:
"We play with the DH rules. The American League gets penalized, even though the record's been decent over the years. We get penalized. Their pitchers are hitting and bunting all year, and they get the advantage of letting their pitchers rest and using the DH when they come here, and we gotta use guys six straight days without Victor Martinez or Alex Avila or somebody. That's ridiculous. Totally ridiculous, and they ought to look into it."
Let's address each point he's making. "There's no rivalries for most teams." I will now personally list all the local interleague rivalries I can think of.
  • Cubs-White Sox (Red Line Rumble/Windy City Showdown)
  • Cardinals-Royals (I-70 Series/Show-me Series)
  • Brewers-Twins (I-94 Series)
  • Reds-Indians (Battle of Ohio)
  • Astros-Rangers (Lone Star Series)
  • Mets-Yankees (Subway Series)
  • Marlins-Rays (Citrus Series)
  • Nationals-Orioles (Beltway Series)
  • Dodgers-Angels (Freeway Series)
  • Giants-Athletics (Bay Bridge Series)
So you are left with the Pirates, Phillies, Braves, Padres, Rockies and Diamondbacks in the NL and the Tigers, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Mariners in the AL. Obviously you can't absolutely perfect the rivalries because there are 16 teams in the National League and 14 in the American League. But MLB is still making a somewhat efficient use of the possible rivalries, with only 10 out of a possible 30 teams not involved in an annual (or near-annual) local interleague series. Sorry Jim, but MLB isn't gonna balk about you as the minority without a rival in the NL.

Leyland's second point "[T]hey pack Wrigley anyway most of the time." I dunno if he's looked at attendence figure, but the Cubs haven't exactly been packing them in this year. The North Siders are averaging a paltry 35,030 per home game, or 85.1% of Wrigley's capacity. Compare that to 37,814 in 2010, 39,610 in 2009, and over 40,000 in both 2008 and 2007, and you get a sense of how attendance has dropped. As someone who has been to 2 games already, that 35k also a gross overestimate of the people who are actually at the game, which I would estimate can't be much over 20,000.

Now this May and June, attendance at both Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field will get a boost because the Crosstown Classic is always a big draw. But to think Wrigley is fine because it's packed all the the time is absolute ludicrous.

Third: "The American League gets penalized." Leyland even admits that the American League has performed better than the Senior Circuit in the past couple years. Sorry, but that's nothing but an understatement. The AL has enjoyed winning percentages of .531, .548, .591, .543, and and stratospheric .611 the past five years of interleague play. In the 14 years of interleague play, the AL has won more games 10 times, including all of the past 7 years. This is way more than what I would consider a slight advantage.

The biggest advantage the AL has in interleague play is the DH rule. Major League Baseball is the only major sports league in which there is a different set of rules for two sets of its teams. The DH rule changes the way teams are assembled. General managers of American League teams field a lineup knowing they will need to start 9 hitters each game. National League teams need not worry about this, and can "get by" with starting 8 hitters and a throwing the pitcher at the end of the batting order (unless it's Tony LaRussa of course).

Come interleague play at American League ballparks, National League teams are stuck with throwing their best bench players into the DH spot. American League teams must only teach pitchers the nominal of bunting when visiting NL stadiums. The DH rule is dumb enough to begin with, and the error is compounded when major league teams are not bound to the same rules. MLB should either do away with the DH completely (which it was fine with for nearly 100 years until 1973), or allow NL teams to put a designated hitter in the lineup. I'll make it quite clear that the DH should be completely eliminated, and I think more than a few people will agree with me.

So as we come upon another 2 months of interleague play, I'll be expecting more of the same, with the AL beating down the NL when the Senior Circuit is forced to make a bench player a regular in the lineup.

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