Run scoring has been down recently in baseball. There are many reasons for this. There has been a resurgence of high quality
pitching. Pitching specialization has
become very common (righties vs. righties, lefties vs. lefties). The past few years the number of defensive
shifts has increased exponentially, taking away the areas towards which batters
most commonly hit. As a result, hitting
is down all across baseball. Now I’m the
type of person who loves watching pitching duels (call me crazy). But I do also enjoy good hitting. There have been a lot of ideas to aid
hitters. So I thought I would introduce
an idea of my own. Baseball should
eliminate the intentional walk.
Now hear me out on this.
I’m not saying pitchers couldn’t pitch around batters they don’t want to
face. There is no realistic way of doing
that. But the catcher putting his hand
out and sidestepping out from behind the plate would not be allowed. If pitchers wanted to, they could still just
not throw strikes to the batter and put him on base. However, they would have to execute those
pitches, with the catcher behind the plate.
These pitches would be much closer to the zone and therefore, there
would be much less margin for error. And
as intentional walks are typically given to the better hitters in the lineup,
these hitters would be more adept at hitting any mistakes from the
pitchers. Another factor to consider is
that intentional walks are given when there is at least one runner in scoring
position. So if pitchers are forced to
throw closer to the zone, where mistakes will be more common, to batters who
are better at hitting mistake pitches, logic would dictate there should be at
least a small increase in runs scored.
And also intentional walks are usually given in crucial moments of the game,
often when the game is very close. So
this could potentially lead to big impacts in games.
One counterpoint that comes to mind to this argument is that
if pitchers are doing well, shouldn’t they be able effectively pitch around
batters, even without an intentional walk? Maybe. “Unintentional
intentional walks” generally get the job done.
However, I have two responses to that.
First, pitchers are still human and they will make mistakes, especially
with a much smaller margin for error.
Second, if pitchers are able to just pitch around batters, then doesn’t
that leave the intentional walk pointless?
Pitchers can just throw balls without having to go through the whole
routine. Either way, I think it would be better if the
intentional walk were simply eliminated.
I honestly do not think it serves a purpose.
Do you think I have a point?
Do you have any other arguments against my idea? Let me know what you
think!
2 comments:
It is interesting that you point out the "unintentional intentional" walk could lead to more offense. I did not think about that before, as I felt another base runner from the intentional walk could potentially increase runs. But any time a good hitter sees pitches, they could do something with it. I think that is a good reason to get rid of the intentional walk.
My only argument against it would be I think it would be more likely to throw wild pitches if the pitcher is unintentionally intentionally walking a batter, instead of the 4 soft toss balls they throw now. I don't think it's fair to force someone to do this if they have no intention at all of not walking the batter. As long as the catcher is behind the batters boxes or plate, the pitcher should be able to throw it where they want and how they want.
I do agree though that it is pretty annoying when pitchers do it lol your debate has begun.
If your point is accurate that it could lead to more wild pitches, I think that further helps my case for increased offense, maybe not by hits but by wild pitches. Runs are runs. In any case, I feel the name of the game with pitching is execution, so make the pitchers execute their pitches if they want to walk someone. There should be at least a little risk.
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