Also that headline is hyperbole. Welcome to my blog!<\/p>\n
Let’s get one thing straight: the DH does not actually add “value” to any AL hitting lineup.<\/p>\n
That’s also hyperbole, but not by much. Or rather, it depends on what that notion of value <\/em>is compared against.<\/p>\n So let’s get started.<\/p>\n Baseball is an evolving sport, always. It might seem quirky but it’s only recently (starting in 2013) that the two leagues that comprise the Majors<\/em> have each had 15 teams; so they’re numerically even now. Over the decades Major League Baseball has expanded with additional teams, who then got slotted into divisions, whose teams then bounced around divisions, and a few even traded leagues (illustrated in this 2010-era Yahoo! diagram<\/a>, but most recently with the migration of the Houston Astros to the AL West (again so that each League would be 15 teams, consisting of three divisions of 5 teams each)).<\/p>\n The long-story short there is capitalism now drives the great American pastime, with both big money<\/a> and big data<\/a> driving how team value is understood.<\/p>\n But it could be a whole lot simpler than that.<\/p>\n Again, for three years now each league has consisted of 15 teams in three divisions each consisting of five teams, what value does the DH really add to the AL?<\/p>\n Well if you win games by scoring Runs, what does the DH do for that statistic?<\/p>\n Here are the numbers*:<\/p>\n *only caveat is these numbers assume all 15 teams in each league played all 162 games (i.e. no canceled games due to weather, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n
\n <\/th>\n American League<\/th>\n National League<\/th>\n difference<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2013 RUNS scored<\/td>\n 10,028<\/td>\n 9243<\/td>\n 785<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2014 RUNS scored<\/td>\n 9636<\/td>\n 9109<\/td>\n 527<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2015 RUNS scored<\/td>\n 10,142<\/td>\n 9508<\/td>\n 634<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
![this 2010-era Yahoo! diagram<\/a>, but most recently with the migration of the Houston Astros to the AL West (again so that each League would be 15 teams, consisting of three divisions of 5 teams each)).<\/p>\nThe long-story short there is capitalism now drives the great American pastime, with both big money<\/a> and big data<\/a> driving how team value is understood.<\/p>\nBut it could be a whole lot simpler than that.<\/p>\nAgain, for three years now each league has consisted of 15 teams in three divisions each consisting of five teams, what value does the DH really add to the AL?<\/p>\nWell if you win games by scoring Runs, what does the DH do for that statistic?<\/p>\nHere are the numbers*:<\/p>\n](\"https:\/\/www.nicknormal.com\/normalblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/1271813900.jpg\"){kind=link}