Mark_Concannon's Blog

I am not a fan of the designated hitter but I am a fan of hitters, which are becoming a vanishing breed in Major League Baseball. In Tuesday's game at Miller Park, the Cardinals used two pitchers as pinch hitters. During last night's broadcast, Brewer announcers Brian Anderson and Bill Schroeder talked about how Milwaukee pitchers Dave Bush, Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra were in effect "auditioning" for pinch hitter roles any time they came up to bat.

What is going on here? It's simply a numbers game. There are 25 spots on a baseball roster. Most teams carry at least a dozen pitchers(The Brewers currently have 14) so that doesn't leave a lot of room for backup position players. The solution to this problem is a no-brainer. MLB needs to expand its rosters to 28 players.

The NFL has increased its team rosters from 40 to 53 players in recent years. Even the NBA now features 15 players per team instead of 12. Why isn't baseball following suit? Because once again the powers that be in this sport treat the game's rules like they were etched into marble and brought down from the mountain top. Change comes slowly to the big league diamond.

Fans want to enjoy the late inning strategy afforded by inserting pinch-hitters. But they want to see HITTERS; not someone who qualifies as a "good-hitting pitcher" by recording an average north of .150.

There are some purists who might argue the real problem is teams using too many pitchers. I don't disagree. In their 4-2,  9-inning win over the Phillies last week, the Mets summoned 7 different hurlers to the mound. We are now awash in 5th inning "set up" men. But that manager mind set is here to stay. The days of all 5 starters recording multiple complete games each season are as much a distant memory as pro footballers playing on both sides of the ball.

So expand the rosters to 28. And for heaven's sakes cap the number of pitchers at 14. Or else we'd have a bunch of jobs out there for third inning set up guys.