The Designated Hitter: The American League's Unfair Advantage

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Since its inception the American League has dominated in season inter-league play.  Up through the 2008 season the American league had a record of 1536 wins and 1420 losses.

The American League has also dominated the All-Star game having not lost since 1996.  However, this isn't a fair measure of which league is better because a league can easily have the best group of 25-35 stars but still be the weaker league. 

A more appropriate measure is success in the playoffs.  Since the American League adopted the designated hitter in 1973 they have won 20 of the 35 World Series played.  In the 17 World Series' played since 1991 the American League has won 11 of them.

The American League has dominated almost every aspect of baseball success since installing the designated hitter.

The reason for this dominance is fairly simple.  Half of the time when playing a National League club the American League has one extra starting quality player.

When general manager is putting his team together prior to the season he is looking to allocate the bulk of his teams funds to starting pitching and starting quality everyday offensive players.  Certainly some of the teams funds must be spent on bench players and depth, as they play a significant role on any championship run. 

However, they are paid far less than starting players.

In both the American League and National League General Managers will spend a large portion of team funds on pitching.  Where the difference lies is on offense.

And American League club will allocate funds for nine starting quality offensive players.  Whereas a National League club will spend money on only eight starting quality offensive players, probably spending slightly more their bench.

Now, when in a National League ballpark both teams will have to bat their pitchers.  There is no discernable difference between AL and NL pitchers.  They are all equally awful.  Free agency and pitching-centric routines strip pitchers of any hitting talents they may have leaving all if not most completely useless.

One might argue that in an NL park the AL team is at a disadvantage because they might have to play their DH on defense because they can't afford to lose their offense (see David Ortiz for the Red Sox teams). 

This is certainly reasonable and likely does slightly hurt some teams defensively.  However, national league clubs also have defensively challenged players who they need because of offense and play them just the same.  The difference is probably negligible in most situations.

Everything changes when you are in an AL park.  Here, the teams are permitted to use a DH.  The AL team likely has a quality DH who they are paying well to be a quality DH.  He was part of their plans the entire time and he is likely a starting quality offensive player.

However, in an AL park most NL teams don't have a starting quality offensive player to slip into that DH role.  Most NL teams do one of two things.  Either start their best offensive bench player at DH or put their weakest defensive starter into the DH role and start a good defensive player from the bench in his place on the field. 

In both situations the extra player who plays because of the DH rule (I will call him the 9th man) is a player who when signed was considered a bench player and paid as one.   He is not a starting quality offensive player.

So in an AL park during inter league play or the world series the AL is starting nine starting quality offensive players whereas the NL is starting eight starting quality offensive players and one bench quality offensive player. 

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?