Under new rules for this abbreviated season delayed by the coronavirus, all games will include the designated hitter -- knocking NL pitchers right out of the batter's box.
"Well, obviously my thoughts don't really matter," said a smiling Bumgarner, the Arizona Diamondbacks newcomer who leads active pitchers with 19 career home runs. "I do what I'm told. I'll sit there and pitch and that's it for now. I think that's obviously where everybody wants the game to go, so it is what it is."
No more one-in-a-million surprises from funny-looking pitchers at the plate -- like Bartolo Colon's rousing home run in 2016, and Dae-Sung Koo's long double off Hall of Famer Randy Johnson in 2005."I get it for this year, but I hope it doesn't continue," said Milwaukee Brewers All-Star starter Brandon Woodruff, a .267 hitter last season who homered off Clayton Kershaw in the 2018 NL Championship Series.
Curiously, the push away from pitchers hitting comes at a progressive time when creative teams seem much more inclined to experiment with two-way players than in the past. Accomplished starters such as Wainwright, Masahiro Tanaka, Steven Wright, Carlos Zambrano, Chien-Ming Wang and more have been hurt hitting or running the bases in recent memory. That can infuriate the executives paying those pitchers and making big plans based on their valuable arms, not their offence.
"Do I want to hit? Of course, because I got a taste of it last year and now it's gone, stripped from me. Unbelievable."
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