Baseball - Bonus Batter article

Jersey

Today while waiting for an oil change on my car I read an article in a sports magazine about how baseball has changed (not sure of the magazine or the issue). The article said that hitting has gone down resulting in an overall lower batting average due to the abundance of power pitchers. It talked about how maybe there should be a change to how baseball is played to allow for each team to use a Bonus Batter one time during the game. That would allow each manager to choose any one point in the game in which he can substitute ANY of his players to hit - even if that player hit before. So, for example, if David Ortiz got intentionally walked and is on first base, the manager could have someone else run for Ortiz and have Ortiz hit again as the next batter. This, supposedly, would make the game more exciting. Has anyone else heard of this before? Personally, I don't like it just as I don't like the designated hitter. It would ruin all past statistics and I think that statistics and records are important to baseball and its history. What do you think?

1985fan

I've never heard of it before, and to be honest, presents a logistical nightmare. In addition to your point about stats having their value reduced, the fundamental way the game being changed wouldn't be worth the incremental increase in offense.

I don't know if there is a fix - and I wonder if it's the natural evolution of the game as it slips more and more from national prominence and other sports like the NBA rise up to take those players who would have naturally gone to baseball. Baseball costs fundamentally more than basketball to play at the youth level, and I think this lack of production from the bats is only going to continue to go down.

JoeBanzai

I think NOT!

Brick

I would like them to return to the old rule that allowed the batter to designate the location of the pitch.