Expert: Tom Schott - 6/16/2009

Question
Can't find this answer. Any idea where I can locate batting stats between NL pitchers and AL DH's?
Out of town family is sickenly pro pitcher taking up a spot in the batting lineup.

Answer
Jim,

Yes, you can go to www.baseball-reference.com and click on "leagues." After figuring what year you're interested in, click on "batting +" and then "league splits"

Here you will get a full breakout by position for all the relevant hitting stats.

For example, in 2008, AL designated hitters were .256 / .339 / .435
as opposed to the NL pitchers for that year at  .140 / .178 / .177

But what does this prove? That you get better hitters with the DH? This is certainly not surprising.

For or against the DH is a matter of taste, I suppose. Frankly, although I'm definitely an AL guy, I wish they did not use the DH.