Hunt and Peck

Adam Wainwright on the Designated Hitter, The Shift, and Challenges - A Hunt and Peck

Waino for Commissioner!

By lil_scooter93 Jul 18, 2018, 1:00pm EDT

Adam Wainwright has been on the mend from an elbow injury since very early on in the season. That time on the shelf has given the veteran right-hander time to think. On Tuesday night during the All Star Game, Waino shared his thoughts on complicated issues.

On the DH:

Adding the DH to the national league is a bad idea in my opinion. The difference of the leagues is one of the beautiful things about baseball. The National League brand of baseball is a beautiful game, and I think, the way baseball is supposed to be played https://t.co/th1GESvd5u
— Adam Wainwright (@UncleCharlie50) July 17, 2018

Waino brings up a good point about how the differences in the leagues makes baseball unique. It almost appears to be a perfect compromise.

On Managers’ Challenges and Instant Replay:

Things to do for the game of baseball: 1. Get rid of Instant replay on every play. It should be for egregious errors only. A manager gets two flags... throw them right away or don’t. 2. Get rid of over the top shifts. Two guys on each side of the base. 3. No DH in the NL!
— Adam Wainwright (@UncleCharlie50) July 17, 2018

Waino is spot on here. Baseball was not meant to be seen a the minutia. It is a game played in real time. We are not meant to see if a runner left the base for a fraction of a second while the tag was applied, we are supposed to appreciate the speed and grace he used to get to the base before the ball. While getting the call correct is important, waiting around while a manager decides if he wants to challenge or not is boring. Either challenge or don’t.

On The Shift:

Things to do for the game of baseball: 1. Get rid of Instant replay on every play. It should be for egregious errors only. A manager gets two flags... throw them right away or don’t. 2. Get rid of over the top shifts. Two guys on each side of the base. 3. No DH in the NL!
— Adam Wainwright (@UncleCharlie50) July 17, 2018

Here’s what I’d like to know... I would argue (pretty confidently) that if you asked every major leaguer their opinion of the shift the results would be overwhelming. Pitchers and pos players hate the shift.
— Adam Wainwright (@UncleCharlie50) July 18, 2018

Also, one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone says “he hit it right into the shift.” On further review, there has been a player in that exact spot for over a 100 years. Just because the 3rd baseman caught it where the 2nd baseman always was. Yuck
— Adam Wainwright (@UncleCharlie50) July 18, 2018

The Shift has always been an interesting innovation, but it is interesting to hear that position players, not just pitchers, do not like it. A ban on the shift might just provide more of a challenge for innovators and result in something more interesting, but it also seems to be a drastic measure for something that might fade away in time.

These are definitely the most important tweets from Tuesday night. What do you think of Waino’s ideas?