Designated Hitters are Fielders, Too
Discussion in the Bayside West: Yokohama forum
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Re: Designated Hitters are Fielders, Too
[ Author: PLNara | Posted: Jul 27, 2009 9:02 AM
| HT Fan
]
Interesting. A lot of the NPB DH switches seem to be either regular starters getting some time at DH, or guys getting lifted for pinch runners, or otherwise situations where the DH position does not get another turn at bat. There are so few instances of this in the NPB games that there's no real trend, except the Bobby seemed to do it a lot in 2007-8. I haven't seen nearly enough Korean baseball to comment intelligently on the KBO usage. It would be interested in looking at lineup shuffling during games in general and look at who's done that the most and what results it's had. This is what I love about SABR & hobby analysis -- people come up with stuff I would never think of.
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First of all, while gathering data for the KBO, which uses the designated hitter (hereinafter referred to as DH), over the past couple of years, one thing that I've noticed is that the DH is often enteres into games in the field. I wanted to know how often or rare that was in Japan and under what circumstances it occurs in both the NPB and KBO. So the first thing I did was compare the frequency with which the DH enters the field over the past three years in Japan and two years in Korea. That turns out to be 8, 5, and 8 (so far this season) respectively in Japan, and 81 times in 2008 with 51 times so far this season in Korea. That's a huge difference.
Going through and looking at box scores of such games, there are those like the April 21, 2007 Lotte vs. Rakuten game at Fullcast Stadium where, wanting to get a rally going with 1 out, a runner on, and a new pitcher coming in, Valentine-kantoku sent in pinch hitter Hori in place of starting catcher Hashimoto. Satozaki, the starting DH, then came into the came behind the place from the 7th inning on, with the pitcher coming in in the pinch hitter's spot. We then have a pinch hitter for the pitcher later.
But the DH coming into the game before the 8th inning is still fairly rare in the occurrences in Japan. The Eagles vs. Fighters game on May 15, 2007 at Tokyo Dome is much more common. In this case, Rakuten's DH Yamasaki was pinch run for in the 12th inning after leading off with a walk. Shiokawa was the pinch runner, he eventually came around to score the winning run, and stayed in the game at third base. Starting third baseman Rick Short came out for the pitcher in the lineup. Here it was late in the game, and putting a faster runner on for the DH makes sense. Shiokawa is/was a sure handed third baseman (and utility infielder), so he was left in.
The rest of the NPB examples are more the exception then the norm. Basically, they show when the DH is brought into the field early in the game.
But in the KBO, just scanning box scores during the first couple of months revealed a good number of games that were the exception, i.e. the DH came in early.
Well, the first example isn't necessarily early. On April 11, 2008, down by 3 runs in the top of the 9th, the SK Wyverns needed to get something going. So with 2 on and nobody out, J.H. Kim came into the game pinch hitting for shortstop J.H. Na. While he flew out, the Wyverns managed to tie the game. G.W. Jeong moved from second to shortstop and DH J.B. Chae entered the game at second base. While mainly a second baseman, Jeong plays some third base and short.
Oh, and one other thing that I noticed is that the Wyverns, who have been pretty dominant in Korea the past few years, seem to be involved in a lot of these games where managers are employing any and all tactics to win, both on the Wyverns site and their opponents.
Still, I found it interesting that the Wyverns let pitcher W.H. Kim bat in the 11th inning against the KIA Tigers on May 27, 2008 at Gwangju Stadium - and Kim struck out and stole first on the past ball! Nothing came of that as it was the pinch hitter for Kim, J.H. Kim, who hit a grand slam an inning later to win the game for SK.
Nonetheless, looking through countless box scores in both leagues, it struck me that the starting designated hitter really doesn't come in that often. More often than not it's the pinch hitter for the DH that takes up a position in the field. So how often does the starting DH take the field?
Lotte's Satozaki is the only NPB player to start as the DH and enter the game as a position player twice. And it was not lost upon a slightly frustrated Lotte fan that Bobby doesn't mind pulling this trick out of his hat.
Looking at Korea:
D.S. Choi has been brought into the field most often of all the starting designated hitters, 8 times, each time coming in at first base. But then, he's a fairly regular first baseman while not the DH, so this tactic seems to be used fairly often by the LG Twins.
However, S.H. Hong has only played 4 games at first base so far this season for the Lotte Giants (he was with the Doosan Bears previously), three of them after starting as the Lotte DH. Far and away, Hong is more of a DH-only player.
After completing this, I still had many more questions. For example, what is the average lineup size? The April 7, 2009 12 inning tie between the Doosan Bears and Hanwha Eagles saw 19 players on the batting lineup for Hanwha. With so many designated hitters going onto the field, creating situations where pitchers enter and are pinch hit for, how common is that? I'd like to investigate further who the DH-only hitters are and who platoons at DH. How often do the numerous pinch runners for DHs come around to score?
Well, I guess that those questions will have to wait for another study. I hope you enjoyed this one, as short as it was.