The DH will hurt the St. Louis Cardinals because the team has too much pitching depth

It’s not just that I hate the designated hitter on principle. Guilty as charged. But I’m also disappointed to see the DH rear its ugly head in the National League because it’s going to mitigate the biggest positive the St. Louis Cardinals have to offer.

The Cardinals don’t have a lot of power. They don’t make a lot of contact. They don’t intimidate with their stolen base prowess. Their defense is better than the depths it reached a few years ago. But they probably aren’t a threat to pile up the Gold Gloves in 2020. The thing that the Cardinals can hang their hat on is pitching. It doesn’t have five aces. But the club has depth in spades. The Cardinals might be able to lose two starting pitchers and not miss a beat.

When you’re playing a short season of 60 games crammed into two months, I’d be tempted to get experimental. With an abbreviated spring schedule and a lack of exhibition games to stretch out your starters, I think it would be a good idea to let you starters pitch three innings or until their turn in the batting order came up, whichever came first. Pinch hit for them, turn over the lineup, and move to your next starter on the list. Once you get to the sixth inning, you can get into your bullpen. So, basically, you have starters pitch 2-3 innings every third day. As the season rolls on and the starters build up strength, you can groom guys for the playoffs and let your top two or three starters work five or six innings.

The problem with the DH is that you can’t use the pitcher’s spot to manipulate your order when you change hurlers. You have to set a DH who stays in the same spot all the time. If you’ve got JD Martinez as your DH hitting .320 with power, that’s great. But if you’ve got Matt Carpenter batting .215 and struggling terribly against lefty pitchers, you get what you get every time through the order. I’d rather see a lead-off type come off the bench in the top of the third with no one on and no one out or a guy who could drive the ball deep if you have a runner at third and less than two outs.

If the Cardinals changed starters every two or three innings, it’s an advantage other teams with less depth aren’t going to be able to match. Look at the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs who invested heavily in the front end of their rotations. They have to get their money’s worth out of their one and two pitchers. They lose too much if they take them out for a pinch hitter. So they’re forced to hurt their offense. With the DH, they can leave their ace in the game without sacrificing any performance at the plate.

A lot of people seem to think that using a six-man rotation is a good idea for teams in this unique short season. But I think that hurts the Cardinals in a couple of different ways. First, if you’re committed to using six starters it takes the guy who is probably your best middle innings long reliever out of the mix. Second, while that long reliever might be a great asset bailing you out if you starter is hurt or just having a bad day, there’s a reason he didn’t make the top five. He wasn’t as good as the other guys over six plus innings as a starter. So why commit to using a lesser pitcher every sixth day? Excellent starting pitchers don’t grow on trees. Unless Alex Reyes is miraculously back to throwing the way he did three or four years ago and everyone else is perfectly healthy, it seems like using six starters is tying manager Mike Shildt’s hands and limiting the way the Cardinals can use their best asset.

Versatility can be a manager’s best friend. Giving hitters different looks and making them face hurlers they haven’t seen ever before — or at least lately. If you look at the statistics for pitchers, in almost every case, their batting average against and slugging average against rise from the first two the second time through the lineup and again from the second to the third. Furthermore, the (stupid) new rule requiring bullpen pitchers to face at least three batters each appearance is going to change the way relievers are deployed. Gone are the days when pitchers will come in to face specific batters. Now relievers are going to face more of an inning-by-inning role. That’s likely to spill over to the starting pitchers who could be pulled earlier than ever before. Why not if you’re going to have to use your bullpenner for a whole inning? You’re going to use guys less often and you’re going to lose them longer per appearance. Managers might as well get their money’s worth.

It’s going to be interesting, especially with key reliever John Brebbia out for a year because of Tommy John surgery, to see how Shildt rolls out his hurlers in this spring of a season. But it would have been even more interesting if this wasn’t the year the DH made is long-dreaded appearance.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.