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Am I the only one that finds the NL more challenging as opposed to Mancandy above? I never find that the decision is made for me. I often find myself struggling with whether to pull a pitcher who is having a great game in a close-fought contest when maybe some offense would help.
And in games where I have had to fight back, pulling pitchers in favour of batters, I find my bullpen greatly depleted when I do pull even and the game goes into extras.
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I share your opinion.
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More pinch hitting, more pitching changes, more double switches. That's all well and good. But it seems to me that all of those decisions are made for you. All you have to do is wake up the manager when the pitcher is supposed to hit so he can send out the best batter on your bench, or remind him to double check the lineup card before a pitching change so you can make a double switch once in a while.
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I guess I don't understand the point about the decision be made for you.
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Without the DH, the manager's actually required to make difficult choices. When do you bring in a pinch hitter? You have to weigh the need for offense with the loss of the player they're replacing, who may be much better defensively. When you do you pinch run? You can get a faster player on the base paths at the expense of losing a bat you might need later. When you have a lead, how early do you make a defensive substitution? Bringing in a better fielder will help you maintain the lead, but, again, you're losing a bat you might need later.
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Every one of these challenges exists in the NL. However, the NL must also consider more frequent pinch hitting, which complicates all of these issues because there are many more combinations of possibilities to consider. Therefore, the lack of the DH only increases the size of the strategic space.