Season 28 is nearly upon us and with it comes the DH to the National League. It will be interesting to see how these roster construction of these teams with other areas such as the amateur draft potentially being impacted. It remains to be seen how much of an offensive impact this will bring to Kenesaw Mountain Landis, but I was curious how things were impacted in MLB.
Dartmouth Sports Analytics put out an article in 2019 discussing the difference between the AL and NL in runs per game before and after the adoption of the DH in the AL in 1973. It can be found here. The obvious takeaway is that the AL was averaging more runs per game relative to the NL in the post-DH world. In the 45 seasons pre-DH the AL averaged 4.50 runs per game and the NL averaged 4.37 runs per game, although there were several seasons where the NL averaged more runs per game than the AL. In the 45 seasons post-DH, the AL averaged 4.62 runs per game and the NL averaged 4.33 runs per game.
It's interesting to me that the AL only increased by 0.12 runs per game while the NL decreased slightly in that timeframe. I would have expected a larger increase in the AL. Free agency officially started in 1976, so I could see some older hitters with declining fielding ability signing with AL teams, but I don't know that for sure.
Supposedly another impact the DH brings besides the obvious offensive impact is higher number of HBP since teams don't have to worry about retribution to their pitcher. I wouldn't think this would bear itself in Hardball Dynasty, but I was curious to see how KML numbers have played out. Below is the average HBP by team between the AL and NL for the past ten seasons:
| Season | AL | NL |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | 58 | 57 |
| 19 | 60 | 55 |
| 20 | 58 | 56 |
| 21 | 56 | 57 |
| 22 | 63 | 56 |
| 23 | 58 | 59 |
| 24 | 59 | 52 |
| 25 | 53 | 51 |
| 26 | 60 | 51 |
| 27 | 58 | 51 |
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