Coming around to the DH?

Commissioner hints that NL’s stand against it may be softening

No modern-day baseball owner is as outspoken as former A’s owner Charlie Finley, who decades ago proposed using orange baseballs, playing World Series games at night and using pinch hitters in the pitcher’s spot in the lineup.

The orange-balls idea never flew, and World Series games now are played too late for most younger fans to watch.

But the pinch-hitter thing worked, at least in the American League. Finley argued back in the early 1970s that fans wanted to see more offense.

“I can’t think of anything more boring than to see a pitcher come up, when the average pitcher couldn’t hit my grandmother,” he said. “Let’s have a permanent pinch hitter for the pitcher.”

Though Finley wasn’t very popular with his fellow owners, the once-unthinkable idea was adopted in 1973 when the designated hitter came into existence. Only the AL was ready to make the biggest rule change in modern baseball history. The more traditional National League owners stayed the course.

Forty-five years later, here we are again, thanks to Commissioner Rob Manfred, who hinted there was movement on the DH discussion during this week’s owners meetings in New York.

“That is a continuing source of conversation among the ownership group and the dialogue actually moved a little bit,” Manfred said.

There was no indication from Manfred that a change is imminent, but he already has said the lack of action in baseball is a concern and a universal DH theoretically would lead to more offense. The NL had a

pathetic .243 average heading into the weekend, averaging 584 strikeouts per team to only 557 hits.

SOMETHING BREWING: Is it too early to give Brewers general manager David Stearns the executive of the year award?

In a division with the big-spending Cubs and perennially successful Cardinals, Stearns quietly has built a championshipcaliber club.

Lorenzo Cain looks like the best freeagent signing of the offseason, and he already has assumed a leadership role in the Brewers clubhouse. Christian Yelich, acquired from the Marlins for prospects, was hitting .302 with an .844 OPS heading into the weekend series with the Phillies.

Stearns also got a bargain-basement special with a two-year, $15.5 million deal for Jhoulys Chacin, who was 6-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 15 starts. That’s five more victories than Yu Darvish, who got $126 million from the Cubs.

The Brewers have melded quickly, and manager Craig Counsell has used his dominating bullpen deftly to offset a rotation that lacks a true ace. Like Stearns, Counsell doesn’t get much credit, but Cain said he’s a big reason for the team’s success.

“He’s a laid-back manager who allows us to be ourselves,” Cain said. “All he asks of us is to play hard each and every night.”

K LIST: Fewest strikeouts per nine innings (qualified starters) through Thursday — Ty Blach, 4.58; Mike Leake, 5.61; Daniel Mengden, 5.64; Bartolo Colon, 5.79; Jason Hammel 5.85 FACT CHECK: Cleveland ace Corey Kluber went 46⅓ innings before he allowed a walk in the fourth Friday night against the Twins. His streak was the longest since Bartolo Colon went 48⅓ in 2015, but well shy of the all-time record of 84⅓ innings of Kansas City A’s Bill Fischer in 1962. Before Friday, his last walk came May 8 in the fourth inning against the Brewers.