Baseball Q
 

This may be a dumb question, but:

If you play in the conference where the team is allowed a Designated Hitter - do you HAVE to play a DH? Or if the pitcher is a good enough batsmen, can he bat?

No, in the American League (which is the one with the DH), it's a bench player, and the pitcher, by rule, cannot bat.

That may be different in other leagues with a DH, but that's the MLB rule.

Use of the DH in the AL is optional; however, "the manager must designate a DH prior to the start of the game; failure to do so forfeits the right to use the DH, and the pitcher must then take his turn at bat.

The designated hitter may not play a field position and he may only be replaced by another player not currently in the lineup. However, the designated hitter may change positions to become a position player at any point during the game; if he does so, his team forfeits the role of the designated hitter and the pitcher, another player, or a pinch hitter must bat in the newly-opened spot in the batting order.

The designated hitter could also become the pitcher, in which case the pitcher or a pinch hitter must hit when that spot in the batting order comes up again. Likewise, if a pinch-hitter bats for some other player (such as, hypothetically, the first baseman) and then remains in the game as the pitcher, the team would forfeit the use of the DH for the remainder of the game.

If an AL manager omits to designate a DH, the pitcher can be inserted into the game.

On May 17, 2009, in a game against the Cleveland Indians, pitcher Andy Sonnanstine was included in the starting lineup due to a mistake when Rays manager Joe Maddon entered the wrong lineup card, which had both Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist playing third base, omitting the DH spot.

The last time a pitcher was in the initial batting order in a game between two AL teams was September 23, 1976, when the White Sox batted Ken Brett eighth against the Twins."

Quoted from Wikipedia

As thirdsun said, it is the choice of the team, and there are specific rules regarding it's use. It could be slightly different depending on the specific league, though.

The whole problem comes from there being very few pitchers who can hit well-enough to be included in the lineup. Of pitchers with at least 400 career plate appearances the leader in OPS is Wes Ferrell at .797. And it drops off quickly.

By the time you reach that level, pitchers generally are focusing so much on pitching that, even in leagues that demand pitchers bat pitchers tend to hit poorly with very few exceptions.

The goal of the lineup is to get the best balance of hitters and defenders in the lineup at the same time, so if you have a pitcher that can hit well enough to either be better than the player you would hit in their place or allow you to have the extra bench player that would otherwise be DHing, more power to you (no pun intended).

Dude you quoted wikipedia?

Yep. Why re-write something already succinctly written?

The quoted facts take the whole issue out of the realm of speculation.

Plus, you can't portray something as your own writing that isn't. Dude.

:thumbsup: