pitcher re-entry rule

So my buddy wanted to know what prevents a team from alternating pitchers to fielders and vice versa to maximize advantages based on a batter being left or right handed.

I know there's got to be a rule preventing this from happening. I searched and couldn't find anything.

Any help?

 

If it's a straight position switch, it's not a problem.

 

As long as they stay in the game, defensive players can switch positions every batter if they want.

That said, once a pitcher enters, he does have to face one complete batter -- can't put him in and then switch him out when the count's 2-0.

 

It's hardly ever been done in the majors in the last 75 years or so, because pitchers and position players have become so specialized.

I think Lasorda switched Fernando Valenzuela to the outfield and back a couple times, but nobody has done it on anything more than a couple-times-a-season basis since the early teens (if even then).

I'm pretty sure if a pitcher switches to a fielding position and then back in the middle of an inning, he gets no (0) warm-up pitches.

 

I think you're right. Entering the game for the first time and between innings is one thing. But once play starts with the same nine on the field, that's it.

 

Actually, it was Whitey Herzog who was known for doing it with Todd Worrell -- he switched to right field on at least four occasions between 1986-89.

Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco went back and forth in a July 1986 game at Cincinnati.

In 1990, the Cubs' Les Lancaster moved to left field for three batters and then came back in to pitch. He was credited with a blown save and a loss in that one.

In 1999, the Mets' Chuck McElroy and Matt Franco switched positions in the ninth inning of a blowout loss to the Dodgers.

Earlier this year, Boston's Javier Lopez, normally a pitcher, went to right field in a blowout against Tampa Bay as RF Jonathan Van Every came in to finish the inning.

 

Only time Fernando ever played the outfield was this 21-inning classic on Aug. 17, 1982 at Wrigley.

After Ron Cey had to leave the game, forcing Pedro Guerrero to play 3B, Lasorda somehow manipulated Valenzuela, Bob Welch and Dusty Baker between LF and RF for two innings, and the Dodgers managed to win the game. Valenzuela made a putout in right field, and it was Baker's sac fly in the 21st inning that scored the decisive run.

 

The Cubs did it in July as well.

With the bases loaded and no outs, no less.

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2009/07/lou-piniella-puts-sean-marshall-in-left-field-for-one-batter.html

 

Once they leave the game, they're done.

 

Bobby Cox did it a couple of years ago with Royce Ring and Chris Resop. The Braves lost.

 

I believe the no-warmup pitches rule is only in effect if a pitcher switches to a field position and then back to the mound within a single inning.

If a field position player, who has not pitched in the current inning, switches to the mound, I believe he gets 3-5 warmups, althought it may be left up to the umpire's discretion. At the beginning of an inning, he gets the normal number.

 

That was an incredible game in an incredible year for the Mets. If I recall, Johnson was also switching them (Orosco & McDowell) between right and left field for each batter in an effort to keep the ball from getting hit to them.

In an extra inning game in '85, Johnson was stuck using 41 year old pinch hitter Rusty Staub in the outfield and also alternated him back and forth between right & left depending on the hitter in an effort to hide him.

Johnson was fun to watch manage. He'd do anything to win, including using Kevin Mitchell or Howard Johnson at shortstop.