DH rule - pitchers batting?

Question

Is there a specific rule that prevents pitchers from batting in the AL? Can the manager allow the pitcher to hit for himself if he so chooses? Can another pitcher be the DH?

Answer 1

Here's the rule:

6.10
Any League may elect to use the Designated Hitter Rule.
(a) In the event of inter-league competition between clubs of Leagues using the Designated Hitter Rule and clubs of Leagues not using the Designated Hitter Rule, the rule will be used as follows:
1. In World Series or exhibition games, the rule will be used or not used as is the practice of the home team.
2. In All-Star games, the rule will only be used if both teams and both Leagues so agree.
(b) The Rule provides as follows:
A hitter may be designated to bat for the starting pitcher and allsubsequent pitchers in any game without otherwise affecting the status of the pitcher(s) in the game. A Designated Hitter for the pitcher must be selected prior to the game and must be includedin the lineup cards presented to the Umpire in Chief.
The designated hitter named in the starting lineup must come to bat at least one time, unless the opposing club changes pitchers.
It is not mandatory that a club designate a hitter for the pitcher, but failure to do so prior to the game precludes the use of a Designated Hitter for that game.
Pinch hitters for a Designated Hitter may be used. Any substitute hitter for a Designated Hitter becomes the Designated Hitter. A replaced Designated Hitter shall not re-enter the game in any capacity.
The Designated Hitter may be used defensively, continuing to bat in the same position in the batting order, but the pitcher must then bat in the place of the substituted defensive player, unless more than one substitution is made, and the manager then must designate their spots in the batting order.
A runner may be substituted for the Designated Hitter and the runner assumes the role of Designated Hitter. A Designated Hitter may not pinch run.
A Designated Hitter is “locked” into the batting order. No multiple substitutions may be made that will alter the batting rotation of the Designated Hitter.
Once the game pitcher is switched from the mound to a defensive position this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game.
Once a pinch hitter bats for any player in the batting order and then enters the game to pitch, this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game.
Once the game pitcher bats for the Designated Hitter this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game. (The game pitcher may only pinch-hit for the Designated Hitter.)
Once a Designated Hitter assumes a defensive position this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game. A substitute for the Designated Hitter need not be announced until it is the Designated Hitter’s turn to bat.

So to answer your questions: No, a pitcher may bat for himself or a pitcher may be used as a DH taking the place of another player. Any player on the roster may serve as a DH in any given game, but, if that player is then used defensively, that team is no longer elgible to use any DH at all for the remainder of the game.

Personally, I'd like to see both leagues play by the same set of rules (i.e. no DH), but I'd sure miss David Ortiz.

Answer 2

Use of the Designated Hitter is optional, but I cannot think of any game example where the manager did not use it. Maybe a handful of times in the early years. (Forfeiting use of the DH by having the DH player move to a defensive position later in a game is uncommon, but there have been plenty of instances since 1973.)

Yankees pitcher Rick Rhoden, who was a decent hitter as most pitchers go, was once used as the DH in a game. He did not pitch in that game, went 0-1 with a sac fly, and was removed for a pinch-hitter later in the game.

PS. Reva, good recollection on the Yount/Young thing. I'd long forgotten about that.

Answer 3

Conceivably it could happen if the player in the lineup as the DH had to play the field, say if the Red Sox were giving Ortiz the day off and were letting Varitek DH with Mirabelli catching. If Mirabelli were hurt or thrown out of the game, so that Varitek, the only other catcher on the roster, had to play, the DH would be lost and the pitchers would have to bat for themselves or be pinch hit for.

Answer 4

Rule 6.10 covers the designated hitter.

A manager may have a pitcher hit for himself, but that means that every pitcher that he brings into that game after that must also hit. And why bother? Pitchers simply don't really hit.

There have been a handful of so of times in which a manager was forced to have his pitcher hit, for the whole of the game. In that cases that I know of, that was because the manager made a mistake in writing out his lineup card.

Tom Trebelhorn once did this shortly after Mike Young came over to the Brewers late in the '88 season. Trebelhorn was so used to writing Y-o-u-n-t that he wrote it twice, instead of writing Yount and Young. His pitchers had to hit for the whole of the game.

A similar thing happened to Mike Hargrove, when he was managing in Cleveland.

Answer 5

convinced, yet why would he? Rick Rhoden once all started a sport as DH for the Yankees. some AL communities have lost their DH for element of all of a sport, because the governmenthad the DH take the field, or because the governmentmade a mistake making up the lineup card, yet contained in the noral procedure events, why would a manager enable a pitcher to non-hit if he had a call otherwise?

Answer 6

The pitcher can bat. A pitcher can also be the D.H. However, American league rules say that once a pitcher has hit for himself, the D.H. can no longer be user in that game.

Answer 7

yes the pitcher can dh or hit for himself it is up to the manager.