[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by rbmartin

So as long as the pitching change occurs after the 1st or 2nd charged conference, its legal. After the 3rd of more charged conference, not permitted (rule 3 sec 4 art 1...After three charged conferences in a seven-inning game, or for any charged conference in excess of one in each extra inning, the pitcher shall be removed as pitcher for duration of the game.) ...not permitted. Correct?

Generally right -- but the numbers are (or might be) off. The team gets three "free" conferences -- so it's on the fourth visit and subsequent that the pitcher can't return.

Originally Posted by scrounge

There's a couple things going on here. If a coach or player requests time and is granted it to confer, that's a conference if they don't change pitchers. After 3 (or 1 in extras), they'd have to change pitchers every time. That's where all the rules you quoted come into play.

HOWEVER, if the shortstop and the pitcher merely switched positions without delaying the game (having time called, taking more than 20 seconds to deliver the next pitch, etc), then that's a whole different thing. That's not a conference, and the pitcher not only could do that every inning, but could even come back to pitch that inning. But could only return to pitcher once per inning. So there's the conference provision (by far the most common) but if they just quickly switch positions in some pre-planned rotation without calling time or otherwise delaying, then we're fine.

The shortstop (and the returning pitcher, for that matter) still get eight warmups -- so the 20-second rule doesn't come into play here.