ML Batting out of Order

[Dave Hensley]

Originally Posted by Jerry

Baker, if you recall, started out batting when Abel should have been up to bat. Baker was ejected before he either became a runner or was put out. I believe this is the point where YOU may be getting confused. While everyone is thinking that Jackson is unwittingly going into the game to replace Baker with the possibility of becoming an improper batter on appeal, what if Abel actually was supposed to go in to pick up the 2-strike count and be in the proper batting order? Instead of Abel doing that though, Jackson pinch hits for him. It is that very scenario that the home team manager is suggesting when he says that Abel is an ineligible player when he eventually does come up to bat.

Does it make more sense to you now?

Jerry

No. It is utterly illogical. The PLAYER was ejected; not his position. The player who replaced him was replacing the PLAYER, not a position.

While your (and the defensive manager's) scenario is technically feasible, it is clearly not the logical, intuitive explanation of what happened. It should be given no consideration, unless and only unless the offensive manager, in making the substitution, explicitly recognized and acknowledged that the ejected player was batting out of order, and the player stepping into the box now was a pinch hitter for Abel, rather than a replacement for the ejected player. Absent that explicit acknowledgment and explanation, what you have is what is clearly obvious - ejected player replaced by substitute, who continues an out-of-turn at bat.

It's a horse, not a zebra.