Mariners Manager Confusion, Helps Cost Team Game...

[briancurtin]

Originally Posted by Manny A

Now that I think of it, why is the manager committed to calling in a pitcher who is actually warming up? Where does it say anywhere that if a manager makes a motion to the bullpen, he MUST bring in the pitcher who is up and throwing? What if he wants to bring in someone else who wasn't warming up?

It is that way because of the sentence you quoted and another one elsewhere in the thread.

Think about it. Is a manager going to walk on the field, wave "hi" to his bullpen coach, and then turn around and grab a cold pitcher out of the dugout?

I think we are missing something. When the manager comes out and motions with the left arm....he immediately pulls it back and tries to signal right arm. Watch his body language, he looks like a kid caught doing something wrong. Why would he have this reaction if he can call any pitcher he wants?

[bluehair]

Originally Posted by AremRed

I think we are missing something. When the manager comes out and motions with the left arm....he immediately pulls it back and tries to signal right arm. Watch his body language, he looks like a kid caught doing something wrong. Why would he have this reaction if he can call any pitcher he wants?

That would probably be more evidence that it shouldn't have mattered if a manager/coach thought that it did matter.

Too bad Seattle didn't protest the game. Without a protest, MLB may not address the situation.

[UMP45]

Originally Posted by bluehair

That would probably be more evidence that it shouldn't have mattered if a manager/coach thought that it did matter.

Too bad Seattle didn't protest the game. Without a protest, MLB may not address the situation.

Maybe the situation doesn't need to be addressed.

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by AremRed

I think we are missing something. When the manager comes out and motions with the left arm....he immediately pulls it back and tries to signal right arm. Watch his body language, he looks like a kid caught doing something wrong. Why would he have this reaction if he can call any pitcher he wants?

Again, my point (no pun intended) was that I have never seen anything written that says when a manager uses his left arm to signal the bullpen, he is officially announcing that the left-handed pitcher currently warming up must enter the game.

Someone else posted a PBUC cite that says a motion to the bullpen constitutes a new pitcher entry. Fine, I can live with that. But all that tells me is that the current pitcher is done for the game. It doesn't tell me specifically who is required to come in, unless there is more wording in the PBUC that wasn't posted.

Suppose only a righty is warming up, but there was a lefty warming up the previous inning. The manager comes out of the dugout, and inadvertently points to his left arm as he signals the bullpen, forgetting that his lefty is no longer throwing. What do you do then?

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by briancurtin

It is that way because of the sentence you quoted and another one elsewhere in the thread.

Think about it. Is a manager going to walk on the field, wave "hi" to his bullpen coach, and then turn around and grab a cold pitcher out of the dugout?

No he wouldn't. But there's nothing I'm aware of in the rules that says he can't decide to pick a pitcher from the dugout if he so desires. What from strictly a rules standpoint commits him to only the pitcher warming up?