Hi all,

I am part of an association in N. California that has had no contact with the Flex/DP rule before this year. Most of our umpires are calling both baseball and softball because of our limited number of officials. With that in mind I am trying to locate any resource that will introduce this concept to umpires that are not familiar, and sometime hostile to, softball in general and this new rule in paticular. If you are aware of any articles or teaching materials that can help explain this better I would greatly appreciate it.

Pennsylvania used this rule in high school last year. Here's a link to what should be some pretty good material

http://www.piaa.org/Sports/Specific/Softball/index.asp

Dan,

In additioon to Steve M's suggestion you might also ant to check out this site: <a href=http://www.eteamz.com/sites/GCBUmpire/handouts/>GCBUMPIRE</a>. There are a couple of good articles there , one by Steve M himself. I think they're entitled DP/DEFO, but if you change DEFO to FLEX, everything is the same.

SamC

We went to the State meeting in Texas a few weeks ago. There was a good presentation in Power Point on the DP/FLEX. They put it on this web site.

http://www.saumpires.com

It anwers a lot of questions, shows how to handle the lineup and diffenrent scenarios. It should be a good starting point. In NFHS the rule is the same as ASA's.

If I am not mistaken, I believe that you can find some info on this at http://www.cactusumpires.com.

Above all, don't let them believe it is complicated. There are multiple elements, but each is basically simple.
The keys to dealing with DP/Flex are:
A) remembering basics like no player can bat in different batting order slots during a game
B) being sure all changes are reported to and clearly tracked by the PU
C) knowing the limitations involved:
1) both players can't be in the batting order at the same time
2) the Flex can only bat in the DP slot
D) DP/Flex switches change the number of players in the game but not the batting order

The DEFO can be moved from her starting defensive position to any other defensive position (except for "F10" – benchwarmer), and she remains the DEFO, and it is not a substitution.

I am confused by the statement above found in the DP/DEFO article written by Dakota found on eteamz.com. Is this a true statement? Can someone explain this to me a little more?

Duke,
This year, we are to call the DEFO the FLEX. Anyway, the FLEX has all of the "freedoms" that every other starter has. The FLEX may play any position defensively, with the limitation that the FLEX may not play ever only offense. It's no different than having F2 & F3 switch positions - they changed defensively but made no change on offense.

Devil's advocate question:
Does "FLEX may not ever play only offense" mean the FLEX position or the player (e.g., #15 who started as FLEX)? IOW, can the #15 start at FLEX, take over the DP slot on the batting order, and then be substituted as FLEX by #30. That would give us #15 as DP and #30 as FLEX.

Any substitute for the FLEX must REPLACE the FLEX player. If player in the FLEX position moves into the batting order, there is no longer a FLEX position.

Like C1 said, don't let the coaches think that the
rule is complicated. There are so many great articles
available to clear things up. All were mentioned in
above posts.

I think that's the biggest problem with this rule - everyone tries to make it too complicated. It's very flexible, but not complicated - just take things one step at a time.

Quick Quiz

1) Can the DP play defense for fielder X, then switch defensive positions with the FLEX?
e.g., FLEX is F2, DP plays defense as F7, then switches positions in the field with F2.

2) Can a player start at FLEX, replace the DP slot in the batting order, and then be substituted as FLEX by a third player?
e.g., #20 is FLEX and #30 is DP. After a few innings, manager says #20 is now batting as DP. An inning later, the mangager says #4 is now FLEX and #20 is still DP.

3a) Can the DP and FLEX switch positions as one move?
3b) If allowed, is it a charged substitution?
e.g., #20 is FLEX and #30 is DP. After a few innings, manager says #20 is now batting as DP and #30 is FLEX.

Since I answered with my views on the NFHS site, I'll withhold here for a bit and see what others might think.

OK, since the NFHS site has been taken down (supposedly for maintenance... perhaps because unauthorized vidoes were posted???) and will be down for awhile, according to the message that appears, here are my answers without explanation. I'd really be interested in what others might think... (censored at Cecil's request)

(censored at Cecil's request)

(censored at Cecil's request)
(censored at Cecil's request)


[Edited by Dakota on Feb 20th, 2004 at 11:30 AM]