Diamond Dog wrote:sloopjohnc wrote:Diamond Dog wrote:Right thanks for that guys.
I'm intrigued that even two diehard fans like you aren't actually certain about it..... I would have thought there has to be a given time for teamsheets to be handed over... I'm going to do some research. Pretty sure Hatz's version of a 'gentlemans agreement' is probably in place - I'm intrigued as to whether a team (by law or rule) is bound to that though. Interesting.
They aren't "official" until managers sign, date, and exchange them with each other and the umpire.
This can be a problem if you play fantasy baseball and you lose a player for a day if he stays on the DL - I know.
Right... so there is a time when managers exchange team sheets and no further changes can be made, Sloop?
That's exactly what I wanted to know.
So you could, as you hand over your team sheet, slip in a leftie for a righty... or the other way.
Why don;t teams do it more (if their rotation allows it)?
Thank you.
Yes, when you go to a game you can see both managers talk to the home plate umpire, who is usually the "crew chief" and they'll hand in their line ups. You could conceivably slip in another pitcher, but it's really hardly, ever done. Maybe if a guy injured himself in warm ups, but that's the only way it might happen.
Baseball is weird. It almost encourages cheating in a number of ways - weighted bats, balls loaded with spit or petroleum jelly, stealing pitching signs, but teams doing it rue the day if they're caught. It's almost like Spy vs. Spy in Mad magazine.
Heck, everyone knew, or highly suspected, lots of players were juicing for 10 years, but records were being broken and people were running to the ballpark or TV to watch it so everyone looked the other way.