The Brewers can only be traded back to the AL if they get rid of the DH.  Anything else would just be upsetting.

“... I may be letting my Pujols man-crush cloud my reasoning on this, however.”

No, you’re right. Speaking as someone who watches Pujols on a daily basis, he only goes 0-4 because he wants to.

But the most interesting part of this game was (with the Cards up 4-2 and the bases loaded with 1 out in the top of the 9th) Lou Piniella moving Sean Marshall (LHP) to LF so that he could bring in Aaron Heilman (RHP) to face Brendan Ryan (RHB), then bring Marshall back to the mound to face Skip Schumaker (LHB) and Colby Rasmus (LHB). Of course, Tony LaRussa pinch hit for Schumaker with Jarrett Hoffpauir (RHB). And of course, having been sent out to LF only to end up facing a righty anyway, Marshall promptly struck out Hoffpauir. Then, just as I was ready to conclude that Piniella’s move was pretty intelligent, and wonder why it didn’t happen more often, Rasmus hit a diving liner to left that, had it happened two batters ago (with Marshall in left), would likely have cleared the bases on account of being misplayed by a pitcher. As it was, the new LF (forget who) made a nice sliding catch, except he trapped the ball. Luckily, the Cards won the game and didn’t have to feel overly robbed (except of the opportunity to see Pujols bat again, as he was left on deck, though, as noted, Pujols would have had to make it 0 for 5 in order to get his point across to Ludwick, which would have further damaged his currently quite good shot at the Triple Crown, so perhaps it was for the best).

The whole thing was hilarious. This is the kind of thing that makes the NL awesome.

The maneuvering in the 8:00 Cardinals at Cubs game was fascinating, but I just can’t really fathom that it’s within the rules.  All three of the announcers seemed flustered and, as bizarre as it was, you’d have expected somebody to cite a precedent, yet I heard none.

Think of this: if you have two pitchers who are really good in the field, and one is a lefty and the other a righty, then a manager could simply alternate them between, say, LF and P within a game.  It could go on indefinitely in the late innings, correct? 

I hope somebody that THT or BP or Fangraphs takes it upon themselves to study the rulebook and see whether this is within the rules.  Because if it actually is, then Pinella might have just totally re-shuffled relief pitcher usage patterns in MLB.  (I have to hope for a sabermetrics site because, of course, the corrupt buffoons at ESPN and Yahoo are all but worthless, especially considering they have 100x the resources of any sabermetrics site.  Mostly because they’re too busy writing articles about “steroids” where they lament how tragic it is that they just have to write about steroids because “it just won’t go away”.)

(On a side note, I can’t help but notice that, while announcers love taking each and every opportunity to disparage Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, or Barry Bonds….they simply loved Rick Ankiel and Ryan Franklin, despite the fact that they’re admitted “steroids” users, as detailed in the Mitchell Report.  I don’t have to point out the difference between the players.)

I hope you mean that the difference is that Manny, A-Rod and Bonds (Clemens too) are good and get more press than Ankiel and Franklin…

Smsetnor:

No, I don’t think that that distinction works all that well.  Franklin’s heading to the All-Star game and Ankiel, based upon my surveying of the sports mediasphere (Retardsphere?), has gotten a hell of a lot of press.  Google “Ankiel” and “steroids” and see how many links you get.  Now try “Manny” and “steroids”.  You see my point?

What about the new (caucasian) pitcher for the Twins (can’t recall his name now)?  The press in Minnesota has been clamoring for him to take Liriano’s spot permanently.  That’s cool.  But why don’t they hate this man with the rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth hatred they claim to have for Rodriguez and Ramirez and Bonds?

And I did not mention Clemens because the media’s blackout on the utter outrage of the non-prosecution of his flagrant perjury is all too damn revealing.  That says everything, to me.  (Particularly when it’s contrasted with the heavy coverage of the bogus, failed case against Bonds that could only possibly have been pursued for racial reasons - the case was so bad that there’s just no other explanation (excepting the notable possibility that Novitzky did indeed brag about a forthcoming book he would write on the subject as another motive).  But, as a service to THT, I’ll try to steer clear of the Clemens/Bonds dichotomy.)

Setting aside the tired old steroids discussion and going back to the use of a pitcher in the outfield ...

It was a strategy used not-infrequently in the 1980s by Whitey Herzog and Davey Johnson.  There was also a briefly famous time it was used by, if I recall correctly, the ChiSox and Paul Richards, back in the 1950s.

If I recall correctly, the rule book was amended in the 80s to limit the switching back and forth to once per inning so the infinite delay foreseen by David above would be against the rules.

Love the story about your dad.  That’s good stuff.

Ah, it was the 86 Mets. And Davey Johnson also switched Mookie Wilson from left to right depending on it being a right handed or lefthanded batter.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-sp86wacky0817,0,990130.story

You know what would render all this posturing meaningless?  Pat Vendiette.

Since I missed the original discussion, I’ll pipe up here in support of some extra netting at the ballparks.  Injuries from bats and foul balls are fairly rare, but they do happen, and it’s traumatic for the victim and can be for onlookers as well.

Should people in those seats be paying better attention?  Sure.  But they’re people, so what are you gonna do?

As to the trial lawyers taking a mile if MLB gives an inch—isn’t that belied by the fact that there’s been some minimal fan protection for a century, and it hasn’t yet metastasized into a bubble enclosure?  If the lawyers were going to work their nefarious deeds in this way, wouldn’t it have happened already?