Pinch pitchers

Our young 2009 season has already seen a bunch of one of the weirder things you can see in a baseball game: the pinch pitcher, the position player who takes the mound to get a few outs while saving an actual pitcher from exerting himself. (I don’t know if anyone but me calls these guys pinch pitchers, but it’s short and it works for me.)

One example, sadly for me, was when Jonathan Van Every took the mound in relief of Javier Lopez in the Rays’ 13-0 beating of the Red Sox. In fact, Van Every and Lopez swapped positions; I can’t think of a time when I’ve seen a pinch-pitcher swap places with an ineffective reliever. Fate had it that when Van Every gave up a frozen rope, it was Lopez who had to chase it down. Other examples this season include Nick Swisher taking the mound to save the Yankees' bullpen in their 15-5 loss to the Rays, and Cody Ross doing the same favor for the Marlins’ staff in their 13-2 shellacking at the hands of the Phillies. Reds SS/3B Paul Janish has stumbled his way through two innings in two of the Reds’ more forgettable games.

*Going back a ways, Jose Canseco got out there and pitched, as did Wade Boggs, twice. In the beforetimes, Stan Musial pitched to one batter, Frank Baumholtz, who reached on an error; Stan the Man's lifetime pitching record is therefore 1 batter faced, 0 IP, 0 H, 0 R. Ty Cobb threw 5 innings with a combined 3.60 ERA.

While rare, this happens a little more often than I’d expect, and always under the same circumstances: the team is losing badly (almost always down by at least 10 runs) late in the game (almost always in the 7th inning or later). (If anyone knows of a winning team putting a scrub in there, please let me know. I’d also like to know if the winning team’s manager had all his teeth the next day.)

It seems to be favored by managers who have experience in the NL**. Tony LaRussa has used Aaron Miles a number of times in this role. Miles is normally a utility infielder, but he also pitched twice for the Cardinals in 2007, once in a 12-1 loss, once in an 18-1 loss. He pitched for them again in 2008, in a 20-2 loss. LaRussa used Scott Spiezio in the same capacity in a 14-3 loss in 2007. The Cardinals somehow have not used Rick Ankiel in this role, but I’d love to see it.

**Note that both Joe Girardi and Terry Francona managed in the NL East before the AL East.

I do think this is a strategy. The manager throws in the towel in an unwinnable situation to give himself a better chance of winning a future contested game.*** Major league pitchers, even long relievers, are scarce resources that should be used when they help influence the result. Thinking from another angle, using a pinch-pitcher adds some entertainment value to a game that was long ago decided.

***Thinking about it again, of course Tony LaRussa uses this strategy. He has to have six pitchers ready for every game.

What’s funny about these pitchers is that on the whole they’re pretty average. It’s a baseball truism that pitchers have the advantage the first time they face a batter, and these pinch pitchers will almost never face the same batter twice. Perhaps they also face the bench players from the winning side. Then again, opposing batters don’t want to face a pitcher they should demolish and might just swing away and get themselves out.

There are plenty of blowouts in baseball, so why doesn’t it happen more often? Well, it’s definite defeatism from the losing manager. Bringing in position players could be demoralizing for the actual pitchers on the team (“you’re not pitching any better that this guy who we pay to hit the ball”) and doing it too often could make the team seem like a joke that anyone can pitch for.

But I still think it makes sense every now and again. I’ll keep scanning the box scores for the blowouts and see if the managers thought enough to save an arm, add some levity, and make the game a little less painful all around.