ASA rule interpretation

[mad hornet]

Need some help understanding substitutions. I have been of the impression that with ASA you got free sustitutions on defense. I brought a sub in to bat for our pitcher last night and reported it correctly. The next half inning the same pitcher took the mound and the umpire looked a question at me. I walked over and he said "are you going to report her re-entry"?

I said, "I thought we had free substitions on defense and that I didn't have to report it until her next turn at bat." He just shrugged his shoulders and left it at that. The other team never said a thing and it was never an issue, but could it have been?

I have read and re-read the rule in my ASA manual and I still think it doesn't matter until that player takes a pitch in the batter's box. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ASAPAump]

Yes, if the player is reentering, regardless of offense or defense, the player must report. Make sure you read all of ASA rule 4-6, especially C. By not reporting the reentry, you have an unreported substitute situation, and the effects in C apply. It is a page long rule, so I will not quote it here.

 

[BretMan]

Maybe you are thinking of "free substitutions" as being when two players already in the line-up simply switch defensive positions on the field, like if your shortstop comes in to pitch and your pitcher goes to play short. That isn't a substitution and doesn't have to be reported. But anytime a player not in the line-up comes off the bench and into the game, that is a substitution and you do have to report it!

Assuming that the player coming in is otherwise a legal sub (ie: is eligable to enter or has a re-entry left), the penalty for not reporting her isn't all that severe. The rule is so long because there is a different penalty if the unreported sub is a batter, a runner or a defensive player and also different for each of those if the player is discovered before or after the next pitch or play. So an unreported sub violation might be handled several different ways depending on what the sub is doing and when it's discovered.

Unreported subs are handled as a protest by the offended team. It's not something that the umpire can rule on unless the other team brings it to his attention. Umpires are taught to use preventive umpiring if a coach tries to make an illegal substitution, letting the coach know that what he's doing might be wrong, but if the coach still goes ahead and does it the umpire can't rule on it or enforce a penalty unless the other team points it out. That sounds like what happened here. You got a heads up about reporting the sub and that's all the umpire can really do unless the other team protests her.

As a defensive player, here is what could happen if this is protested:

If protested BEFORE a pitch is thrown, there is no penalty. Simply record the substitution and play on.

If the defensive player actually makes a play, then is protested before the next pitch: The sub is now officially in the game; The offense has the option of accepting the results of the play, or; The batter is returned to bat with the same count and all other runners return to their last base.

If protested AFTER making a play and AFTER a pitch is thrown to the next batter, the sub is now officially in the game. There is no further penalty.

In the case of an unreported sub on defense, if discovered, nobody's called out and nobody's ejected or disqualified. The worst that can happen is that you might have an out (or multiple outs) taken away from you if the unreported sub actually makes a play and it's protested before the next pitch.

 

[mad hornet]

Gotcha. I think I was misled / confused by a tutorial that was sent to me about the power of DP / Flex which stated that you can enter the DP in any defensive position (with Flex still in the field) at any time without reporting it because it is considered a position swap. We've also played so many tourneys which allowed EP's it's tough to keep straight. Thank you guys for straightening me out!