dp flex

[JC heir]

in an asa tournament, could anyone tellme how to best utilize the dp flex rule, other than just a way to get 10 players involved? at the moment, i intend to use my weakest fielder as dp & my weakest hitter as flex. any other suggestions?

 

[Texarkana]

Ok. Even IF I could get all this straight in my pea brain, what is the strategy for applying this? Going to an ASA tournament this weekend ( usually play u-trip) with 10 or 11 girls and can't help but thinking this would be good to understand.

I can see using a "DH" for someone who can't swing a bat, but can I use this for a pinch runner? I have one player that is ALWAYS on base and can't run for squat. I don't know how many times she's ended up on third in tight games and put us in a bind not being able to get home on a past ball.

Thanks for all the help. This is foreign to me, and my HC made this my assignment for the week.

 

[SnocatzDad]

With a short bench, one advantage to the rule is that the DP can go anywhere on the field on defense (as long as flex remains in the field too) and it does not count as a substitution but as a position swap (i.e. like telling 1B adn RF to switch positions). Straight substitution is a grind with a short bench because you never want to use your last sub for fear of injury to a starter. With the DP, you have a kid that can go in on defense for the 1B when she runs into a fence on a foul ball and then have 1B return and move DP over to fill in for your SS who suddenly looks like the heat is getting to her. Especially on a long hot day it's a way to give rotating relief to your defense without having to lock a sub to a specific player by normal sub rules. If a kid is so injured she can't bat, you still need a regular sub because the DP can't fill in for another batter and neither can the flex, but many times you can give a kid a breather for a non serious injury (or bathroom break ) where otherwise you might have to tell them to tough it out because you don't want to burn a sub.

 

[amanda_cake]

I wish we would have known this today. We used a DP and a flex (my HS coach did). The flex was in RF. Our DP is our second catcher, catching our second pitcher ALWAYS. Had to put pitcher #2 in, but coach thought that she couldn't put DP into game for catcher.

Great to know that she coulda.

 

[SnocatzDad]

I wish we would have known this today. We used a DP and a flex (my HS coach did). The flex was in RF. Our DP is our second catcher, catching our second pitcher ALWAYS. Had to put pitcher #2 in, but coach thought that she couldn't put DP into game for catcher.

Great to know that she coulda.

Yes she definitely could have made the DP for catcher position swap without any impact to the lineup card (i.e. it's not a substitution and does not affect batting order, both girls would have continued to bat in their respective spots in the lineup)

 

[Carty]

I found the best way to keep this straight is to think of this as two positions, but can only occupy one spot in the batting order. The trick is to know who has left the game and who has substituted for them. For example, if Flex bats (or runs) for DP., the DP has left the game but the Flex has not (still playing defense). DP has one reentry, Flex is unnaffected. Same with defense, the only time there is a substition is when the Flex is on the bench (left the game), DP must sub for her in this case. Anything else is just handled as a defensive switch. Texarkana: one possibility is to have your DP hit on and sub in a sprinter for her. Remember that the sprinter can only play DP then if you pull her back out and want to do it again (I would leave her in until the spot comes back up in the order). The orignal DP will have only one reentry. But you could enter another hitter into this spot. You can get way more involved than this but start simple and know were you burn your substiitutes, it can catch up to you. Last, if you start with the DP/Flex, you can take the order from 10 to 9 and back as many times as you have subs.

 

[StacieM]

I found the best way to keep this straight is to think of this as two positions, but can only occupy one spot in the batting order.

Taking a hard look at it like this is what really helped me understand the different ways you could use the dp/flex. You basically have 10 players that can play defense at any time, but only 9 slots on the offensive side and the ORIGINAL dp and the flex are both tied to the same offensive slot.

So whoever it is that you list as your DP when you FIRST turn in your lineup - that's the only slot offensively that the flex can go in for (hitting or running). If you change your DP (i.e. swap your catcher and your dp) that doesn't mean that the flex can now hit the in offensive spot of the "new dp/old catcher." Your flex can ONLY hit in the offensive slot that the DP is FIRST listed in.

Once I understood this better, I changed a couple of things when making my lineup...

1) even if my #2 batter is the person I am actually going to use to HIT ONLY in the game, I do NOT list her as my DP when I turn in the lineup. REASON: if I ever feel like giving my flex (weak hitting fielder) a chance to bat, I didn't want her hitting in the #2 slot in the batter order. I didn't want to have to pull out my good #2 hitter to give her a chance to hit. So I usually listed my next weakest hitter as my DP when I turned in my lineup (usually batter 8 or 9). That way, if this "next to the weakest hitter" isn't doing all that well, I can give my flex player the at-bat in her spot. However, you do have to remember to re-enter that person back on defense and you can't just do this for every at-bat since your "original dp" does have to leave the game in order for your flex to hit in her spot.

2) I used the faster/weak hitting flex to run for a slow running person. Our 1st baseman was our #4 hitter, but she was also the slowest in the line-up. So for some games, I listed her as the DP (instead of 1B) when I turned in the line-up. That way, when she got on base, I could have my flex run for her (remember, flex and original dp are tied to the same offensive slot whether hitting or running). So since she was listed as DP when game started, the flex can take her offensive slot on the bases if she gets on. Again, she is leaving the game when the flex comes in to run for her, so you need to remember that and also remember to re-enter her as well. So in this situation actual person playing 1b was listed as DP when line-up turned in. Then person who would be hitting only was listed as 1B when I turned in my line-up. Then after the line-ups accepted, position change the DP and 1B.

 

[Carty]

Stacie, very good ideas here and shows how you can be creative. There is another side to DP/Flex that most do not use which is the defensive side. Had a game this year where my catcher was having a problem with her knee. Set her up as flex to take her out of half of the game, F2 was our backup catcher so I put her in DP and the pitcher scheduled for relief (our back up F4 and a good hitter) was listed as F4. Defensive swithch at the first inning putting DP in and F4 (pitcher) sitting - no substitutions. Catcher did have to come out so I dropped lineup to nine so I didnt have to burn a substitute to accomplish the same (had another pitcher warm up for relief). If I went to relief, I would have subbed for the flex (line up goes back to ten), defensively switch the flex for the pitcher and still not have affected the batting order.

 

[Carty]

Whoops, meant F4 was the backup catcher. Been dmaking typos al lik this all week.

 

[Itsabouttime]

If the DP comes in for a fielder (other than the Flex) is it required to tell the ump and/or other team?