Hawk Fan
Footballguy
You are the away team, and let's say it is game two of the playoffs for the purposes of this discussion. Your starting pitcher A went 8 innings the night before, and you plan to use pitcher B tonight. Pitcher B is not a good hitter, like most pitchers. Do you put pitcher A on the lineup card, batting ninth? You have no intention of using him either as a pitcher or hitter. If you get a first inning rally going, you pinch hit for pitcher A, giving yourself a better chance of scoring more runs. No matter what, pitcher B goes out to pitch the bottom of the first. Pitcher A is just a placeholder for the 9th spot in the first inning. The only downside is that pitcher A is unavailable for the rest of the game, but you weren't going to use him anyway. Does this make sense? Do managers actually do this?