In MLB, has the designated hitter ever been used in a starting lineup for a position player (a position other than the pitcher)?
The Designated Hitter Rule (5.11) specifies that the DH bats in place of the pitcher and only for the pitcher.
I would never have thought that. I wonder why the rule was set up that way? There are some pitchers that are decent hitters; maybe the manager would have preferred to let them hit, and use the DH for a weak hitting position player.
The DH is not mandatory. Teams may opt not to employ a DH in any given game.
The reasoning behind the DH is pretty simple, with a few exceptions (Babe Ruth et al.) pitchers are mostly weak batters. Also, why risk their health and energy batting and running. They need to rest their arm for the next inning.
They are also always in the 9th position on the batting order as opposed to all other positional players who can be moved around in the order.
Why? Probably because the pitcher plays a more important role in the “defense” than any fielder, he interacts with the batter more than any fielder but the catcher, and in a more important way. If the pitcher throws a perfect game, the fielders have very little to do.
So this doesn’t automatically make the pitcher the weakest hitter on the team, but it increases the reasons they’d want to play a pitcher who couldn’t hit well, and suggests that a pitcher must concentrate on training his pitching more than a fielder on training his fielding–at the expense of training on batting.
Does that make sense?
But that’s just tradition/standard practice, not a rule. Managers are free to bat pitchers wherever they please. Here’s an article listing many times the pitcher hasn’t batted last.
Correct, I actually meant to say “almost” always.
It should also be mentioned that the 9th batter is almost 100% likely to have one less at-bat than (at least) the 1st batter, so statistically it can be an advantage from game to game and especially over an entire season.
Because the specific purpose of the rule was to get pitchers out of the batting order, not allow for a defense/offense split at any other position. It was limited on purpose to prevent, well, exactly what you’re describing. If you want to play a good field/no hit player at shortstop, that’s a strategic decision you have to deal with. Since all pitchers are good pitch/no hit, there’s no real decision to be made there.
The number of pitchers who can actually hit worth a hoot is very, very small. The very best hitting pitchers of recent years, which is probably a tie between Mike Hampton and Carlos Zambrano, were below-average hitters by the standards of every day players.
The rule is, incidentally, even more restrictive than has been indicated here. In addition to the fact that the DH can only hit for the pitcher, it is further detailed to ensure you can’t use the DH to your advantage in any other way at all:
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If you start without a DH. you cannot use a DH at any point.
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You can pinch hit or pinch run for the DH. But if player who is at any point the DH is moved to a fielding position, you lose the use of the DH for the rest of the game. IF the pitcher himself moves from pitching to playing any other position, the DH is out of the game and the player who was previously a pitcher must now hit.
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If a player playing any other defensive position starts pitching, you lose the use of a DH.
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A player who plays the field at any point cannot become the DH (except the pitcher, who can start hitting for himself, but then a DH can never be used.)
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The DH/pitcher position in the batting order is absolutely fixed. No double switch or replacement of any kind can change that.
And of course the DH rule is an abomination unto the sight of the Lord.
Just to add to the excellent points above. 
Now wait a second. Let’s say the catcher Jones is batting 6th and the DH Smith is batting 3rd. The catcher Jones gets hurt and the DH Smith happened to be the backup catcher, and now goes into the field. Smith will keep his spot in the batting order (3rd) and the pitcher’s spot is now 6th. Later, they can double switch as they always did for the pitcher.
nm. Reread for comprehension.
That’s correct; I should have noted that. A SUBSEQUENT defensive switch could move the pitcher. Smith is, however, stuck in the third spot, and the 6 spot is now where the pitcher hits. Through double switching you can then later move the pitcher off the 6 spot.
If you get rid of “In MLB” from the beginning of the post, then yes. In high school, I was often DH’d for as a position player, as the coach wanted to completely rest of the throwing arm of our star pitcher who was also one of our best hitters, and so wouldn’t want to play him in the field, but wanted him in the line up over the weakest hitter (usually me). (Of course, a decent amount of the time the ace wasn’t pitching, I was, in which case nothing was unusual about the use of the DH) Whether Michigan’s HS DH rules are an anomaly in regards to this allowance, I do not know, but if local sports leagues allow a DH it would make sense for it to be less restrictive since there isn’t nearly the dichotomy between pitchers and everyone else at the local level.
Most perfect games probably depend as much on perfect fielding as on good pitching. The highest number of strikeouts in a perfect game is 14, and has been as low as 3.
I think there is a distinct chance the umpires just didn’t know any better.
There’s an old adage that every no-hitter has at least one outstanding defensive play that saves it.
According to Wikipedia, the standard American high school rules (NFHS) allows DHing for any position. (Caveats: The whole article section cites no sources and the official rules cost money I’m not willing to spend.)
Some of the restrictions in RickJay’s post #8 are not in place at all levels either. When I was in college at the U. of Florida, Brad Wilkerson was an excellent hitter and pitcher for the Gators. (He later played in the Major Leagues for several years.) Sometimes he would start the game as a pitcher but move to another position when a reliever was brought in, or vice versa (I can’t remember which). When he was on the mound, he would hit for himself, but when he got switched to another position, a new designated hitter would hit for the new pitcher.
I knew NCAA had more liberal DH rules. I am pretty sure they can’t DH for a position player tho.
Wilkerson was a pretty good player. He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2002. He never got to pitch, though.
One of the few times I agree with Bricker 100%. We’ll never get rid of it, but we can certainly say how wrong it is.