Best Practice: handling "unstable lineups"

[larrywal32]

I play in a few "informal leagues" where I work -- in these leagues the rules are a bit lax because people are juggling meetings and may arrive late to a game (or have to leave early).

I'm curious what you think the best way to handle these situations would be. Should I add all of the people that could possibly play at the beginning, and then when each shows up move them into the correct lineup position (at the end of the folks who have shown up) and skip the folks who aren't there? Or should I just add them as they arrive?

Similarly, if someone leaves early, is there a way I can remove them automatically from the rest of the game?

[FTMSupport]

If you expect people will show up, you should probably have them in the lineup, and use Skip Batter to skip them. This way they will have a spot reserved in the batting order.

If someone leaves early, you will want to use Misc->Skip Batter (no out)... not remove the player. Removing the player from the starting lineup will mess up the whole batting order.

Others may have some tips for you as well.

[larrywal32]

Thanks - I'd be interested to know what other folks think as well.

FTMSupport -- in addition, what is the best way to handle things if someone shows up unexpectedly during the game?

[FTMSupport]

You can add a batter to the end of the lineup at any time, and they will be able to bat the next time that spot comes around. Just go to Misc->Show Starting Lineup and add the player to the end of the lineup from there.

[bmclaurin]

Will this work at any other spot in the order as well? Or does it have to be the last spot?

[FTMSupport]

Prior to that spot batting, you can add players to any spot. Once a position in the lineup has passed, putting a player in that batting spot will make the player inherit the at bat information from what was already entered. All batting data is tied to the lineup position. You can change the lineup, but it will not move any batting data that was already entered for that lineup position. Hope that makes sense.

[ncheek7]

We have the same situation with my daughters 18U travel team. They attend a lot of "showcases". A showcase is just games where college coaches can come and watch the girls they are interested in play games. If a college coach is there to watch a specific girl, that girl may bat two times in a row in one inning. So, for example....batter #2 has a college coach watching her. She is the 2nd batter up in the 5th inning (we have already gone through the entire lineup at this time). She completes her at bat and she grounds out to third. The coach of her team then puts her back up again (back-to-back). So now she is also the 3rd batter of the 5th inning. That way the college coach doesn't have to wait around a few innings to see her bat again. In this case, how do you account for her 2nd AB for that inning, since you can only add players at the bottom of the lineup? Let's say she also gets out her 2nd AB of the inning...is there a way to account for an out but not assign it to a player? If so, then in this situation, you can edit/add her 2nd AB after the game is over. Or if she gets a hit and scores, can you account for a run that is not associated with a player? Another thing I thought might work, would be to put her in as a pinch hitter for the batter after her in the lineup and then that original batter would be a pinch hitter for the girl after her, and so on, and so on. I am new to iScore, so I haven't been able to try this, but do you think that would work? In other words, can you substitute a player that is already in the line-up as a regular batter as a pinch hitter for another batter in the lineup?

[FTMSupport]

You can sub a player out, then back in. But this whole situation seems like it leads to other issues. Is everyone else in the lineup pushed down? Or is the player truly subbing for the other girl. If she is truly pinch htting and the other players are not being pushed down, then this might work, but if the other players are still expected to bat after her in the normal order, then this is a much bigger issue. Not even sure how you would account for something like this with a pencil and paper scorebook. If anyone has ideas, please feel free to chime in.

[OhioTex]

ncheek7 -

as you know you are stretching the tool, by making it try to accommodate very non standard situation. e.g. same person gets to bat back-to-back..
so at best we are talking about a 'workaround'

If it is a pure sub, then yes, iscore handles as FTM says.. but if you need to "roll down".. well that is a horse of a different color.. But i think I have a crazy way to make iscore handle it. Here is a workaround idea.. let me know if it satisfies your needs.
(or needs more explanation)

Start with the understanding... iScore associates batting stats to the 'place in the line up' batted. ie 1st batter, 2nd batter , 5th hole batter etc. you can associate any name you want with the 'at bat', but the stats stay with the 'at bat', (you change names associated with x# at bat through offensive substitutions, joe batted in one hole first inning , and james batted in 1 hole in inning two, and jessie in 3rd inning etc. ). Also once you go through the line up once, (typically after the 9th batter) the number of batters is locked, you can not later make it 10 batters in line up. if you have already batted around 9 and set it as the number of batters. .

So when you have a 'showcase' game/event like you describe. Start with some extra TBD players in the line up.. and make sure you have at least one person in line up set to 'not batting' (this enables offense substitutions). Say normal number of batters is 9, set it to say 12. with player 10,11, 12 just TBD and set batting = yes and player 13 TBD batting set = no. . .. If TBD player comes up to bat, and is not needed, use misc skip > no out, but if say batter 7 (Jason) is asked to bat twice, then use offensive substitution so batter 8 (jeff) becomes batter 9 and batter 8 is Jason again. Batter 9 (nick) becomes batter 10. and batter 11,12 is skipped back to top of line up. In effect you create flexibility to roll batters down (up to three in this example batter 10, 11, and 12). Remember you may have to sub them back to right spot, before next at bat, ..

basically by creating the extra line up placeholders to begin with, you can now score what you see... (as long as not more than 3 such happen in a game, .. makes use of misc skip batter and offensive substitutions as needed.)

hope this makes sense.. Again it is a workaround.. but should make the stats and book look right

[danmcc]

Good work around Tex, you come up with some funky stuff for a square peg in round hole.