Hitting The Cutoff Man

I tend to enjoy it when position players are used as pitchers, like Cardinals Felipe Lopez and Joe Mather were during Saturday's 20-inning marathon against the Mets.

Usually it happens with the game well out of reach, rather than hanging in the balance, but in any case it presents us with an interesting situation that you really don't see in other sports. You have a guy who obviously is a great athlete doing something extremely unnatural that he probably hasn't done in many years. For example, Mather said he had last pitched in high school, and Lopez in Little League.

In football, you don't see a linebacker coming in to play quarterback, and in basketball you don't see centers bringing the ball up the court. Yet in baseball, every once in a while you get to see a non-pitcher take the mound.

And it's shocking to me how well they sometimes do. In Saturday's game, the Mets had a tough time hitting both Lopez and Mather, although they managed to scratch across two runs against the latter. The last time a Cards position player toed the rubber, I was actually in attendance: June 13, 2008 vs. the Phillies. St. Louis was trailing 20-2 (the Phils had a nine-run fourth inning to go up 13-1), and Tony LaRussa brought in infielder Aaron Miles to pitch the ninth. The Cards' five previous pitchers all had surrendered at least one run, but wouldn't you know it, Miles retired the side 1-2-3.

I think in a lot of cases, it's probably difficult as a Major League hitter to suddenly be facing a guy who's heaving it in there at 75-80 miles per hour. Plus, with the ball coming in so slow, it's probably easy to over-swing in an attempt to crush the ball 500 feet.

But back to Saturday. As the game kept going, I was having some fun thinking about who else the Cardinals (or the Mets) might bring in if play continued. One name that popped in to my head was Rick Ankiel, the former Cardinals pitcher-turned-outfielder. Ankiel is now with the Royals, making the idea a moot point, but apparently, LaRussa would have used Ankiel had he still been around.

For the Mets, it could have been fun to see guys with great arms like Jeff Francoeur or Jose Reyes take a shot at pitching.

What other major league position players would it interesting to see get a shot at pitching at some point? I'd like to hear some suggestions, but here a few of my half-serious ideas:

-- Prince Fielder: The big fella is more nimble than he looks. Perhaps he could channel CC Sabathia? It would be entertaining to watch him pounce on a bunt attempt.

-- Manny Ramirez: Would probably cut off the throw if his catcher tried to nab someone stealing second base.

-- Jayson Werth: Looks the part -- he's tall and lanky and already has closer-style facial hair. Plus, he's got a good arm.

-- Stephen Drew: After that throw he made last week, the backstop might be in for a workout.

-- Derek Jeter: Jeter honestly seems like a good enough guy, but it would enjoyable to see him fail miserably at something for once.

-- Ichiro: Apparently, Team Japan was considering using him in an emergency in the WBC before the Mariners nixed the idea. But don't you just have a feeling he would be great at it? I bet he could throw 90 mph on the black, and who knows, maybe mix in a gyroball.

Follow Hitting The Cutoff Man on Twitter at HitTheCutoff