Tom Brennan - 40 PLAYERS IN SEPT? NOT REALLY
An open letter/article to Sandy Alderson and any other major league executive or owner who should wish to read it:
The ability to expand the roster to 40 in September should NOT be restricted to guys on the 40 man roster. Let teams call up 15 players in September, without that restriction.
A Corey Oswalt does not get promoted for that reason.
Nor does a Tyler Bashlor.
I love marginal guys (or rising guys like the two above who aren't yet on the 40 man roster) getting called up in September - for two reasons.
1) They earn "spit" in the minors - the pay earned from being added to the major league roster for just 3 or 4 weeks can be more they've made IN TOTAL in the minors - c'mon you penny pinching owners, let them make a few bucks.
2) A guy can end up with a fond life long memory even if his career goes nowhere. Take, for instance (pictured above), Travis Taijeron's game-winning hit Sept. 26. An amazing thrill and memory. If this September turns out to be his only moment in the major league sun, it will feel so much more worth all the years of effort than if he played AAA ball for multiple years but never got called up due to stupid rules. That picture above shows it all: for Travis? thrilling, priceless.
If any borderline minor league guy is called up, and gets to play a few times, and perhaps never makes it again, but sits on that big league bench for a month, what a thrill that he did make it at all. Priceless.
It also can protect major league arms for teams that are out of races. Maybe you cut a deGrom or Lugo or Ramos' September workload just a little bit and let thrilled call ups pitch instead.
It already happens to a degree, with guys on the 40 man who are in fact called up, but call up more of them. Scrap the 40 man roster restriction for September.
For instance, Luis Mateo: Mateo was a rising stud pitcher until he missed two years due to his Tommy John surgery. He has since plodded on, and is close to major league caliber, but apparently not quite good enough for a career. Having to be on the 40 man roster first, he may never make it to the bigs at all after so many years of toil and sweat.
If that 40 man restriction were removed, he perhaps gets into 2 or 3 games, makes a little coin, has the thrill of making it to the bigs, and as a bonus, your major league workhorses like deGrom get a blow, which might just lessen the chance of a wear and tear injury showing up the following year...too many MLB pitchers these days get hurt, in part because it is such a long season.
In 1960, it was a 154 game season, and two teams made the playoffs for a maximum of 7 games. Two out of 20 teams played up to 161 games, 18 others only played 154.
Now? If you are a Wild Card team, you could not only play 162 regular season games, you could also end up playing 20 playoff games. 182 total games.
If a stud like Matt Harvey gets hurt, folks thereafter won't rush out to pay big bucks to see a former, and now perhaps washed up, Dark Knight. Calling up more pitchers in September can reduce season-long major league pitchers' arm stress and injuries, even if only a bit. That bit may be just enough for some guys to avoid major injury.
A team would not have to max out at 40 men - it would be up to each team - but a team like the Mets already added several - adding more for a month would cost them another half million or so - a rounding error compared to a team's total budget.
I told Forrest Gump right now:
THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT.
What do you think?
@Thomas very good thesis with some very valid arguments
ReplyDelete@Ed, thanks.
ReplyDeleteThis game is a lot about kids living out the dream. Young kids growing up, who are the future lifeblood of baseball, might want to see there is hope for young, eager guys to get to the bigs - because those youngsters may see themselves as someday making it too.
As opposed to it looking like the impossible dream to ever get there, Don Quixote just reminded me.
Do a lot of interviews with a bunch of young call ups with huge smiles on their faces, just to have made it - seems like good business to me.
Tom -
ReplyDeleteYou are right.
I was playing in the Central Park fast pitch softball league and tagged a shot to left off of legendary pitcher, local news anchor Jim Jensen.
It was hit so perfectly that I never felt the ball come off the bat.
I immediately went into my first (and only) home run jog when I looked up and saw that the left fielder jumped up, prevented the ball from going out, and the ball dropped into the field. I sped up and ended at second with a double.
Later on that same game, I hit a screamer over the third baseman and scored the tying and winning run.
It was the best day of my baseball and softball 'career' and, how that I am getting on in age, I relive it daily.
Thomas, I think this will be the first time so far (knowing me, not the last) but I disagree. While your premise is heartwarming and all, these teams are in a cutthroat, billion dollar business. They care nothing for these guys and shouldn't. Forty players is plenty to manage six months' worth of games without needing to use every player in your system.
ReplyDeleteThose that love baseball, like Crash Davis in the movie "Bull Durham", hang on. Those that can't hang on, fall by the wayside or go to other leagues. That's life. Life isn't fair, and life is often hard.
This one of those those, after striking out turning to the ump and saying "Would the game be more symetric if there were 4 balls and FOUR strikes?" moments.
ReplyDeleteThe game is played (for the entire season, not just part) with a squad of 40 of which 25 may be "active" for a given game. That's the rule. You may move guys (or gals, I suppose, and others) on/off the squad with some risk of losing their services to another club. That risk to your squad is also their opportunity to play MLB somewhere else.
Make the roster 50 or 60 with 30 active? Fine, change the Basic Agreement and be careful how you handle option years etc. Hey maybe no called balls & strikes; "two swings" was the rule on my sand lot.
Mack, I had a similar memory. My brother was pitching to me at a school next to Belmont, as a team of 16-18 year olds came down towards the field. The first guy there started to pitch to me.
ReplyDeleteRipped one somewhere between 325-350, cleared fence by plenty, one bounce up broke the school window. A cop bizarrely was right there, called me out to the fence, took my name.
Meanwhile, the manager of the CYO team was walking up, yelling to me to make up a name. Then, he asked me to join the team. It was a great memory, marred by my foolishly not joining the team due to having a job at Wetsons. WETSONS! Flipping burgers. Always look back on that with a smile - and real regret for not allowing myself to be a kid.
I did not walk away, though, when another opportunity came up - to write for Macks Mets.
Texas Gus, we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
ReplyDeleteIf I were Travis Taijeron, and this turns out to be my one and only major league playing time, I think I would frame the picture in the article here and hang it up in my den. Great shot, (for which I take no credit).
ReplyDeleteIt’s a business, most of these guys have never failed in their lives. Sad to say, but that failure of never making will be better for them than any “gift of sitting on the bench in September”
ReplyDelete@Anthony...interesting perspective. I just thought of the movie Rudy...that brief opportunity was a huge deal fulfilled.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Texas Gus on this. Yes, it would make the callups happy, but what about those ON the 40 who'd see the others leapfrogging them?
ReplyDeleteAs it is, games and perhaps pennants+ are decided by players who haven't been there all year. Putting in guys who haven't even earned a spot on the 40 would certainly further dilute the talent and cheapen the standings.
Picture the Mets battling the Nats for the decision in mid-September. While we're battling the Cubs in a tough game, the Nats are beating up a 19 year old Phillies pitcher who had looked good in Class A that Summer. Would you like to see that?