Baseball has its venerable 40 man roster.
This is important and appropriate when it comes to protecting players from other teams drafting them in the off-season.
I like 40 for that. It's the right number.
It once had a venerable 25 man roster, for forever. I used to frequently complain that they should change it to 26 or 27, to not screw minor league hitters out of MLB opportunities.Back in Seaver's day, teams carried 10 pitchers and 15 hitters. It got to 12-13 pitchers and 12-13 hitters. Hitters' jobs lost.
But that "Venerable 25" became changeable. No longer 25.
Back to “the 40”…during the season, I think it represents undue restriction of employment opportunities for quite a few players. Guys not on the 40 man are less likely to be called up than those already on the 40.
So I'd like to see the in-season roster be expanded - from 40 to 50.
Here's an example of why.
Daniel "Pounding" Palka had a nice major league season in 2017, 27 HRs in 417 ABs and driving in 67.
The next season, he cratered in MLB in under 100 at bats. He was summarily banished - he's been all minors since, no MLB time at all.
With the Syracuse Mets, he's been on fire - and through slightly over 200 at bats in 2022 as I wrote this, he had 15 HRs and 47 RBIs. That's PRODUCTION.
Yet, his chances of a call up are impaired due to his not being on the 40-man roster. If the Mets called him up, someone else would have to be dropped off it.
I am not saying he would get called up - but his chances of a call up are greatly reduced by not being on the 40 man.
Unfair to him - so, please make it 50 during the season. Don't screw the Daniel Palkas of the world. If a fella is hot, and the team has a positional need, he should be next man up. Period.
I'm Tom Brennan, and that's my message.
BUT, ONE MORE BONE OF CONTENTION BEFORE I GO:
Mets are trying to win their division.
Yanks have no such concern. They are on a 120 win pace.
The Mets play them twice in late July, and twice in late August.
Could playing 4 against the Bronx Steamrollers, and not instead against a schmucky team like the Baez-led Detroit, cost the Mets the division?
I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? If I was Steve Cohen, though, I'd push to limit the Yanks in-season to 2 games, if any. As any Mets fan knows, getting into the playoffs is awfully tough - without making it even tougher.
All time, the Mets are 58-76 against the Yanks, and 1-4 in the World Series. 59-80 is not winning baseball. And, as you all know, when the Mets are winning more, I'm whining less.
YESTERDAY, BASEBALL, SUCH AN EASY GAME TO PLAY..
Sadly, the Mets were in Houston. They would have been rained out in Queens and avoided a loss.
Mets fell behind 5-1 early, as Carrasco was having a bad day. A sore lower back. Dom Smith fanned with the Mets down 5-3 and the baguettes full. So…they lost 5-3.
MINORS MISH MOSH:
In the minors, Syracuse, Binghamton, and Brooklyn, despite improved play of late, were still a combined 40 games below .500 heading into action, while St Lucie was rocking at 40-23.
It was a tough night for the 4 teams, as in 0-4 and not much hitting. And 51 strikeouts from their hitters (or should they be called missers?)
Syracuse had no Dom Smith, Daniel Palka, or Mark Vientos in the line up. Predictably, they scored just 2 runs in a 4-2 loss. Brodey, Saunders and Meyer each got on base twice, which was triply nice. Hitters fanned 9 times.
Binghamton lost 9-3. Nuf said. Except...back to back bad games for Ronny Mo...0 for 9, with 7 Ks. What up? 14 Rumble Pony hitter Ks. James McCann has shaken off the rust and was 2 for 4.
Brooklyn not hitting. Down 5-2 entering the 9th, then with 2 outs a Tanner Murphy (.269) single followed by a Rudick double made it 5-3, but that was that. 16 Brooklyn hitter Ks. Nice 9th inning by Sammy Tavares (1.40), 1-2-3 with 2 Ks.
St Lucie? 2 hits, 9 walks, 12 Ks. In my last time mentioning strikeout totals for any individual hitters, Carlos Dominguez has 200 official at bats and 94 Ks, yet is hitting .240. Daniel Juarez (2-1) allowed no hits in the 8th in .2 IP, but still allowed 3 runs and took a 4-2 loss.
As a final note:
One of our deep-dive readers noted that a Mets minors guy had fanned all 9 of the batters he retired in a recent scoreless 3 inning outing in the FCL. Upon further review, it was seen that he fanned 7 in 2.2 innings in his prior outing, so in 2 outings, an astonishing 16 of 17 outs came via the strikeout!!
His name? Layonel Ovalles, a 6'3", 215 lb. 19 year old righty.
16 of 17? THAT is sick - and might be a pro baseball record.
12 comments:
5 games,5 losses
"We're gonna need a bigger clubhouse".
And a bigger funny farm for me and my crazy ideas.
I just don't like it that a hitter could potentially be called up, but the 40-man limit is just one more obstacle for him.
For pitchers, it hardly matters, it is such a revolving door for them. 22 used so far this year, 36 guys pitched last year.
Our old pitching staff maybe catching up to us. Can anyone explain why the Yanks would push Judge to the arbitration table (and I've heard he like to sit in on the discussion) over 4 million bucks???? My dream last night was Stevie stepping up and poaching Aaron from the Evil Empire and oh what a site in RF at Citi but I know it was a dream but SC CAN make it happen and wow would'nt that shake up the the New York and baseball universe
Ironically, while the place to put your name says “this blog does not allow anonymous comments”, I saw one yesterday. Unless they put their name as Anonymous?
On the 50 guys…. MLB is not supposed to be fair for all. Just like life isn’t the players need to adapt. Work on your defense earlier and don’t expect your bat to carry you. Be able to play other positions. Mookie Betts came up as a second baseman, now he’s an MVP candidate. That flexibility give you a chance. All these guys that are DH/1B types, well there aren't enough spots for everyone. Does Palka need to go overseas? Possibly.
Also 2 games with the Stros and EE once again comes up short to the point where the SNY boys highlighted his struggles last night and I hate when they refer to Luis G. as a utility guy. Dam lets just play him and see what happens can't we?
I changed it back to see if the knuckleheads ran away.
They didn't
Changed it back
Play Luis at third until he cools off
No drop in defense
When the offense starts to stagnate, which it has a bit, go with the hot hand - Luis over Eduardo. That pre-supposes McNeil is back healthy on Friday.
Gary I do not profess to know Palka's story - considering he had that fine 2017, then bad 2018, then no MLB in 2019, 2020, 2021 or 2022 so far, I wonder what makes some guys stick with it. His minor league power numbers since 2018 are excellent. Puzzling why an offense-challenged team like Detroit or Pittsburgh wouldn't want a guy like that to possibly tap, but he signed with the deep Mets.
I guess another way to look at it is that if a team had 14 guys they want to protect ahead of a AAAA level player and somehow they need a bat on the MLB roster, they are in pretty good shape over-all.
It is a pick and choose thing among Lee, Plummer, Palka, Jankowski and probably the same story on the the pitchers side, but if Palka is better than (and has a better future than) say, Plummer, then a DFA of Plummer is not the worst option.
If it is going to be 50, they might as well not have any limit, or just drop the whole concept of the 40 man roster.
And also, altho there won't be another stoppage for a while, those guys that are prospects and on the 40 man roster couldn't do spring training until the MLB contract got signed.
Everyone we have tried at OF5 has failed.
Palka deserves his shot now
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