2013 MLB Regular Season running thread

Exactly my point. Managers, for the most part, refuse to smarten up with the times.

Yes, I know it didn't work for Rivera yesterday, who gave up two broken bat bloop hits to lose the game. That doesn't mean it was a bad strategy to bring him in when Girardi did.

 

It wouldn't be difficult at all. Appeal and let him make his scheduled start.

 

D-Backs had an off day yesterday and have off days Thursday and next Monday. He's due to start Sunday, so you drop the appeal on Monday and he misses one start.

 

Say he pitched the night before the suspension begins. He is guaranteed to miss one start (Game #5 of the 10 games), and to prevent him from missing another start (Game #10) they'd have to have someone else in the rotation pitch ahead of turn or bring in a sub starter somewhere. And that's if the announcement is timed right or he withdraws his appeal on that timeframe.

Could do it with days off or by making a roster move, but not ideal. Anyway, equivalent to a player suspension of five to nine games. Sounds fair.

 

And it might be fair. Although, I'd think throwing at someone's head (especially in this new age of increased player safety awareness) after being warned not to do that would result in more than one missed start.

Either way, saying that a pitcher received "a 10-game suspension" is laughable.

 

He also loses about $250,000 (based on that 180-day thing, a little more if it's on a 162-game schedule). I know, I know -- walking around money to him. But that's a chunk.

 

Oh God (or G.d for OOP), what have I done. It's times like these that make you step back and re-evaluate your original position.

 

Wonder if that penalty would seem so fair if that pitch would have resulted in serious injury? Which is easily could have.

 

No matter how you juggle the numbers, 10 games for a starting pitcher does not equal 10 days for a position player. Not that baseball has ever had a grasp on that, dating back to Marichal-Roseboro and likely beyond.

 

So what would you suggest? A starting pitcher, if healthy only starts about 35 games a year.

 

Not even that anymore, more like 32 or 33.

10 games for a position player = roughly 1/16th of his season

2 starts for a pitcher = roughly 1/16th of his season

 

That's where it gets tricky. If you say "Ok, you're suspended for two starts," how do you enforce that without allowing a manager to find a loophole?

Either way, pitchers should be held to a slightly higher standard here. They choose to throw at someone's head, which should never happen. Even if that stupid unwritten rulebook says it's cool.

Maybe suspend him for 15 days, which would probably end up costing him 2 starts given the appeals process.

But yeah, it's definitely tricky.