Not to put too fine a point on it but September pretty much sucks far for the SHaMs, with patsies beating us up and the Braves still winning and we’re not in first place anymore, at least not alone and at least until the first half of what had better be a sweep today in Pittsburgh, or else.
Max Scherzer is on the disabled list, veteran lefty Alex Claudio has joined the group and Yoan Lopez is back as the 29th Man. How silly is that? Baseball should have smaller rosters, at least smaller active ones like hockey does. 25 guys, dress 22 or 23. Doubleheader, switch between games.
I get it, there’s something in the player’s union for this. These easy to beat Mets put me in a bad mood.
Now that the Mets have met your ultimatum and swept the doubleheader, I trust you are in a better mood. So you won’t get mad when I explain why you’re wrong about the roster limits. The limit should NOT be reduced to 25. The September limit of 28 is perfect and it should be kept there permanently.
I remember when teams carried only 9 or 10 pitchers on a 25 man roster. You had a 7 or 8 man bench. Enough for pinch hitters, pinch runners, defensive replacements, and platoon players. More managerial strategy, which means a better game.
Nowadays, teams routinely carry 13 pitchers. With a 25 man roster, that means only a 3 man bench. If a player is injured, the bench gets even shorter, and the manager’s hands are completely tied.
Also, I’m not sure what you are trying to accomplish by only dressing 22 or 23. Under your proposal, the healthy scratches would always be starting pitchers awaiting their turn. Nothing will have changed.
As a matter of fact I do feel better!
13 pitchers on a staff is one of the reasons I’d like to implement my radical strategy, which I should emphasize is more “food for thought” than a realistic demand as the game is going in the opposite direction with the universal DH, 26-man rosters and 13 “DPs” per club. I understand the logic of limiting position-player-pitching “surrender” but would like to see more generalists and fewer specialists. Hopefully we will see some 2-way guys emerge over time. Another way to encourage that would be to limit rosters not expand them