...according to Bob



MLB must fix its September baseball problem: Uneven rosters, unfair races, terrible games
Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports Published 2:47 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2017 | Updated 2:52 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2017
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(Photo: Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images)

It is the most asinine rule in all of sports.

It’s ruining the fairness of baseball’s playoff races, turning fans and viewing audiences away from the game, and leaving Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred stuck watching four-hour contests.

MLB's archaic September call-up rule, where in the final month of the season, teams can expand their rosters from 25 to 40 players, turns baseball's most critical stretch into an inequitable slog.

And games start mimicking real life: The rich suddenly get richer, with big-market clubs granted a decisive advantage in every game. The poor get poorer, creating for small-market teams an even a larger impediment to win games.

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“Somebody has to look at the integrity of this thing,’’ Doug Melvin, Milwaukee Brewers senior advisor, told USA TODAY Sports. “There’s no other sport that does this. There’s got to be some way to make it an even playing field in our most important month of the season.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Frankly, it never has.’’

Melvin, former GM of the Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers, has pleaded with baseball since 2005 to make a change, and finally has given up trying.

Well, it’s time to pick up his cause.

The idea of September call-ups initially was designed for teams to call up their finest prospects, rewarding them for their performance, and letting them show what they can do at the big-league level.

Every team has the right to have a 40-man roster in September, technically, making it fair for everyone.

But this is the real world.

Now that the minimum salary has escalated to $535,000, costing teams $90,628 per player alone in pay for those called up in September, the focus has shifted.

Sure, you’ll pay the freight and call up as many players you need if you’re in the playoff hunt - and there are 19 teams still alive.

But if you’re out of the race, why bother?

Take a look, and you’ll see the rich Los Angeles Dodgers leading all teams with 38 players on their active roster. The Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians have 36 players apiece. The Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels have 35.

Those teams are all involved in playoff races, some sure-fire postseason teams, others trying to position themselves for home-field advantage.

But if you’re not in the race, why waste the money? You can act like the San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates, who don’t even have a 30-man roster. JERRY TOO CHEAP?????

The Pirates, matter of fact, have only 26 players on their active roster, the same as teams are permitted to have during a doubleheader.

The colossal problem in this roster disparity, turning playoff races into a sham, is that teams with limited September rosters are directly impacting the playoff races.

The Padres, finishing a four-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday, still have seven games left against Colorado, six against Arizona, three against the Dodgers and two against Minnesota.

In every one of those games, the Padres will be out-manned.

The Pirates just finished a three-game series in which they had seven fewer players than the Cubs - including four fewer pitchers. When the Pirates play the Cardinals this weekend, they’ll have six less players.

And, yes, the games count just the same.

How in the world is that fair?

“What you worry about, too,’’ Melvin says, “is that if your team is eliminated, and you want a higher first-round draft pick, you don’t have the incentive to win. So you benefit more by not calling guys up.

“Teams won’t say that loudly, but they’re thinking that.’’

If it’s not bad enough that these September games are tainted, they’ve become unwatchable.

We’re guessing you didn’t plan your Labor Day around the Los Angeles Angels’ 11-inning victory over the Oakland A’s, when manager Mike Scioscia used an American League record 12 pitchers in the game, including six who threw fewer than 10 pitches.

“You manage to what your roster is,” Scioscia told reporters. “If I’d needed a couple of more innings, I’d have used 13 or 14.’’

Little wonder why that game lasted 4 hours, 38 minutes - and how the Angels made baseball history this week by playing five straight games lasting at least 3:49.

How can anyone at MLB hdeadquarters value equality on the playing field and desire quicker-paced games, when everyone can see what’s happening every single day this month?

Major League Baseball executives insists they tried to change the structure in their new collective bargaining agreement. They called for a 26-man roster during the first five months of the season, and a 28-man roster September. The Major League Baseball Players Association rejected it, believing it would suppress the number of call-ups in September, affecting service time for arbitration and free agency.

It’s now time to call a truce.

Teams should be permitted to call up as many players as they choose in September, but when the lineup cards are exchanged at home plate, you still are limited to 25 players. The difference is that you can manipulate it, almost like the 10-day DL, treating it really like a wild-card game. You’ll need only one starting pitcher on your lineup card, allowing you to substitute the four other starters for relievers, position players, or whatever you choose. You can change it daily.

The players still will have their service time, teams' prospects can still be rewarded and earn a few extra bucks, but most important, every manager will have the same number of players at his disposal.

You know, like a real baseball game, and not this September carnival act.

40 is a little nutty, but they should be able to call up a few. Every team should have a 3rd catcher this point. Allow that, two arms, and two position players.

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Both teams should have the same amount of players, whatever the number is.

I like this idea.

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If a team chooses to play with fewer players, so be it. How is that any different from a guy who misses a game or two with an injury, or a guy who the team suspends? When Chris Sale went all crazy with the scissors, the Sox played a few games with a 24 man roster. Should the team(s) the Sox were playing have been forced to suspend a guy to keep things even?

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I agree.

You play the whole year with 25 and then a bunch of minor leaguers are going to decide the pennant races. I would suggest that you still only get 25 but you can designate from the 40 day to day. Sort of like hockey.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I realize you aren't necessarily advocating Nightingale's opinion, but there's a different lens to look at this through.
Some of the 40-man roster manipulations required to bring these guys up create dilemmas in exposing erstwhile prospects to next years' Rule 5 draft. In this way, prospect-heavy franchises will lose rosterable guys to the bottom feeders, which arguably creates opportunities and roster spots for young players, and theoretically; more parity. Casual fans may only pay attention to the mega-clubs like Dodger et al, but there is a niche validity to following teams like the Rays or Royals and see them have their day in the sun.

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That really seems like the easy and rational thing to do, which is why it won't happen easily.

25 players/game would expand the rosters effectively to 29, since your previous 4 starters wouldn't be on the 25-man roster. That's how the wild card game works.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I agree. That makes the most sense. I'm not certain that minor leaguers often decide pennant races, but I do think it was real bullshit when the 2003 Montreal Expos, owned by the other 29 teams, weren't allowed to make September callups in the middle of their race for the wild card (which was won by, wouldn't you know it, the Marlins, who were essentially the Expos' old organization/office staff relocated to Miami).


No, because the White Sox handicapped themselves by suspending a guy for not liking crappy uniforms.

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Honestly, I thought that WAS the process until a few years ago.

40 roster, 25 for each game.


We fixed it, Frank.

I used to think that, too. Of course, as pointed out, this would mean your other four starters are healthy scratches and surely replaced with at least two more relievers. Do we want managers to have nine-man bullpens to play with?

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Better than the current system.

How bout we get crazy and say no more than 5 pitchers can pitch in a game? Then we'll separate the Quintana's from the Kershaws

You would also literally kill Mike Scioscia and Terry Francona.

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MANY have been wanting something quite like that for some time now.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

They suspended him for being an immature asswipe about it.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Way to miss the point. Both of you.

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I don't know what point he was arguing ... I just replied to that section of his post and only that.

Way to swing and miss.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Saying the teams should play at even rosters because of one team's internal discipline issue was a certified Dumb Argument. You can even the rosters back out by reinstating your own player.

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That's all a bunch of horseshit , every team in the league is making millions, a couple million dollars in September isn't going to do dick to their yearly revenue.. They are all owned by billionaires to boot.

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I noticed you glossed right over this because "LOL frank coztansa die sox white fan!"

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Sweet Sassy Molassy

Your analogy game is weak as fuck lately

Thank you for your input.

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Just round it to 30 and call it a day. Jumping from 25 to 40 was always crazy anyway. Just no reason on earth you would ever need 40 guys to play a fuckin baseball game.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Does anyone actually bring up all 15 guys? I feel like most teams bring up about 5-7.

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Right, that's kind of my point. Just cap it at 30 and save all the hand wringing from small market teams and big market teams like the Sox who act like small market teams

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul