Most of this comes from a comment I made when Sports Dawg wrote on An Opinion On Sports about expanding the All-Star rosters after Clint Hurdle and Terry Francona nearly had to use David Wright and J.D. Drew as pitchers due to a limited number of innings available from the All-Star pitchers.
Sports Dawg isn't the only one to make the suggestion as I've heard a lot of people talk about expanding the rosters because "now the game counts."
However, I have to respectfully disagree.
If the game counts and is supposed to be important because of its determination of home field advantage in the World Series, then teams should make their players available to fully participate. By that, I mean there shouldn't be concerns that a pitcher threw two days earlier.
If you are the Arizona Diamondbacks, you are leading the NL West, and you think you have a shot at making the World Series, don't throw Brandon Webb two days before the All-Star game. (The same could be said for Scott Kazmir and the Tampa Bay Rays.) In my mind there are three options the D'Backs (or Rays) could have considered:
Option 1: Move Webb's pre-All-Star start up earlier in the week. This would take some pre-planning when you know a pitcher is likely to be an All-Star, but it could easily be done -- on July 6, Webb could have went on three days rest and then his last start prior to the All-Star Game could have been on July 11 giving him three days rest prior to the All-Star Game on Tuesday, which would leave Webb fully capable of throwing 2 or 3 innings in the All-Star Game.
Option 2: Skip Webb's start just before the All-Star Game so that he is capable of going multiple innings in the home field determiner.
Option 3: Only throw Webb in limited action for a couple of innings in the Sunday start prior to the All-Star Game. Using this option, Webb could have thrown 2-4 innings, depending on pitch count, against the Phillies on Sunday and Dan Haren could have thrown 2-3, again based on pitch count.
Using any of these three options, gives the National League a much better chance of breaking the American League's current streak of All-Star domination, gives your league the best opportunity to win your team home field advantage, which by looking at the home/road splits of almost every team in the league you can see the importance, for the World Series, and gives the fans a chance to see Webb instead of Aaron Cook for three innings even though Cook did a great job.
Of course, the All-Star Game shouldn't "count," and if it does count, it should be managed just like a regular season game instead of "let's try to get some time for everyone," but all of that is a separate issue.
Sports Dawg isn't the only one to make the suggestion as I've heard a lot of people talk about expanding the rosters because "now the game counts."
However, I have to respectfully disagree.
If the game counts and is supposed to be important because of its determination of home field advantage in the World Series, then teams should make their players available to fully participate. By that, I mean there shouldn't be concerns that a pitcher threw two days earlier.
If you are the Arizona Diamondbacks, you are leading the NL West, and you think you have a shot at making the World Series, don't throw Brandon Webb two days before the All-Star game. (The same could be said for Scott Kazmir and the Tampa Bay Rays.) In my mind there are three options the D'Backs (or Rays) could have considered:
Option 1: Move Webb's pre-All-Star start up earlier in the week. This would take some pre-planning when you know a pitcher is likely to be an All-Star, but it could easily be done -- on July 6, Webb could have went on three days rest and then his last start prior to the All-Star Game could have been on July 11 giving him three days rest prior to the All-Star Game on Tuesday, which would leave Webb fully capable of throwing 2 or 3 innings in the All-Star Game.
Option 2: Skip Webb's start just before the All-Star Game so that he is capable of going multiple innings in the home field determiner.
Option 3: Only throw Webb in limited action for a couple of innings in the Sunday start prior to the All-Star Game. Using this option, Webb could have thrown 2-4 innings, depending on pitch count, against the Phillies on Sunday and Dan Haren could have thrown 2-3, again based on pitch count.
Using any of these three options, gives the National League a much better chance of breaking the American League's current streak of All-Star domination, gives your league the best opportunity to win your team home field advantage, which by looking at the home/road splits of almost every team in the league you can see the importance, for the World Series, and gives the fans a chance to see Webb instead of Aaron Cook for three innings even though Cook did a great job.
Of course, the All-Star Game shouldn't "count," and if it does count, it should be managed just like a regular season game instead of "let's try to get some time for everyone," but all of that is a separate issue.
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