Tuesday Thoughts - post-Labor Day Hangover Version

 20-6

A couple of thoughts:

• Minnesota, winning by more than 10 runs, should NOT have been able to use Willi Castro in the 9th inning.  This position player pitching rule should be disallowed (see below) and any other rule enacted to replace this position player pitching rule should be for use by the LOSING team only.  You don't get to use your position players as pitchers to save your bullpen if you choose to destroy the other team.  Why more people are not complaining about this I don't know.  It was bush league for Minnesota to use Castro.  If they don't like it, have their guys stand there with bats on shoulders or put in your weakest pitcher to keep the margin to under 10 runs.  
• Francona should have sent Gioloto out there for the 4th inning.  He was only at 79 pitches.  Francona is such a veteran's manager.  He doesn't want to risk Gioloto, a throw-away (apparently from his performance) waiver wire guy getting hurt but he risks his rookie utility man going on the DL with a bad shouldber or elbow by having him throw 4 innings.    And then he had the balls to basically say that he didn't want it to become a game because either he would have had to put a true pitcher in or Fry might have overextended himself.    I get all of it but it's just stuff you should keep to yourself...and you should make Gioloto pitch until he gets to 100 pitches, at least.

Rule Changes

• To repeat and earlier post (or two), I don't want them to change, in any way, the waiver rules this winter.  Yes, it gives weaker, fringe playoff teams the advantage but so what?   These teams deserve any advantage they can get as they can't just sign guys to high salaries and have to cobble together rosters in an attempt to compete with the high rollers.  
• Three rule changes I would like to see implemented this winter are:
• Changes to the rule 5 giving international free agents signed under the age of 18 and extra year of development before they are Rule 5 eligible (already mentioned in earlier posts)
• Create a perpetual 27th man spot on ML teams to avoid the travesty and injury risk that we saw with Francona's preposterous use of Fry yesterday.   I have also mentioned this in a previous post and it goes like this:
• Each ML team is allowed to carry a 27th player on their roster for all games. The player must be:
• a pitcher
• someone not on the 40-man roster who has not appeared in a major league game that season as a 40-man roster player.
• Must have played in at least 5 professional seasons (2020 counts even though there was no minor league baseball)
• must not appear as the 27th player more than one week every calendar month
• must only appear in a game where his team is trailing by more than 10 runs.   If you are winning by more than 10 runes (say, Minnesota last night) you don't get to take advantage of this rule.
• The player
• receives his minor league salary on all days where he does not pitch
• receives major league salary in games where he does pitch
• does not receive credit towards his pension for time as the 27th man
• does not have to be optioned to the minors after his time as a 27th man is complete
• A 28th man is allowed to be carried on the roster for a doubleheader situation under the same rules as the current 27 man rule.

NOTE: Examples of pitchers in the Cleveland organization who would qualify would be: Adam Scott, Jason Bilous, Jerad Eickoff, Nic Enright, Luis Oviedo, Thomas Ponticelli, Justin Lewis, Eric Sabrowski.  The goals of this rule are to protect pitchers from having to pitch in blowout games and to give minor league lifers a chance to appear in a major league game and sit in a major league dugout/bullpen as a reward for service to their organization.  Let's call it the "Rudy Rule".

• Revise the minor league option/player control rules in the following ways:
• Give all players on the 40 man roster and in the minors in 2020 an additional option year if they used one of their options in 2020
• Give all players an extra option year if they were signed in 2017-2019, were under 17.5 years old when orignially signed and have been added to their team's 40 man roster after the 2021 or 2022 season. (NOTE: This is designed to give players such as Juan Brito and Jhonkensy Noel the extra year of development in the minors they need before running out of minor league options.)
• Give teams an extra year of player control (before becoming 6-year minor league free agents) for all players who had signed a contract before 2020 and were under 19 years old and in the minors during that cancelled season. (NOTE: Obviously aimed at young international signings)

Today's Game

Paul Hoynes called out the Guardians in his article yesterday asking if they were going to roll over in today's game after getting killed yesterday and, essentially, mail in the rest of the season.  I agree that this should be in the forefront of everyone's thoughts today.  If they just give up today they should be booed by everyone in attendance.  Today, more than any other game this season, the players  AND the manager should take on a 7th-game-of-the-World-Series attittude and put it all on the line.  Today AND tomorrow.   you play hard through the end.  Plenty of time to coast through the rest of the season WHEN AND ONLY WHEN you are essentially eliminated which, to me, unless you are officially eliminated, should be no earlier than September 15th and you have to be 10 or more games out of your best playoff possibility at that time.  Until then, last game of the WS attitudes and efforts, PLEASE!

One more thing.  This applies to the FO, too.  Despite his 3 hits yesterday Ramon Laureano should be gone.   He is a veteran space filler.  He won't kill you and might provide you an occasional flash but he won't really be a difference maker, EVER.  We need a minor league spark and this would come from Jonathon Rodrigez.  Also, Kole Calhoun should be a bench player or hitting way down the order right now.  Naylor should be at 1B and someone else like Freeman should be at DH.    Continuing to use Laureano and Calhoun in the middle of the order is the OPPOSITE of trying to pull out all stops to win.   Would Rodriguez fall on this face and potentially be worse than Laureano?  Absolutely.  But Laureano won't ever be better than what he has given us so far and Rodriguez might, which is a good thing as Laureano's best is not even replacement level performance and replacement level performances don't get you to the playoffs.