Opportunity for strategy

[DrungoHazewood]

So they're talking about schemes to restart baseball eventually, and most of them involve expanded rosters.  This being 2020, the mind of a manager immediately goes to "wow, now I can finally have my dream of a 23-man pitching staff!!"

But I think we can do better than that.  What kind of strategies could an innovative team use if given a 30 or 35-man roster all year?  It'll be a little like September roster expansion, but for presumably a longer period.  We could have teams platoon the heck out of six positions.  Teams that are short on talent and just don't care... like your 2020 Baltimore Orioles.  Also, we could see a return on pinch hitting, pinch running, defensive replacements.  What else?

[osfan83]

6 defensive replacements when leading after 7. 

[survivedc]

Power hitters to start the game and slap hitters/speedsters if they are defensive upgrades to finish.

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

11 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

So they're talking about schemes to restart baseball eventually, and most of them involve expanded rosters.  This being 2020, the mind of a manager immediately goes to "wow, now I can finally have my dream of a 23-man pitching staff!!"

But I think we can do better than that.  What kind of strategies could an innovative team use if given a 30 or 35-man roster all year?  It'll be a little like September roster expansion, but for presumably a longer period.  We could have teams platoon the heck out of six positions.  Teams that are short on talent and just don't care... like your 2020 Baltimore Orioles.  Also, we could see a return on pinch hitting, pinch running, defensive replacements.  What else?

I suspect they'll make each manager declare 26 players who are eligible for each game. So, from the larger 35-man roster or whatever - only 26 can actually enter a particular game.

Kind of like soccer. You have your starting lineup, eligible bench players, and then the inactives.

[LA2]

15 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

So they're talking about schemes to restart baseball eventually, and most of them involve expanded rosters.  This being 2020, the mind of a manager immediately goes to "wow, now I can finally have my dream of a 23-man pitching staff!!"

But I think we can do better than that.  What kind of strategies could an innovative team use if given a 30 or 35-man roster all year?  It'll be a little like September roster expansion, but for presumably a longer period.  We could have teams platoon the heck out of six positions.  Teams that are short on talent and just don't care... like your 2020 Baltimore Orioles.  Also, we could see a return on pinch hitting, pinch running, defensive replacements.  What else?

Allow each defensive position to have its own DH, if preferred. This would bring baseball teams closer to having a defensive squad and an offensive one.

[DrungoHazewood]

5 hours ago, LA2 said:

Allow each defensive position to have its own DH, if preferred. This would bring baseball teams closer to having a defensive squad and an offensive one.

That's a terrible idea.  While I'm a fan of seeing the best players play, I'm also a fan of top athletes stretching themselves and working with their limitations. Strategy in baseball often revolves around making do with the slugger who can't field, or the shortstop who can't hit.  Do you pinch hit, knowing that your utility player now has to play the last three innings and he's not nearly as good with the glove?  Is Renato Nunez worth it if he has to play third?

NFL-style one-way players means you just plug in your lineup and go at it.  Man to man.  $225M payroll against $80M payroll, with little in the way of strategizing to make up the gap.

[DrungoHazewood]

9 hours ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

I suspect they'll make each manager declare 26 players who are eligible for each game. So, from the larger 35-man roster or whatever - only 26 can actually enter a particular game.

Kind of like soccer. You have your starting lineup, eligible bench players, and then the inactives.

With baseball that's kind of cheating.  You automatically make the four other starting pitchers and the reliever who threw two innings last night ineligible.  If you wanted managers to really think hard and make choices you'd have a 16- or 18-man active gameday roster.  With soccer you can make three subs out of 11.  The end.  With 26-man active rosters you can make 17 subs out of nine.  Ohhh, that's hard.

[Can_of_corn]

9 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

With baseball that's kind of cheating.  You automatically make the four other starting pitchers and the reliever who threw two innings last night ineligible.  If you wanted managers to really think hard and make choices you'd have a 16- or 18-man active gameday roster.  With soccer you can make three subs out of 11.  The end.  With 26-man active rosters you can make 17 subs out of nine.  Ohhh, that's hard.

They still managed to run out of players in an all star game.

[LA2]

2 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

That's a terrible idea.  While I'm a fan of seeing the best players play, I'm also a fan of top athletes stretching themselves and working with their limitations. Strategy in baseball often revolves around making do with the slugger who can't field, or the shortstop who can't hit.  Do you pinch hit, knowing that your utility player now has to play the last three innings and he's not nearly as good with the glove?  Is Renato Nunez worth it if he has to play third?

NFL-style one-way players means you just plug in your lineup and go at it.  Man to man.  $225M payroll against $80M payroll, with little in the way of strategizing to make up the gap.

Wow, sorry. It's actually my fault for not inserting enough signs of sarcasm.

Baseball is my only sport. Despite being the starting flanker on a high school football team that relied on passing (a rarity at the time) and the beneficiary as a fan of many years of good Memorial Stadium teams, I basically lost interest and stopped watching football about two decades ago except sometimes during the post-season. i would not be a happy camper if baseball started making itself over in the image of the gridiron.

[LA2]

3 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

That's a terrible idea.  While I'm a fan of seeing the best players play, I'm also a fan of top athletes stretching themselves and working with their limitations. Strategy in baseball often revolves around making do with the slugger who can't field, or the shortstop who can't hit.  Do you pinch hit, knowing that your utility player now has to play the last three innings and he's not nearly as good with the glove?  Is Renato Nunez worth it if he has to play third?

NFL-style one-way players means you just plug in your lineup and go at it.  Man to man.  $225M payroll against $80M payroll, with little in the way of strategizing to make up the gap.

Oh and by the way, I happen to agree (not sarcastic).

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, LA2 said:

Oh and by the way, I happen to agree (not sarcastic).

Sorry, hard to tell intent from text.  Plus, I needed something to type about...

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, LA2 said:

Wow, sorry. It's actually my fault for not inserting enough signs of sarcasm.

Baseball is my only sport. Despite being the starting flanker on a high school football team that relied on passing (a rarity at the time) and the beneficiary as a fan of many years of good Memorial Stadium teams, I basically lost interest and stopped watching football about two decades ago except sometimes during the post-season. i would not be a happy camper if baseball started making itself over in the image of the gridiron.

When I was a kid I watched a lot of pro football.  Then that tailed off as I found Virginia Tech and college football, and shortly after that the Redskins began their 25-year (and counting) era of total irrelevance.  Now I barely watch the NFL, and don't even watch every Tech game.

But to be truthful soccer has filled the gap.  I still watch baseball (really just the Orioles), but football is down probably 75% from 20 years ago, and soccer is up 1000%.  I'll get razzed for this, but I'd rather watch random games of either Asian baseball or German/English soccer than an A's - Brewers game or (most certainly) a Raiders - Bears game.

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

4 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

With baseball that's kind of cheating.  You automatically make the four other starting pitchers and the reliever who threw two innings last night ineligible.  If you wanted managers to really think hard and make choices you'd have a 16- or 18-man active gameday roster.  With soccer you can make three subs out of 11.  The end.  With 26-man active rosters you can make 17 subs out of nine.  Ohhh, that's hard.

That's a good point. You might be able to only carry so many pitchers and only 18 can be active for a game or something.

If they're playing a lot of double-headers, this will be necessary. And teams who are actually trying to win will want to have their best players available.

[DrungoHazewood]

16 minutes ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

If they're playing a lot of double-headers, this will be necessary.

Necessary to implement strategies that are currently in vogue and keep pitchers relatively healthy and rested.  But professional baseball existed for decades with both doubleheaders and rosters far smaller than 25 players.  The first National League doubleheader was in 1876, and involved a Hartford team that used 12 players all year against the Cincinnatis who were a bit more extravagant and used 13.

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

15 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Necessary to implement strategies that are currently in vogue and keep pitchers relatively healthy and rested.  But professional baseball existed for decades with both doubleheaders and rosters far smaller than 25 players.  The first National League doubleheader was in 1876, and involved a Hartford team that used 12 players all year against the Cincinnatis who were a bit more extravagant and used 13.

Yeah, but back in 1876 five year olds used to work in the coal mines. That's the type of hard work that makes you strong and lets you throw 400 innings in a week.