By mess, I’m referring to the fact that they almost ran out of pitchers because the managers are (justifiably) worried about overusing arms that aren’t theirs to overuse. Even 12 pitchers isn’t enough.
So my idea to fix this would be to add the entire bullpen of a single team in each leagues. In fact, you could let the pitching coaches from each league select the bullpen that stood out the most in the first half of the season.
This plan would:
- Recognize the role of all bullpen relievers in today’s game. Not just closers
- Easily add 5-6 more pitchers to the all-star staff of each league
- Provide the managers with some guys who are used to pitching more than one inning. And are capable of coming into the game at points other than than the start of an inning.
- Managers wouldn’t have to worry about using all those guys. Not that the Sox have the best bullpen so far (they definitely don’t) but I seriously doubt that Javier Lopez would have his ego bruised if he didn’t get to pitch.
One Comment
bad idea. i think they just need to decide, as a league,that the game counts, or get rid of it. if it counts, they should have the starting pitchers pitch 3 innings each, unless they suck-don’t go to the 3rd best closer in the 5th or sixth inning - save them for the 8th and 9th - and have one or two starters not pitching, unless they go to extras…
the whole issue is the overwhelming fear of injuring a pitcher by making him pitch - which is silly - the real worry is that they’d injure a pitcher and that would injure a team - financially - so it all comes down to the league caring if it is a real game or not. based on their world series home field advantage thing, they carer - so suck it up and make it real.