Is Baseball Losing it's Soul???

[Alex]

A quote from NCtribefan "And I wish people would stop with the hyperbole. These are probably not major-league all-stars we're talking about here, but neither are they "**** ." They have value or they would be out of the game already."

"Anyway, I love Willy. Y'all know that. I always have. He was always one of my favorites to watch. He's just a very exciting player. Sure, it would be nice if he hit the ball out of the infield on occasion. But as noted in BA today, he can turn just about ANY ball hit in the infield into a single. And once on base, he makes it all look so very easy. I've never seen ANY player on ANY team score so easily from 1st on balls hit into the right-center gap. It was just a joy to watch him run the bases or track down a fly that you just knew was headed to the gap for a double or triple!

Good luck to Willy. He's a good guy. I wish him all the best."

<font size="3" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here's what that comment means to me.

Willy Taveras would be a treat to have on the Indians major league roster, if major league rosters carried 26 or 27 players rather than 25.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't major league rosters used to only have 8 or 9 pitchers? There were FOUR starters, FOUR relievers, and one closer, isn't that correct? Now most teams carry 12 pitchers, THREE MORE THAN BEFORE!

I don't recall if the rosters used to be only 24 and they raised it to 25, but even so, that's TWO LESS bench players. I am ashamed that MLB now believes that watching Jim Thome chug the bases late in a game is somehow entertaining.

I find it disheartening that the Boston Red Sox could not find the class to play Dave Roberts for one inning of one game in the World Series after it was his TWO stolen bases in two consecutive games against the Yankees that fueled Boston's comeback.

I WANT to see Alex Escobar come into the game in the 8th or 9th inning to nail pinch-runner Willy Taveras in a close play at the plate rather than watch Jim Thome held up at third after a Manny Ramirez bend, bobble and flop in the outfield.

Players that could be known as late inning specialists are instead derisevely viewed as AAAA scrap material.

Why?

So a self made steroid droid can hit 40-50 homers and collect 10 million dollars a year?

EXPAND the Major League Baseball Rosters so that players that play the game with talent not harvested by Steroids, the Willy Taveras's and Alex Escobar's of the world can be known and loved by major league fans turned off by the high brow attitude by many of the current stars in both leagues.

How good is this idea? It's so good that anyone can argue that NEITHER the players union or the owners would agree to it, AND anyone could also argue that both sides would be in favor of it as well.

I do know this, it's time to have the "natural hero" back in baseball, and ballplayers like Alex Escobar, Willy Taveras, and Dave Roberts fit that role to a T.

[The RotoTribe]

You're right about the 9 or 10 pitchers. The designated hitter made 12 pitchers okay in the AL. I think NL teams carry one less. ML teams used to have, 10 pitchers, 3 catchers, 6 or 7 infielders and 5 or 6 outfielders. I always liked the early season when teams carried 28 players for the first month. That way they got to try out a couple of guys first.

The only thing I'll say about 12 pitchers is that now, the teams traditionally call up a minor league guy for a game or two when needed. I don't remember so many personnel changes 25 or 30 years ago.

[Alex]

Lets say Matt Lawton was healthy and available, and so was Alex Escobar. Lets say you sign Matt Lawton for 4.0 million and Alex Escobar for one million.

As a tandem, Matt Lawton for the first 7 innings and Alex Escobar for the last two innings (in close games or games where the tribe is protecting a lead), would make for a qood quality pairing.

I'd rather have those two guys at 5 million (if healthy) than a Preston Wilson at 10 million. In essence, I've increased my bench by one but REDUCED MY PAYROLL by 5 million!

I believe top end salaries would begin stop rising and even slightly fall if rosters were expanded, which would negate the argument that expanded roster size would increase payroll.