Bud Selig gets a lot of flak for un-improving the game of major league baseball during his reign as growth and revenue have always been the only thing he cares about. This makes sense given he's basically the MLB CEO and his job is to grow profits.
This time he's taking a different tack, yesterday Commissioner Bud Selig announced on Tuesday that he will chair a new 14-man special committee to analyze ways of improving Major League Baseball on the field.
Most of all enjoy this game we follow so closely but we might have some pet peeves.
You might be surprised about what bugs me the most. It is not the DH though I despise it. It is not the pitchers who take forever to throw a pitch though I despise them. It is not the the crazy schedule that has teams playing in Detroit in April. It is not the crazy playoff schedule that has teams playing almost into November.
It is the roster expansion in September. For 132 games out of a 162 game season everyone plays by the same rules. 25 man roster, then all of sudden on Sept 1st all hell breaks loose and the rosters are expanded. Games are decided in Sept that will define the playoff landscape and teams who couldn't use a pinch runner on Aug 31st are all sudden allowed to use three in a game because the rosters have been expanded. Broken bullpens are fixed with the infusion of new arms. Tired catchers can get swapped out more easily because you can always bet that at least one catcher was included in the expansion. From the time I first started following this game I've never understood how you can have one set of rules for 132 games of the season and a whole other set for the rest of the season during the most important time of the season.
I get we want to see the prospects. Sept is usually my favorite part of the year as I finally get to see the kids I've been tracking since they became part of the organization. I get that, I just don't get the fact the roster is allowed to expand to greater then 25 man.
I'd like MLB to stay consistent. Play the game with an active 25 man roster. If you want to bring up 10 guys on Sept 1st, fine but you only get to have 25 active for any game. This still gives teams the advantage in the pitching dept as they swap out the pitchers used the game before but at least the manager can only use the 25 men he deemed active for that game.
Okay, that is my pet peeve and the one rule I'd like to see modified. What is yours?