Girardi’s selection of Ramiro Pena is interesting, and signals a shift in the Yankee thinking and the game as a whole. For so many years under Torre, the Yanks would favor veterans in the bullpen and on the bench, saying that the kids “need to play everyday”. Now the Yanks have a bullpen of mostly young, homegrown arms and went with Albaladejo for the final pitching spot over veteran Brett Tomko. Then Girardi selects the young Pena over the older Angel Berroa for the last roster spot.
This tells you Girardi believes the game has shifted. He has said so many times recently, including friday morning at the WFAN breakfast. The days of having older players who maintain their production into their late 30′s is becoming a thing of the past. Tom Verducci has a piece up on SI detailing the shift in the ages of highly productive players recently, and the trend line in average age is clearly down. It’s easy to speculate as to why. When a steroid testing regime was put in place in Baseball, older players no longer had the steroid fountain of youth available to them. Steroid replacements like HGH are far less effective, and the results on the field have evidenced that. Even the once ubiquitous amphetamines are now banned and tested for, so young legs are more important than ever. The success last season of the Rays opened a lot of eyes, things like that just didn’t happen in the AL East for the past 20 years.
All of this could also have a long term affect on payrolls. Older players tend to be very highly compensated, whereas younger players require 6 years of service time to gain their free agent rights. As older players fade and rosters are increasingly filled with the young, the effect on payrolls will be a long term flattening or possibly even a downward trend. This also tells you why the Union was so dead set against steroid testing. In their view, their main job is to raise player salaries, and steroid testing reduces a player’s peak earning years. Reduces them to their natural limits of course, but the MLBPA doesn’t give a damn about that. They want players to be able to grab every dollar they can out of the sport and don’t care how they do it.
With steroids and amphetamines out of the game, youthful energy is at a premium.
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0 Responses to (Once again) A Young Man's Game
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TIQ IQ
If peak earning years have truly been reduced. The union will have to reduce the six years of service needed (three seems about right) until a player is eligible for free agency during the next CBA negotiations.
Never going to happen. The owners know that doing that would lead to salary explosion. If the union were to insiste upon it, there will be a lengthy strike.
the Union has to make sure the players keep getting paid. And if players really have less years of high level production it is the leagues duty to ensure the players get the most out of it.
I personally think 6 years is too long even now because i would want the ability to get paid market value for my talent and the power to choose my team much sooner. 6 years takes a good amount of prime years from a player imo.
I took like a 100 years to get rid of the reserve clause. In return for giving it up, the owners got to retain control for a determined period. With Bud at the helm, I can guarantee you that the owners will not concede anymore. It is just not going to happen, and sympathies will not be with the players complaining that Jose Reyes got 10 million when he could have gotten 15 on the open market, or whatever the numbers might be.
Good point. I guess this was just my dislike of the six year requirement coming out. there is no way a strike would serve either side well in these times.
I still think that this instance of getting younger was silly, unless they feel that Pena is going to keep the utility role when Alex comes back. Otherwise, why tie up a roster spot for the foreseeable future for a player who will only be with you for 6 weeks at the outside?
Young legs. Girardi wants young legs out there than can catch the ball behind his improved pitching staff. He’s not going to need many runs this year.
That’s a nice assumption, but I cant imagine that with the playing time that the UI is going to get, there would be even half a win difference between them, if at all. I would just go with saving the roster spot.
They need a utility infielder, no? We know he’s a slick glove, so that’s not in question.
I missed your Pena piece so I’m not sure what your issue is with him.
No issue at all. I just think that we need the roster spot more than we need the difference in one ground ball a week between the two players.
Jeter’s Defense really worries me… I remember Whitey Herzog saying (before sabermetric mania) that Ozzie Smith at shortstop was just like having a 100 RBI stick, because he saved at least 100 runs a year with his glove. Why spend 423 million and have that kind of a liability @ short. IDK, it worries me a bit.
I hope it wasn’t much of a gauge, but Jeter looked like a statue out there during the Cubs games. They didn’t count, so I’ll give him a pass. Cano was on fire with the glove.