Suspending Starting Pitchers

[yanxfan]

Ya' know, this suspension of Pedro Martinez has brought up a point that has always bothered me. The man was suspended for 5 games but, in actuality, it is only a one-game suspension because he is a starting pitcher. He will MAYBE only miss one start. Now that he has appealed, he most likely will not miss ANY starts as, I will bet you, he will make his next scheduled start, then, the next day, miraculously see the error of his ways and agree to accept the suspension starting that day. Then, 5 games from then, he will make his regular start (therefore not missing any starts, but merely getting an extra days' rest).

Now, I ask you, would you call that a 5 game suspension??? My feeling is that if a starting pitcher is suspended for 5 games, it should be 5 of his scheduled starts, NOT 5 of his team's games. What kinda' crap is that? He wouldn't have pitched in those games anyway! There's gotta' be a better way since these starting pitchers are usually the ones who start all the trouble, but then they come out basically unscathed.

(jeez, now I'm all worked up).

- Maureen

[squid!]

Exactly right and Kay said the same thing in the past about the appeal process. By appealing and later dropping it players use it to pick and choose which games they will have to miss. We gotta be fair though because Stanton and Grimsley did the same thing.

[yanxfan]

Agreed, but Stanton & Grimsley aren't starters and could be called upon to pitch at any time. Their services would/could be missed in each and every game. It's just the starters who seem to get off scott-free. Somehow it doesn't seem fair.

[#1PaFan]

It depends if you want to punish the player or his team, I guess. I definately see your point.
The big deal about a suspension (to the player) is the loss of pay. Five days' pay to these guys comes out to quite a tidy sum.


26 in '00

[JimF]

This is too "baseball-y", so unless anybody objects I'll be moving this to the "About The Game" forum. I'll give it a few hours before I move it, I just wanted to give all involved a heads-up.