I think there's a flaw in looking for *A* reason why uber-talented players are still relagated to the minors for a time, (even if it may just be for a cup of coffee). I think there are a lot of little reasons - none by itself that would warrant the choice in cases like Junior or Horner or Strasburg, (et al) -- but taken as a whole, they probably do more good than harm.
First off -- not every college kid (and certainly not high school kids) -- has the same base in baseball fundamentals. Oh, for sure if you attend one of the MLB player factories like Texas or almost any division one school in Florida - you're probably well grounded in fundamentals. Basically, I think one of the reasons for the AA-detour is to prevent a kid from doing something egregiously stupid on the BIG state of MLB. (The clubs are likely attempting to save themselves embarassment as much as the kid - but that only strengthens the argument).
Some of it is likely getting a solid baseline. While the knee jerk is to assume that all the best personnel travel with the big club -- but I don't believe this is true. The minors are where you put your best TEACHERS. The majors, where you're typically dealing with finished products - you're more apt to have guys good at maintanence - rather than design and implementation. You need to get as good a picture as you can with what you're dealing with - and look for any (previously) unseen problem areas.
But, even if you've heavily scouted a player - there's nothing like eyes-on study to identify potential problem areas. And - it is better to do this in an environment where winning is not the PRIMARY concern. This is the huge diff between majors and minors. Even Pittsburgh and KC are TRYING to win 90. In the majors, you don't typically take a reliever and say -- "We're gonna start you tomorrow - let you go three innings - and just see how it works out." And IMO, there is humongous danger in thinking you can take such an approach with one guy - just for a little while. I think that could undermine the entire concept that you're actually interested in winning anything for the whole season.
Some of it is simple ego-management. Give a kid a little taste of the minors, and maybe he appreciates exactly how special the majors actually are. Remember that this is all dealing with kids from 17 to 21. Most of these kids have never held a job of any kind, or had any significant amount of money of their own.
Ultimately - I suspect that the AA two-step is a good thing - mostly driven by the fact that these kids - regardless of talent level - are still kids. And while there is nothing to be gained in sending your strat-o-matic card to Durham for a month -- there may be a lot of HUMAN plusses to sending Joe Bob. Just like almost any job in America -- there is some form of orientation -- where the new hire must deal with a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with his actual job.
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Q. Does his elbow hurt now?
A. I can tell you that I cannot throw 100% with my elbow tendon inflamed. No way no how, babe. Pineda's hitting 100 mph, he feels fine ... before the game, anyway.
After the game, your elbow might hurt so much you have to fight back the tears, and it doesn't mean you're injured. It didn't for me, anyway.
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Q. So you keep him in the minors to baby him?
A. Nobody has ever explained to me, just exactly why 80 innings at West Tennessee is safer than 80 innings with the Mariners. Can you?
If my son John had a sore elbow in 2009, and you offered me 80 innings for him with the DJax or 80 innings with the Seattle Mariners, which would I take? Where is he going to have state-of-the-art medicine and coaching?
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Q. Nobody ever goes from A+ to the majors in one swat.
A. How true. Nobody except John Olerud (college = A+).
It's a firm rule, granted, that the majors don't want people skipping two levels. Pineda wasn't going to be a Mariner, even if he were the very best pitcher on Earth.
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Q. Should it be a rule that nobody goes from A+ (or college) straight to the majors?
A. For college guys, I sympathize with the idea that you want them to get used to the pro schedule -- like, college relievers might pitch one inning per week. That, I can see.
But a lot of the time, when Tim Lincecum or Stephen Strasburg go to the minors, it's about (a) delaying the arb clock and (b) raising the evaluators' own comfort levels about how good the kid is.
Tim Lincecum didn't learn a thing by throwing 12-K shutouts in the minors.
If you're an athlete, you understand the fact that you don't learn a thing in a basketball game you win by 30 points. If you're a coach, you know your girls don't learn a single thing winning a soccer game 7-0. In fact, they usually are worse off for having played against such weak competition.
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They called up Jason Heyward in Atlanta. Chipper Jones' reaction to this: you want to take your 25 best players, man.
I find it very unlikely that the Mariners have 12 pitchers better than Michael Pineda, but .... you know.
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Q. If you were wrong, how would you know?
A. If SSI were wrong, Michael Pineda would do anything other than detonate AA/AAA hitters to neutrino-sized ash particles.
He won't. If the reports are anywhere in the ballpark, Pineda's road rage is a given for 2010. Which is what will make the exercise pointless. ;- )
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Comments
Pineda is one of a few guys that will need to be added to the 40-man this offseason, along with Lt. Nick Hill, and others. I wouldn't put great odds on the M's parlaying that into a callup for him in Sept., but it's possible, and thereafter, I would bet they would be more willing to bring him on up if he were blowing everyone over down there.
... but also assume you don't deny that there are debits associated, as well.
There's a reasonable case for giving Strasburg some time in the minors, and you just made it :- )
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What does get me, is the element of MLB(TM) orientation that says, no human being on earth can play in this league unless he learns the way I did...
It's my team, Strasburg is in there, just like Hideo Nomo, Ichiro, El Duque, John Olerud, and a lot of other non-American-pros players were in there, making an impact from day one.
Strasburg might indeed need the better slide step that they say he needs ("as soon as he learns the slide step, we'll consider bringing him up" went the party line). But so do a lot of major leaguers :- ) and a lot of existing ML pitchers do not believe in the slide step.
Where a player honestly needs to better himself before helping his team, fine. But Tim Lincecum's fast track hasn't hurt him quite as much as the Good Ole Boyz predicted that it would...
... I thought they could keep him in the minors 4 years, as a 19-year-old when signed? This will be year 3, right?
What am I missing...
Keep in mind that he had a couple years in the Dominican Summer League before busting onto the scene to give the MWL a bruising. He was signed Dec. 12th 2005, so that's going to be the limit before he needs to be added.
Everything that they dreamed Morrow would become. Incredible K/BB rates. I think age is a real factor to consider. Maturity both in body and head are greater considerations. I see people crying for Washburn to return. Mr Washburn ought to see a video of this kid and lower his asking price, play the game and enjoy making more than most in a lifetime anyway! Better yet, bring on Mr. Pineda and watch his arm in Seattle like they would in TN?
you bat third Jay.
Feel, when they see a guy like Felix or Pineda or Chapman participate in their first ML camp. :- )
Moyer would put a near-sneer on and say something like "It's about pitching, not throwing hard. Even I could hop another five miles an hour onto my fastball if I wanted to, but my control would fall off too much." Washburn said (I think when Felix was first up?) something like "He's definitely got better stuff than I do. So what?" followed by some sort of competitive comment.
I think the guys with lesser stuff honestly do, ALL of them have significantly tougher characters. Throughout Washburn's career, majors and minors, he's been on teams with guys who can throw 95+. But he kept grinding his way past their dessicated carcasses with basically nothing but toughness and grit (evidence by his stony lack-of-reaction to a mistake getting hammered, returning to the original gameplan without so much as a pause).
I play lots of video games. LOTS. Some of my favorites are combat sports games like boxing and MMA, others are football and baseball. When I make a mistake, or when my opponent happens to get through to me in any of them, the catcalls always begin from the couch behind me with stuff like "You'd better switch your gameplan!" I just smile, set my jaw, and go back to exactly what I was doing before. More often than not, I'm rewarded with not only a victory, but black feathers surrounding the dinner plates of my onlookers. I think it takes a different, not necessarily superior, attitude and mentality to be *able* to do that, let alone to think it's the best way to go.
how could you think any other way, if you are to succeed? Every time you turn around there's some new fireballer out of [random LA country] screaming up the org ladder with his 98mph arm. Your first (and incorrect, or at least nonproductive) reaction might well be to be envious or angry about the lack of attention being given to your 3.67 career ERA and solid control ratios. If you react in that way, your career will probably have more in common with Travis Blackley than Cliff Lee.
*BUT* if you react by keeping that negative fire inside of yourself, allowing it to drive you in much the same way a gasoline explosion drives your car down the highway, you end up with an attitude similar to what I outlined above. Not really condescension or even directed negativity, more of a seasoned "Yeah, you'd be stunned how many times I've heard that particular shtick coming up. Guess what? Me and my 88-91 are doing just fine with our ~4.00 major league ERA, thank you very much."
Jamie Moyer and Jarrod Washburn, weak fastballs and all, are guys you build your rotation around. You know they aren't getting blown over by a crisp spring breeze. The same can't be said of many (most?) talent-first players with WOWZA written on the back of their jerseys.
what a great coupla posts Jonezie. Go get a site, man.