Quote:
Originally Posted by Gozer
As for JayP's argument about saves in the 70s - welcome to free agency. Relief pitchers want prestige and money, GMs want talent and justify their contracts with key stats.
And players absoutely want "roles" - want to plan their day and their focus around a specific starting time.
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I completely agree with you - I just disagree with the philosophy.
I get that players want roles and consistency, but in the end the manager should be more worried about what will win more ball games. As a comparison, all hockey players would love to be the guy who gets huge powerplay minutes, no PK time, and starts most of his shifts in the offensive zone. It puts him in a position to succeed statistically which gives him the prestige and money you mentioned. But while that sort of scenario works when you have the Sedins, it doesn't quite work as wellwhen you're the Panthers and Stephen Weiss is your big gun.
The way closers are used today is the same situation - give one or two guys a nice cozy situation and they almost always succeed statistically. The problem is that reserving all those situations for a couple players means that more difficult, less-heralded situations fall to lesser players. Shouldn't the best relievers always pitch in the most difficult situations (considering rest and other factors)?
Players might want roles, but those roles aren't always beneficial to the team. And as the best players in the world they should be able to adapt to whatever situation the team needs them in.