With the 2011 edition of Interleague Play upon us and last night's 15-inning Yankee game still in my mind, it's time for me to rant about something that came to the forefront during that game. Michael Kay was freaking out because Baltimore was playing that game with only two guys available off the bench, one of whom was the backup catcher, who you can't use. Then the Yankees got into a situation where A.J. Burnett had to pinch run.
First, it probably makes sense for me to set the scene for those of you who missed it. The Yankees were up 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth, so they put their better defensive lineup in (they replaced Andruw Jones in left with Brett Gardner and Chris Dickerson replaced Nick Swisher in right). Derek Jeter was DHing, so Eduardo Nunez was already in the game. After the Orioles tied it, Russell Martin, the regular catcher, pinch hit for Francisco Cervelli. That left just Jorge Posada on the Yankee bench.
Now let's fast forward to the 15th inning. Dickerson was hit square in the head by a pitch from Michael Gonzalez. He went down to first base, but Joe Girardi didn't want to take any chances and took Dickerson out once he got there. Gonzalez was ejected after hitting him, so there was a long delay while the Orioles warmed up a new pitcher. Anyway, Posada was the only guy available. That's where the problem came in. Posada's 38 years old and slow. You're not going to have him pinch run for somebody. You're also not going to put him in right field. Nunez holds his own in the outfield, so the defensive switch that made sense was the one they made. Nunez went to right, Jeter went to short and they dropped the DH. That's another reason they couldn't use Posada. They needed somebody on the bench to pinch hit for the pitcher when and if that spot came up again. That meant the only remaining option was to have a pitcher pinch run, which Burnett did.
This kind of stuff happens a lot, especially in National League games. National League pitchers pinch run and pinch hit all the time. Remember that 20-inning Mets-Cardinals game last year? Or the 16-inning Division Series game between the Astros and Braves a couple years ago where Roger Clemens pinch hit? I'll give Michael Kay a little bit of slack because you don't normally see it in American League games, but all he kept saying during the entire time Burnett was on the bases was, "They have to be thinking about Chien-Ming Wang." Wang, of course, got hurt running the bases during an interleague game in Houston in 2008 and was never the same. But, Michael, Burnett used to be in the National League. He used to run the bases all the time! He even hit. And you know what, he'll have to do it again in a couple weeks when interleague play gets into full swing.
Anyway, now I'll finally get to my point. Chris Dickerson has played a grand total of two games in a Yankee uniform. He was only called up when reliever Rafael Sorinao went on the DL a few days ago. When Eric Chavez , an infielder, made his yearly trip to the DL a week earlier, the Yankees decided to call up a pitcher to replace him on the roster for some reason. That gave them 13 pitchers (and just 12 position players, three of whom are "catchers") on the active roster! I don't need to tell anybody that 13 pitchers is a few too many.
I've made my peace with 12-man pitching staffs, especially in the American League where you don't need to pinch hit as much and can get away with four bench guys, but 13 is incredibly unnecessary. Seriously, why do you need an eight-man bullpen? If your relievers can't get people out, they should be in Triple A. If you think they need a day off because of too much work, tell your starter to actually make it through six innings. Or stop having them throw to just one or two hitters!
In September they expand the roster from 25 to 40 and you can call up as many guys as you want. That makes things even worse. Last year, the Yankees and Rangers played a game where Texas used 11 different pitchers! Four of those guys threw 0.1 innings, three of them faced two batters each, and one lefty came in for the sole purpose of facing Robinson Cano, then came out of the game. The fact that the game in question went 13 innings didn't help matters, but there was a 22-inning game in the NCAA Tournament either last year or the year before where one of the team's closers threw 10 innings of relief.
You're only allowed to have 25 guys on a Major League roster. Take out five starting pitchers, eight starting fielders (nine in the AL) and a backup catcher, and that leaves you with just 10 or 11 spots left. If you're an American League team and you waste eight of them on relievers, that's two guys. Now put yourself into a position like last night's Yankees-Orioles game and you'll see why that eighth reliever (who's probably a long guy that pitches once a week at most) is completely unnecessary. And it only makes things worse when you get deep into extra innings and can't make any moves because you don't have any non-pitchers.
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