Post by theforty on Aug 24, 2007 13:15:22 GMT -5
I decided to write the longest post in the message board's history. Here we go...
A proposal was made at the last draft, wherein it was suggested that if a player missed part of the 1945 season due to military service, that the team reserve the right to 'red-shirt' said player (i.e. retain rights to player but not list on the 40-man roster).
The aim of this proposal was to allow teams to retain players (without using a roster spot) who:
a. have value as a player after 1945, AND
b. because of military commitments, were only able to appear in a few games in 1945.
The proposal was tabled at that time due to lack of information about how many players would be affected. Using a source provided to me by Mike, I researched just this point. I will summarize my findings shortly, but before that, would like to explain how I studied the issue.
Mike provided me scanned images of a list of NL and AL players who:
a. Appeared in at least one MLB game prior to their military service
b. Missed at least one full season due to military service.
This list indicated what seasons were missed for each player. I simply looked up players who didn't miss the entire 1945 season.
The one unknown is if there were players who never missed a FULL season (e.g. played in the start of 44 season and tail end of 45 season) due to military service, I will have missed them. But my guess is that there are few players (if any) in this boat.
So, onto the findings...
There appear to have been 42 MLB players who:
a. appeared in a MLB game prior to WWII
b. missed a full season due to WWII, AND
c. who appeared in at least one game in 1945
Of these, 13 players also LAST appeared in a MLB game in 1945. These guys would need no red shirt, as their career ends at the conclusion 1945, so if a team doesn't want to use that player in 1945, they should simply release him.
This leaves 29 players who:
a. appeared in a MLB game prior to WWII,
b. missed at least one full season due to WWII, AND
c. played a MLB game in AND after 1945
Of these 29 players, 10 players either had 200+ AB or 80+ IP in 1945. I realize this is an arbitrary distinction, but 200 AB would roughly represent a back-up level of play, and 80 IP roughly represents typical numbers put up by a good bullpen pitcher.
By my thinking, this amount of playing time should be considered more than just "playing in a few games", and therefore such players should not get a red-shirt. Now, as a practical matter, the 10 players in question are either so good that they wouldn't be red-shirted or so bad as not to be on a roster anyway, so this point is likely moot.
This leaves us with 19 players who:
a. appeared in a MLB game prior to WWII,
b. missed at least one full season due to WWII,
c. played a MLB game in and after 1945, AND
d. had less than 200 AB and/or pitched fewer than 80 innings in 1945
I believe these are the guys who best represent the intent of the red shirt. So any red-shirt rule would likely impact a group about this size. Among the 19 players, though, by my reckoning, only 13 have any real value in the DBS after 1945, and that includes 4 guys who likely would be fringe players for only a season (Eddie Lukon, Johnny Lanning, Al Evans, and Cecil Travis).
So who are the nine players who have the most value as a player after 1945 and are most deserving of a red-shirt in 1945? They are, in no particular order:
Hank Sauer, Lou Klein, Luke Appling, Bob Feller, Virgil Trucks, Aaron Robinson, Phil Marchildon, Sam Chapman, and Walt Masterson.
Maybe its me, but it seems like a lot of effort (insert pun here about the effort in looking this crap up to come to this conclusion) to set up a rule for just 9 players. What are your thoughts?
A proposal was made at the last draft, wherein it was suggested that if a player missed part of the 1945 season due to military service, that the team reserve the right to 'red-shirt' said player (i.e. retain rights to player but not list on the 40-man roster).
The aim of this proposal was to allow teams to retain players (without using a roster spot) who:
a. have value as a player after 1945, AND
b. because of military commitments, were only able to appear in a few games in 1945.
The proposal was tabled at that time due to lack of information about how many players would be affected. Using a source provided to me by Mike, I researched just this point. I will summarize my findings shortly, but before that, would like to explain how I studied the issue.
Mike provided me scanned images of a list of NL and AL players who:
a. Appeared in at least one MLB game prior to their military service
b. Missed at least one full season due to military service.
This list indicated what seasons were missed for each player. I simply looked up players who didn't miss the entire 1945 season.
The one unknown is if there were players who never missed a FULL season (e.g. played in the start of 44 season and tail end of 45 season) due to military service, I will have missed them. But my guess is that there are few players (if any) in this boat.
So, onto the findings...
There appear to have been 42 MLB players who:
a. appeared in a MLB game prior to WWII
b. missed a full season due to WWII, AND
c. who appeared in at least one game in 1945
Of these, 13 players also LAST appeared in a MLB game in 1945. These guys would need no red shirt, as their career ends at the conclusion 1945, so if a team doesn't want to use that player in 1945, they should simply release him.
This leaves 29 players who:
a. appeared in a MLB game prior to WWII,
b. missed at least one full season due to WWII, AND
c. played a MLB game in AND after 1945
Of these 29 players, 10 players either had 200+ AB or 80+ IP in 1945. I realize this is an arbitrary distinction, but 200 AB would roughly represent a back-up level of play, and 80 IP roughly represents typical numbers put up by a good bullpen pitcher.
By my thinking, this amount of playing time should be considered more than just "playing in a few games", and therefore such players should not get a red-shirt. Now, as a practical matter, the 10 players in question are either so good that they wouldn't be red-shirted or so bad as not to be on a roster anyway, so this point is likely moot.
This leaves us with 19 players who:
a. appeared in a MLB game prior to WWII,
b. missed at least one full season due to WWII,
c. played a MLB game in and after 1945, AND
d. had less than 200 AB and/or pitched fewer than 80 innings in 1945
I believe these are the guys who best represent the intent of the red shirt. So any red-shirt rule would likely impact a group about this size. Among the 19 players, though, by my reckoning, only 13 have any real value in the DBS after 1945, and that includes 4 guys who likely would be fringe players for only a season (Eddie Lukon, Johnny Lanning, Al Evans, and Cecil Travis).
So who are the nine players who have the most value as a player after 1945 and are most deserving of a red-shirt in 1945? They are, in no particular order:
Hank Sauer, Lou Klein, Luke Appling, Bob Feller, Virgil Trucks, Aaron Robinson, Phil Marchildon, Sam Chapman, and Walt Masterson.
Maybe its me, but it seems like a lot of effort (insert pun here about the effort in looking this crap up to come to this conclusion) to set up a rule for just 9 players. What are your thoughts?
