They did so to much fanfare, but after watching Strasburg dominate the Pirates for seven innings, the world was left to wonder what might've happened had Strasburg been up all year long. The Nationals called Strasburg up on June 8 th, when he made his Major League debut. By waiting a little while longer, they avoided this complication, too. Strasburg would've been eligible for arbitration after 2011, a process through which he could make a whole lot of money. By waiting a little while, they avoided this complication.Īdditionally, had the Nationals inserted Strasburg into the big league rotation in, say, the beginning of May, they wouldn't have cost themselves that year of team control in 2016, but they would've set Strasburg up to become a super two. Had the Nationals inserted Strasburg into the big league rotation right out of camp, they would've started his service time clock, and he would've been in line to become a free agent after the 2015 season. It was with an eye to those rules that the Nationals handled Strasburg's ascent through the organization. A super two player is thus all but guaranteed to make more money than he would if he didn't qualify, as arbitration can be lucrative. The top 17% of all 2+ year players in terms of service time are referred to as super two players, and these players are eligible for four years of salary arbitration, rather than the usual three. A super two player is a player with fewer than three full years of service, but more than two. There's also another deal called ‘super two'. So that's a big deal when it comes to determining when a player's going to be a free agent. Players with fewer than three full years of service time - even if they're only a couple days short - are not yet eligible for arbitration, and free agency is farther away. Players with three full years of service become eligible for salary arbitration, and are only three years away from free agency. 172 days is considered equivalent to a full year of service. Service time refers to the number of days that a player spends on the Major League roster or the Major League disabled list. Complicated rules that have to do with arbitration and team control and service time. There was little doubt, for example, that Strasburg was one of the Nationals' top five starting pitchers coming into the season, so fans wanted to see him break camp in the rotation.īut baseball has these rules. The fans want the best players in the organization to populate the Major League roster. See, fans will, under any and all circumstances, just want to see the best possible team on the field at all times. But every so often, a player like Stephen Strasburg comes along, and the way that he's handled just underscores the broad gap between fans of a team and the team itself. So the relationship is usually symbiotic. Which isn't to say that team officials are all cold and unfeeling - they like it when their teams win, too - but revenue plays a big part. When a team is successful and makes it to the playoffs, the fans are happy to have a shot at the title, and the executives are happy to gather all the revenue. And there are few things better for a franchise's bottom line than winning. And why wouldn't they? A fan just wants to watch his team win. Most of the time, these interests overlap. So the executives have the same goals in mind that any business executive would. For the executives, baseball is a business, a business that, at its heart, is just like any other business. It's something they'll pay to observe, or turn on when they get a few hours free. More than anything else, though, the biggest difference - bigger than the difference in bank accounts, and bigger than the difference in authority - is one of standpoint. The executives are the ones who truly have all the power. Fans always have a number of opinions and suggestions on what the team could do better, but the executives can actually act on what they think, should they so desire. The executives, for example, tend to have more money. There are a number of differences between a fan of a baseball team, and the baseball team's executives.
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