Brett Anderson says baseball is boring, calls for smaller September rosters

(Getty Images) When played crisply and briskly, there’s nothing more beautiful than the game of baseball.

Of course, the reality is that not every game falls into the crisp and/or brisk category. Inevitably, the pace slows down when the pressure rises and decisions need to be made, and that often comes at the expense of the product on the field.

In no month is this more noticeable than September, when rosters are allowed to expand.

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Though teams don’t often utilize their full 40-man roster, a handful of bench players and relief pitchers are frequently added to the active roster. With the pressure at its highest and more options available, managers tend to exhaust those options in an attempt to get the best matchups possible.

There aren’t wrong to do so, but even the biggest baseball fans would admit it can lead to some painfully long, drawn out innings within painfully long, drawn out games.

Then you have nights like Tuesday night in Los Angeles, where the Rockies-Dodgers combined to play 16 innings and set an MLB record with 58 different players used. We even saw a pitcher used in the outfield in the final inning because the Rockies were out of position players.

As J.P. Hoonstra writes on his Inside The Dodgers blog, it wasn’t necessarily the number of players that caused the game to go on for five hours and 23 minutes. It was the fact it went 16 innings that caused the game to spill into Wednesday morning. But Dodgers pitcher Brett Anderson, who actually pitched the first six innings, believes the extra players only served to disrupt the flow and keep things dragging out.

“You try to do everything you can to keep engaged,” Anderson said after game. “Baseball’s kind of boring as it is, let alone games like this.”

Obviously, Anderson is most concerned about keeping fans engaged, which is something MLB is also focusing on this season. But to Hoonstra’s point, perhaps the extra players did actually play a part in the game going on and on and on. When you can keep running fresh arms out there that deep into the game, sometimes two or three in an inning, it increases the odds of the pitchers continuing to throw up zeroes.

In the end, this brings us right back to the yearly debate about September call ups and whether teams should be able to carry in upwards of 30 players into a single game.

On one hand, it helps teams manage workloads and limit wear and tear on players who have playing daily for five months. On the other hand, there are games that are completely bogged down by changes. In fact, the Dodgers were involved in a similar game two weeks ago, which is why Anderson would be on board for small September rosters

“This game and the game against the Angels [on Sept. 7, which lasted 3:52] where it almost seems like it’s pitch by pitch and a new guy’s coming in, I would like something to be done,” Anderson said. “Like I said, baseball’s boring as it is, let alone whenever there’s a pitching change every two seconds, 40 guys play and 20 pitchers pitch and whatnot. That’s not for me to decide but my personal opinion, I’d like to shrink it a little bit. I enjoy fast games. These games aren’t that fun, especially when you come out on the losing side.”

There are arguments to be made for both sides, but there are also compromises that could be easily reached if this matter was looked into. One that seems obvious would be allowing rosters to expand, but forcing teams to list their active players for a given game. Be it 25 or even 28, if would keep the options at a reasonable number while giving the same benefits of expanded rosters.

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Another option would be limiting the number of moves to be made in an inning, or forcing a pitcher to face at least two batters. The latter was already brought up when the new pace of play measures were put in place. Teams would still find ways to work around them, but it’s a decent thought.

Any changes would obviously have to come in the offseason. For now, guys like Anderson and fans who aren’t really fans of plodding games are stuck But it wouldn’t be surprising if this was addressed somewhere down the road as baseball focuses on tightening games up.

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