Leaving a player on the DL Topic

A guy in my world has a very good catcher he has kept stashed on the DL since last season.  He has been ready to come off the DL for 30 days.  If he brings him off he will have to send someone down or release someone.  The other two catchers he has are also very good.  None of the three have any options left.  He could carry three catchers, but I doubt he wants to do that.

Is it kosher to be able to stash a player on the DL all season?  The player has only one year of ML service, so he also saves another season before arbitration kicks in.
4/11/2011 8:25 PM

Keeping a player on the DL beyond the point where he's fully recovered is well within the rules, there's really nothing unethical about it.  I've done it myself a number of times when I didn't like my options for freeing up a roster spot.

If he's on the ML roster and on the DL, he's still accruing ML service time.

4/11/2011 8:52 PM
Ok, thanks.
4/12/2011 12:12 PM

MLB teams sent guys to the DL who claim there's no reason for it and keep them there when they say they're fine.   It's just roster management.

4/12/2011 12:14 PM
I really don't think that's all that common in real life, at least for extended stretches. That being said, it's clearly within the rules of HBD.
4/12/2011 1:02 PM
Brian Wilson disagrees.    Eric Chavez disagreed a couple of seasons ago.     Joe Benchsitter keeps his mouth shut and stays on the DL until they tell him he's done.   Everyone can't speak up.
4/12/2011 1:08 PM
Are you saying Giants DL'd their closer for roster management purposes?

I'm not saying guys don't go on the DL when they think they are fine. I'm also not saying they don't play games with the DL in general (ie - DLing a pitcher who is out of options a phantom injury so he can "rehab" for a few weeks in the minors while working some things out) I'm saying I don't think scenario you see in HBD all the time of "stashing" someone on the DL indefinitely after an injury isn't common in MLB. A day or two until they can make another move, sure.

MLB isn't like HBD, you don't get healthy after being off for a few weeks and then just come back and start playing like nothing ever happened. If you want the guy to be ready to play right away if/when you need him, he needs to play somewhere, and there are limits on how long you can keep a player out on a rehab assignment.
4/12/2011 1:23 PM
I'm saying Brian Wilson was not happy about going on the DL. 

I'm also sure that players stay on the DL more than a "day or two" after recovery in MLB.   Although I'll agree a player won't sit for 76 days after healthy.  But I never claimed that.
4/12/2011 1:27 PM
Okay, then I think we largely agree. I'll concede it probably happens for more than a "day or two", but again, if a guy has been out for any length of time, he'll need a rehab to be ready to play when he's brought back, and once you start that, the clock starts to tick.

Really, I don't care that there's no limit on how long you have to activate a guy, I just think it would make sense to implement logic similar to what they have for veterans in ST. You can leave the guy on the DL as long as you want once he's healthy, but you run the risk of him regressing.
4/12/2011 1:41 PM
With the medical bug, you run the risk of him being the best he's ever been by leaving him on the DL.
4/12/2011 1:43 PM
Yeah, right now it's completely backwards, at least on the 60.
4/12/2011 1:44 PM
Also, I think HBD owners do a lot more roster manipulation that MLB GMs do.   Real people are fighting to keep their job so they won't keep their best player in AAA an extra season.  Or they'll claim he's not their best player and, because he doesn't have little numbers attached to him that show he is, needs a little more playing time to work on his "footwork". 
4/12/2011 1:49 PM
Oh, there's no doubt about that - for a number of reasons. The ones you mentioned, the fact that we don't have to worry about players getting ****** over their roles, etc. It's one of the reasons I like the risk of demotion penalties, even though I'm not particularly convinced they map to anything you see in real life. We need a few artificial limits to what we can do to keep certain things from getting absurd due to this being a sim and not real.
4/12/2011 1:56 PM

Yeah, I've been a defender of demotion penalties since Day 1.   Otherwise, I'd use my 40 like a 25.  And I'd have a lot of poor DUR/STM combos that are lights out on my 40.

4/12/2011 2:16 PM
Leaving a player on the DL Topic

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