Post by stevedillard on Sept 8, 2021 8:12:48 GMT -5
This has been a dramatic season, with the contraction of the Low and High short season ball, coming on the heels of a pandemic. In place of the two rookie leagues, the eastern teams went with a single league, renamed the FCL. I would say that the result has been less than satisfactory for several reasons that combined to have few games for few players.
Looking at the complex leagues, I get why they set the schedule up the way they did, but there are a few things they should reexamine for next year. Having both Wednesday and Sunday off makes moving guys in a rotation REALLY hard, and you're going to want to do that to cycle them through. In the FCL, you kind of have to in order to avoid guys starting against the Twins every single week on Friday and Saturday, or in the DSL in the Saturday intrasquad. Maybe going to a three-on, one-off schedule would be better rather than trying to conform to the days of the week.
In the full-season leagues, I like that they weren't rigid with the Monday off day and are letting teams play on Monday next year to get holiday gates. Similar tweaking at the complexes would be a good thing.
In retrospect, having a single league in place of two levels was going to create a glut of players needing playing time. The additional decision (above) to blackout two days per week further reduced the game opportunities, and finally, with weather, that was diminished even further.
For the Sox, interesting players have seen a second year of few at bats (Brainer and Mayer and Paulino all shortstops forced to play elsewhere to get time) or IP (Encarnacion 40 IP, delaRosa 22 IP, Jackson 15, Sena 20 IP). The limited spots for starters was "solved" by injuries to Nathaniel Cruz (7 IP) and by not drafting pitchers who otherwise would have eaten up innings. "Fortunately" Jud Fabian did not sign, further eating into the FCL outfield glut.
With two promising DSL teams having players likely to move up, there will be another glut next year.
I suspect that a second FCL team cannot be created as they could with the DSL. That means that the funnel for development (two teams fighting for a promotion to a single team) has moved down from the prior Low/High Rookie leagues jump to Low A, now to the DSL jump to the FCL. That leaves a lot of players out of the loop. At a minimum, hopefully the FCL increases its capacity for playing time by playing 6 or 7 times a week.
In the full-season leagues, I like that they weren't rigid with the Monday off day and are letting teams play on Monday next year to get holiday gates. Similar tweaking at the complexes would be a good thing.
In retrospect, having a single league in place of two levels was going to create a glut of players needing playing time. The additional decision (above) to blackout two days per week further reduced the game opportunities, and finally, with weather, that was diminished even further.
For the Sox, interesting players have seen a second year of few at bats (Brainer and Mayer and Paulino all shortstops forced to play elsewhere to get time) or IP (Encarnacion 40 IP, delaRosa 22 IP, Jackson 15, Sena 20 IP). The limited spots for starters was "solved" by injuries to Nathaniel Cruz (7 IP) and by not drafting pitchers who otherwise would have eaten up innings. "Fortunately" Jud Fabian did not sign, further eating into the FCL outfield glut.
With two promising DSL teams having players likely to move up, there will be another glut next year.
I suspect that a second FCL team cannot be created as they could with the DSL. That means that the funnel for development (two teams fighting for a promotion to a single team) has moved down from the prior Low/High Rookie leagues jump to Low A, now to the DSL jump to the FCL. That leaves a lot of players out of the loop. At a minimum, hopefully the FCL increases its capacity for playing time by playing 6 or 7 times a week.
