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Adding instant replay to the game of baseball, America’s Past-time, was difficult to perform in the first place. Historians of the game and baseball lifers argued against instant replay because of the harm it would bring to the purity of the game. Others argued that it would lengthen an already long game (averaging 3 hours per game). Those who were in favor of instant replay said that it should only be used for determining whether or not a batted ball is a homerun, a double, fan interference or a foul ball and nothing else. The final argument won out and instant replay has since been used in the sport at the discretion of the umpires.

With all of the wrong calls being made in the 2009 playoffs, members of the media and fans of the game have begun the discussion of possibly expanding the use of instant replay, maybe just for the playoffs, or for the entire season (from Spring Training until the final out of the Fall Classic). If you ask this fan of the game, I say no expansion of instant replay. There are other ways to make sure that the umpires make the correct calls. We will outline those methods in this post.

Increase Umpire Training

One way to improve umpiring across the game is to increase umpire training and require umpires to attend certain seminars and other meetings throughout the off-season about umpiring. In these meetings and seminars former umpires and umpires from training schools can teach the current umpires how to properly call the game. Many umpires will not go for this but it should be added to the umpires contracts once the collective bargaining agreement is decided on in the coming years.

Increase Rookie Pay

Another way to improve the calls made by umpires across the sport is to increase the pay of rookie and junior umpires. These umpires do not make much money for the season ($9,500) which forces them to hold off-season jobs to make ends meet. An umpire working at Triple-A for a 10 year period might earn $20,000 for their time and that’s it. These umpires need to be paid higher if the league wants them to take their job more seriously. In all honesty, who is going to give it their best if they are being paid peanuts? Not many people.

Hold Umpires Accountable

Just the other night (Tuesday), we saw crew chief Tim McClelland of the Yankees-Angels series, hold a post game press conference regarding some of the calls he made while umpiring third base during Game Four of the ALCS in which the Yankees won 10-1 to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. McClelland called Nick Swisher out at third on an appeal by the Angels saying he left the base too early on a tag play from center field when replays showed that Swisher in fact did not leave early. Another play, where two Yankees were at third base (Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano) but neither on the bag, were both tagged out but McClelland only called one runner out when both should have been out. A third play, at second base, had a daylight pickoff play against Swisher. Swisher was ruled safe at second when replays showed that he was tagged out prior to returning to the base.

This press conference is a rarity for umpires these days but when they are held they are only held by the crew chief. So, if it is not the crew chief who makes a mistake during the game we do not get to hear from the umpire who made the bad call. Instead, we only hear from the crew chief, after he talked to the umpire in question. We, as paying fans, should get to hear from the umpire who made the incorrect call instead of someone speaking on his behalf. We get to hear from the players, coaches, managers and front office personnel who make the team decisions and perform the plays on the field so why can’t we hear from the umpires who run the game? It is only fair that the umpires should be held accountable.

Jim Vassallo is the creator of JAV Baseball. He also owns his own Internet Content company, JAV Freelancing. Vassallo coached baseball for three years at the high school level in New Jersey and has since joined the prominent D-III program at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He can be reached at jim@javbaseball.com for questions and comments.

Retiring from baseball can be a difficult and emotional decision to make. A handful of talented players have retired from the game over the past couple of years including Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Greg Maddux, Ricky Henderson, Jeff Kent, Luis Gonzalez, Mike Piazza and many more. On the other side of things there are players still toiling around baseball that have yet to retire but should consider hanging up their spikes once the 2009 season comes to an end. We will discuss those players in this article.

We will begin with the reigning World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies. They have two players on their roster that should seriously consider retiring once the team’s 2009 title defense comes to an end. Those two players are left handed pitcher Jamie Moyer and left handed pinch hitting specialist Matt Stairs. Moyer was acquired by the Phillies from the Seattle Mariners in 2006 for two minor leaguers. Stairs was acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays by the Phillies late in the 2008 season for minor league left handed pitcher Fabio Castro.

Since joining the Phillies in 2006, Moyer has recorded 47 wins, led the team in wins with 16 in 2008, and picked up his first World Series title also in 2008. 2009 hasn’t been as kind to the 46 year old veteran out of Saint Joseph’s University. Moyer struggled in his 25 starts before being moved to the bullpen with the activation of Pedro Martinez. In 30 total games pitched in 2009 Moyer has a 12-10 record with a 4.94 ERA. He was shut down for the remainder of the season at the end of September with tears in his groin and abdomen. Many in the Philadelphia area felt that Moyer should have called it a career after the 2008 title run but he signed a two year deal in the off-season with the Phillies. He is under contract until the end of the 2010 season.

Matt Stairs is the next person on our hit list. Stairs hit .294 with the Phillies in 16 regular season games after being acquired, with 2 homeruns, and 5 RBIs. But in the postseason Stairs made a name for himself with the Phillies faithful. He hit a monster two run pinch hit homerun off of Jonathan Broxton at Dodger Stadium to give the Phillies a 7-5 lead in Game four of the NLCS. In 2009 Stairs has struggled at the plate, hitting only .194 but he launched 5 pinch hit homeruns and drove in 17 runs during the regular season. Stairs has yet to record a hit in the 2009 postseason.

As we continue to look at players in the Major Leagues who need to retire following the 2009 season, John Smoltz is next on our list. Smoltz began the season, for the first time in his career, with a team other than the Atlanta Braves. Even though Smoltz was drafted by the Detroit Tigers, previous to 2009 he had only appeared in the Majors with the Braves. Smoltz joined the Red Sox to begin the 2009 season but struggled mightily with a 2-5 record and an ERA of 8.32 in eight games started. He was released by the Red Sox and signed on with the St. Louis Cardinals where he had somewhat of a revitalization. Smoltz went 1-3 with a 4.26 ERA in seven games started. No, those numbers are nothing to write home about but they are much better than his Red Sox numbers. So, in 15 starts in 2009, Smoltz is 3-8 with a 6.35 ERA.

Our next retiree comes from another playoff team. Jason Giambi is riding the bench with the Colorado Rockies in the National League Division Series against the Phillies. Giambi began the 2009 season with the Oakland Athletics, where he began his career in 1995. Giambi returned to the A’s after seven seasons in the Bronx with the Yankees. 2009 hasn’t been too kind to the slugging first baseman, who hit only .193 with the A’s. He did launch 11 homeruns and record 40 RBIs in 83 games. His Oakland homecoming did not turn out to be as special as he wanted it to be. After being released from the Athletics, Giambi signed on with the upstart Colorado Rockies. In 19 games with the Rockies Giambi hit .292 with two homeruns and 11 RBIs. In two playoff games against the Phillies, Giambi has yet to record a hit and has struck out once, with the bases loaded in Game Two of the NLDS.

There are only three players left to discuss who we here at JAV Baseball feel should retire following the 2009 season. One of those players spent the 2009 season with the Toronto Blue Jays. Kevin Millar, once a feared slugger with the Florida Marlins and Boston Red Sox, struggled throughout the 2009 season. He hit only .223 in 78 games with 7 homeruns and 29 RBIs. In his prime, Millar slugged a career high 25 homeruns and 96 RBIs with the Red Sox in 2003 and won a World Series with Boston in 2004. Millar hasn’t hit above .255 since 2006, when with the Baltimore Orioles. In 2007 he hit .254, in 2008 he hit .234, and in 2009 he hit .223.

The final two players on our list come from the Texas Rangers. They are catcher Ivan Rodriguez and shortstop Omar Vizquel. Rodriguez joined the Rangers in 2009 after playing in 93 games with the Houston Astros. In a total of 121 games played in 2009, Rodriguez struggled at the plate with a .249 batting average, 10 homeruns, and 47 RBIs. Pudge was brought to the Rangers in a late season deal in the hopes of bolstering the team’s offense during the stretch run as they aimed for the American League Wild Card.

Omar Vizquel, another Ranger, is the final player on our list of players who should retire following the 2009 season. Vizquel joined the Rangers for the 2009 campaign after spending four years with the San Francisco Giants. Vizquel debuted with the Seattle Mariners in 1989 and has also played for the Cleveland Indians. Vizquel hit a decent .266 with one homerun, and 14 RBIs in only 62 games played. The 62 games played were the fewest in his career since 2003, when he played in only 64 games with the Indians due to a knee injury. In a recent article on the Rangers website, Vizquel said he plans to play again in 2010, against our wishes.

Surely there could be at least three or four other players added to this list (Randy Johnson, Tim Hudson, and Scott Rolen to name a few). If you feel that we left anyone off this list who you think should retire following the conclusion of the 2009 season drop us a line and let us know.

Jim Vassallo is the creator of JAV Baseball. He also owns his own Internet Content company, JAV Freelancing. Vassallo coached baseball for three years at the high school level in New Jersey and has since joined the prominent D-III program at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He can be reached at jim@javbaseball.com for questions and comments.

After the signing deadline spectacle came and went on Monday night I sat back and pondered about previous draft signing deadlines and how much money has been spent on draft picks over the years. Let’s not forget that these players have yet to step foot on a professional baseball field and throw one pitch or record one at-bat with a professional team but they still obtain million dollar contracts and million dollar signing bonuses right out of high school and/or college. Bud Selig, the game’s commissioner, needs to revamp the draft and how much money can be spent on draft picks.

There have been various ideas tossed around the commissioner’s office and the player’s union office regarding revamping the draft but nothing has come to fruition yet. Some of the ideas tossed into the air for debate include trading picks, a worldwide draft, slotting and a control system for draft picks. No one in baseball knows if any of these ideas will be put into action but the union might vote for one or more of them to take effect within the next couple of years. The draft needs to be changed because players that have yet to throw a pitch or swing a bat in a professional game are getting paid more than some former Cy Young Award winners.

Let’s begin with the first idea; trading draft picks. Teams are not allowed to trade their draft picks under the current CBA. This means that teams cannot trade future draft picks or players that have been drafted and not signed yet. The trading of draft picks takes place in all three of the remaining major sports; basketball, football, and hockey. Teams in these three sports are allowed to trade their future draft picks or a drafted player during the draft itself. This doesn’t happen in baseball but many people around the game, especially the fans, would like to see this option come to fruition. The ability to trade draft picks will make it easier for teams to build their farm system. Also, if a team doesn’t wish to spend the money needed to sign a top ten pick they can draft a player in their assigned spot and then trade him to another team for a package of players.

The second idea for a revamped draft is to include worldwide players. When you look at some of the best foreign players in the Majors and in the Minors you tend to look at the Yankees and Red Sox. They spend millions of dollars each year when the International signing period takes place, stocking their farm system with talented foreign players. Scouts from across baseball, as well as some GMs, would like to see a worldwide draft instead of the International signing period so that all teams have a fair shot at foreign players.

Idea number three for revamping the draft is a mandatory slotting system. The sport of baseball is the only sport that does not have a mandatory slotting system for draft picks. A slotting system mandates how a draft pick will be paid depending on the slot they are drafted by a team. Teams in the Majors don’t want slotting. Instead, the players want slotting because they want the $15 million deals that are going to kids from high school and college. If a slotting system were to be put into effect then draft picks will either have to sign for the mandatory money, head to college, or play independent baseball for peanuts if they don’t have any college eligibility left.

The fourth and final idea rolling around the brains of baseball’s brass is to create a control system. The sport of hockey has a control system. When a team drafts a high school player in hockey and the player decides to attend college, the team that drafted that player controls their rights all through their college years. The team would be able to try and sign the player after their sophomore, junior, and senior years. If the player doesn’t sign after their senior year they would then re-enter the draft.

All of these ideas are being investigated by a committee of baseball personnel that is being led by John Schuerholz. Not all of these ideas will come to fruition but some of them will because the guaranteed money going to number one pick Stephen Strasburg ($15.1 million) is slightly more than the guaranteed money going to former Cy Young winners Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and John Smoltz combined for the 2009 season. Combined, these three players have nine Cy Young awards between them. Something needs to change when it comes to the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft or the contracts and signing bonuses will continue to increase with each passing year.

If only one of the above ideas can be put into effect by the commissioner’s office and the player’s union then it should be a slotting system for draft pick payouts. Why this idea over the remaining three? The answer is simple; unproven high school and college players that have yet to step onto a professional field should not be paid $15 million, period. It doesn’t matter what you accomplished in high school or college; it only matters what you do while climbing the ladder of your organization and your success in the bigs. There are plenty of Major League players not making $15 million over four years that have had more success at the big league level then these green draft picks. The same sentiment can be said for the NFL draft. Draft picks hold out and miss training camp practices because they feel they deserve multi-million dollar deals because of where they were picked and how they performed in college.

One problem that the union might run into when it comes to creating a slotting system is the fact that baseball contracts all over the game have inflated over the past couple of decades. The first really big contract was given to current Yankee Alex Rodriguez when he joined the Texas Rangers as a free agent prior to the 2001 season. At the time, the contract Rodriguez signed was the largest in sports history. It was a ten year deal worth $252 million. The contract was so lucrative that it was $63 million more than the second richest contract in baseball. Ever since Rodriguez signed that deal, contracts all over baseball began to increase each year. This is a problem that the idea of a slotting system might run into. Some baseball execs will argue that the increasing contracts are now a part of the game. They might claim that since it is happening with players in the Majors there is no reason it shouldn’t happen with players coming out of the draft.

There have been plenty of problems with the game of baseball over the past couple of decades; from brawls to steroids to bean ball wars to players providing tell-all stories of what happens in the clubhouse. But possibly the biggest problem to ever affect the culture of the sport is the increasing size of player contracts. Hopefully there are enough execs across baseball that believe in a draft slotting system so that unproven players will not be awarded enormous contracts coming out of school. Instead, that money can be given to Major League players that have proven their worth to their organization.

Now, a slotting system would be the ideal change to the draft but if I was allowed to pick one more change I would vote for the ability to trade draft picks. The reason the NFL draft is so interesting is because any team can trade from the 15th slot or the 24th slot in the first round to the 1st or 2nd slot in the first round in order to improve their team. This doesn’t happen in baseball but it should. The draft has been televised for the previous two seasons; ESPN aired the draft in 2008 for the first time in the draft’s history and the MLB Network aired the draft in 2009 for the first time in the Network’s history. If teams were allowed to trade draft picks in baseball, fans would become intimately interested in the draft because having the number 22 pick will never mean the same thing again. That 22nd pick could be traded for an earlier pick or a later pick or an early pick in a future draft. This method is what helps NFL teams get better each year and it could help MLB teams get better, even the Pirates and the Nationals.

Jim Vassallo is the creator of JAV Baseball. He also owns his own Internet Content company, JAV Freelancing. Vassallo coached baseball for three years at the high school level in New Jersey and has since joined the prominent D-III program at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He can be reached at jim@javbaseball.com for questions and comments.