107 replies to this topic

[BobPhelan]

Very exciting. This will probably be the game I most look forward to since Matt Wieters' debut. Awesome.

And I agree with Dave Cameron, that was a very good article.

[Russ]

Manny batting 9th and playing 3B today.

[Mackus]

It starts, as I've already noted many were making a big deal about Zach Britton's service time last year. Anyone concerned right now about his? It's a good problem to have, we want to remain viable and it's sure worth whatever service time we lose from him.

If he plays well it's worth it. If he's not an upgrade, then it probably costs us a year of service time on the back end from him for no immediate return.

Of course if he struggles and is back down within 2-3 weeks, then we don't really have to keep him in the minors any longer than we would have had to anyways next season. If he was never called up, he'd have to be in the minors for 3 weeks next year, because if you spend less than 20 days in the minors, you get credit for a full year of MLB service. There ae typically 180-185 days in a season (182 this year I think). 172 constitutes a full season and you can't accumulate more than 1 full year in a calendar year (so you don't get 1.013 years of service time if you're up for all 185 days, just 1.00).

Say he's up for 15 days this year before going back down. We'd still need him in the minors for that 20+ days to avoid the full year. If we call him up after those 20 days we'd have to wait either way, that means there are 163 days left in the season (est 183 days next year, I could be off by a couple either way), add in his 15 from 2012 and he's at 178 days. So to get him under 172, he'd have to spend 27 days in the minors before calling him up instead of 20.

Unless they've eliminated that 20-day rule in the new CBA. I'm not sure if they did or didn't.

[Mackus]

I think it's most likely at this point, however, that they don't play any further games with the service time and he's just up for good or close to it depending on his performance. He'll be on the team at club-controlled (i.e. minimum) salaries for 2013, '14, and '15 and then arbitration eligible in '16, '17, and '18 before reaching free agency entering his Age 26 season (his birthday is July 6th, so he is just after the July 1 cutoff used, he'll turn 27 in July during his first year under a FA contract).

[Russ]

Didn't the Rays do something similar with Price a few years ago? They brought him up for September and the playoffs and had him start the next year in the minors for service time reasons.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Frobby made the point on Foxhole that we can still retain that extra year of service as long as we delay his call up next year ( assuming he begins the year at AAA).

[Russ]

Matt Wieters' debut was delayed by rain.

[Chris B]

Matt Wieters' debut was delayed by rain.

That's the way he wanted it.