Josh Hamilton Game 163+playoffs

[Marlins]

I think if we make an injury committee, it should only exist from Sept 1 each year through the playoffs. And, I think it should rotate each year and only consist of GMs who A) are willing to be in the committee and B) are not in the playoff hunt. I dont think we should allow the decision to be made by anyone who might be affected in any way by the decision.

[Yankees]

Then it comes to Alfonso Soriano- same type of situation minus the DL. Is it fair to make us bench Sizemore but not Soriano? Not really. Same deal. Soriano had been affected by his injury and shut down due to his injury. The Cubs were mathematically alive at the time. He was hurt and his knee or whatever had been bothering him all season. He stopped playing because he couldn't play effectively - while the Cubs were still alive. Again, his play had been hampered by his injury and again- the player is hurt and not with minor injuries. Soriano was headed under the knife - like Sizemore, like Santana, like Reyes (who is a bit more extreme, but again this is to prove that it's all speculation.)

This is exactly the grey area I'm talking about. How on Planet Earth do we know this is the same situation as Sizemore? The Cubs were mathmatically in it, but by the slimmest of margins. If they started to make a miraculous run, who knows if Soriano would or would not have played?

My point is that we have an opportunity to make this as black and white as we can: On the DL, they don't play. Off the DL but say they are done, they are done. If it's in any way, shape, or form nebulous they play. When we start to try and play Insider, we are going to put ourselves in murky water.

Trying to argue if Josh Hamilton was TRULY running out a double, and using game footage to determine if he's injured seems incredibly stupid to me - sorry for everyone who was. We're not CSI, let's make this as easy as possible.

In Grady Sizemore's case, he should have played until he was put on the DL on September 15th, or if they announced he was shut down any time between the 3rd and the 15th. In Soriano's case, he should play until they announce he is shut down. In Hamilton's case, he said he can actually be on a baseball field, had played full games recently, so he should be allowed to play.

By arguing with each other, passing these decisions ONLY on an Ex-Co vote based on their opinions, or attempting to determine injury by judging facial expressions, we are making this way too hard.

The job of the injury committee should be to scour the newspapers and transactions to see when someone goes on the DL, or when someone has been OFFICIALLY shut down by his team. Otherwise, they play...can anyone really argue with that?

[Orioles]

This is exactly the grey area I'm talking about. How on Planet Earth do we know this is the same situation as Sizemore? The Cubs were mathmatically in it, but by the slimmest of margins. If they started to make a miraculous run, who knows if Soriano would or would not have played?

My point is that we have an opportunity to make this as black and white as we can: On the DL, they don't play. Off the DL but say they are done, they are done. If it's in any way, shape, or form nebulous they play. When we start to try and play Insider, we are going to put ourselves in murky water.

Trying to argue if Josh Hamilton was TRULY running out a double, and using game footage to determine if he's injured seems incredibly stupid to me - sorry for everyone who was. We're not CSI, let's make this as easy as possible.

In Grady Sizemore's case, he should have played until he was put on the DL on September 15th, or if they announced he was shut down any time between the 3rd and the 15th. In Soriano's case, he should play until they announce he is shut down. In Hamilton's case, he said he can actually be on a baseball field, had played full games recently, so he should be allowed to play.

By arguing with each other, passing these decisions ONLY on an Ex-Co vote based on their opinions, or attempting to determine injury by judging facial expressions, we are making this way too hard.

The job of the injury committee should be to scour the newspapers and transactions to see when someone goes on the DL, or when someone has been OFFICIALLY shut down by his team. Otherwise, they play...can anyone really argue with that?

This is a better articulation of what I was trying to say before. We shouldn't even get to the point of having to look at how a guy's running, or striking the ball. I trust the ExCo to make a decision based on the information available online. It should be an adjustment to maintain our same general threshold for injuries once roster expansion and falling out races alters the way MLB teams use the DL.

Guys who have been "shut down for the year" by their team before the final week of the season should be considered injured for the postseason unless it can be shown convincingly that they would have been available (most likely by a player or media statement saying they could have played through it, or something).

Guys who have played games in the final week of the season should be presumed healthy for the postseason in the absence of convincing evidence they could not have continued (reports of a new injury, or re-aggravation of a prior injury).

As has been said, there should be as little evaluation of the players performance and the nature of the injury as possible. There's enough out there on BP, Rotoworld, local newspapers, etc that it shouldn't take much to decide one way or the other. If there's no easy ExCo consensus, they either defer to "injured" or "healthy" based on some clear-cut criteria like what I mentioned above.

[Pirates]

Just a question...does this count as a DL violation for next year, since technically he wasnt supposed to play on monday?

[Astros]

Jake, you had 2 injury violations this year, Brian Shouse and Bartolo Colon. Bartolo Colon pitched a month for you while he was on the DL, having a 3.86 ERA and a complete game during that time. If you had one of your worse pitchers in, you very well may have lost some of those games. Then you're not in a one game playoff. So quit bitching because you've had DL violations this year too

[DBacks]

Can we get a clearer answer from the ExCo than "quit your bitching" on that question?

I know it's a thoughtful and classy response from the people we trust to run the league, but it lacks information.