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Originally Posted by PeteBooth
I think the quality of umpiring would improve over the current system
IMO, the Minor League Umpire union is not what I call a "true" union to begin with and frankly I do not understand why a Minor league Umpire would want to join such a Union.
Under the Current system, when an umpire makes it to Triple "A" they have maybe 2/3 yrs. tops to make it to the "show" If they don't they receive a letter in the mail that states "major league baseballl no longer requires your services".
Now what happens to these guys? For all their hard work and sacrifices they are told to go home. No Severance package No nothing. What kind of Union is that. If you want to know what a "true" union is look at the Teamsters who have been around a long time. You pay dues but you get something out of it.
Therefore, if the Minor League Umpires unions folds, perhpas you will see the Triple A guys who have been told to go home in the past re-surface and they will probably have a better chance to make it to the "show" under a new structure then they did under the old one.
Don't you think that there were Talented umpires who made it to triple A that were told to go home?
In Summary: IMO, The quality of umpiring should improve because the talented umpires in Triple A will who did not make it to the "Show" in the time alotted will now have a better chance by being independent contractors.
Therefore, I would not be surprised if these types of umpires are already working.
There's plenty of talent out there, they just need a chance. In addition, the MLB Umpire Union should hire some "old vets" ala Steve Palermo to be mentors for these young guys.
A new structure is needed.
Pete Booth
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Pete,
I think that's an interesting statement regarding an improvement in the umpiring if they go to independent contractors. As far as ex guys getting a shot in the bigs - I really don't see that happening. Here's why...
If you look at the numbers - three of the next five big league jobs are already accounted for (Davidson, Hallion and Hickox have slots #1, #3 & #5). I think Barksdale is a lock for the #2 spot and Gooch or Drake will probably get #5 slot.
So five current MLB umpires will have to retire for these five guys to move up. Let's just guess that Froemming, Brinkman, Young, West & Montague are the next to go. After that, Marsh, Cousins, Crawford, Reilly and maybe MCClelland are the only ones left that are near retirement. I think those 22 guys that came up in '99 really caused a back log and thus, there really won't be a need to replace many MLB umpires in the next 10 yrs.
I could be wrong but I'm just looking at it from a numbers standpoint.