Jon Miller on Minor League Umpires

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by goyanksgonj

Injuries, vacations, etc. happen. That's the bottom line.

Without the benefit of full-time employment by MLB, these MiLB guys just do whatever the heck they have to, in order to try and get to the aforementioned level.

The whole '99 situation certainly screwed some of these guys over, no doubt about it. I can only suppose several spots would've opened up from guys that were let go (and not subsequently re-hired) from that nasty situation.

MLB loves to have Guccione work 160 games a year, year after year. He's still a fill in and continues to receive entry level pay instead of building seniority and getting the accompanying pay increases.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by Grail

I'm not saying that at all. The same situation could have occurred with anyone on the game.

What I'm saying is, why not mix in the so-called "lesser umps" with the "more experienced" umps. It's makes sense as a means of mentoring the up and comers.

If you were scheduling 2 varsity HS games with 2-man crews, would it make sense to put 2 up and coming umps on the same game, and 2 veterans on the other game? It might work out that way, but it makes more sense to pair 1 vet with 1 new guy, and the other vet with the other new guy.

Baseball had 15 games yesterday. Surely they could spread out the "minor" umps throughout baseball, instead of putting them together.

Someone who follows this more closely than I will have to check for specifics, but it's possible that nearly every other crew also had a "replacement" umpire already on it, given vacations and injuries. Also, MLB doesn't like to split apart the "regular" crews once they are set, and travel, the length of the replacement assignment and the time between the "notice" and the next game all come into play.

[ericgreggsghost]

nobody should be down on drake it was fairchild who blew this one ... fairchild has been in the bigs all season and should have known better ... since when does a manager come running out of the dugout to argue a check swing call and NOT get tossed? drake had to clean up his mess and he looks badly for it.