Super Vet?
When talking to Ross Vecchio earlier this week about his resignation from the Wild Things, he passed on this interesting nugget of information about a Frontier League rules change this season that involves rosters.The FL has carved its niche in the independent baseball landscape by having a strick age limit. It's the only independent league that has an age limit. No FL player can be 27 years old prior to Jan. 1 of any season.
Teams lose players to the age limit rule every season. The Wild Things are no exception. Players like Shaun Argento, Josh Loggins, Aaron Ledbetter and Grant Psomas have aged out of the league while with Washington.
This season, however, teams can add what will be termed a Vet-2 to their roster. This is any player ages 28-30 who has played at least 100 games with a franchise in previous seasons. Teams can have only one Vet-2 on the roster and he will count against the limit of three Veterans.
Looking at the Wild Things' roster last season, Brett Grandstrand falls under the Vet-2 category. Psomas, though he played the entire 2009 season with Washington, could not be a Vet-2 because he did not play 100 games with the Wild Things.
Had this rule in place since 2002 -- when the Wild Things joined the Frontier League -- Washington would have had the option of keeping players like Argento, Loggins, Chris Carter, Travis Copley etc.
posted by Chris Dugan at
2:51 PM
1 Comments:
Chris, there was another reason for implementing the Vet-2 rule. Each year, FL teams lose players to the age limit. In past years, leagues like the Northern League, American Association and Atlantic League picked these players off of our rosters and the FL team received nothing in return. The list of FL all-stars that have gone on to success in the NL, AA and AL is a long one and their FL teams received no player or money as compensation. Now, the FL team can exercise it's option under the current contract and then either a) keep one of the V-2's (if there are more than 1) or 2) trade that V-2 to another league and get a quality player in return. It simply allows options that we did not have before.
Of course it also allows a team to keep a player that has become part of the fabric of it's team for continuity.
I enjoy watching your blog from time to time. It's informative, knowledgeable coverage of the FL and fans that watch and care.
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