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March 25, 2005

2005--Setting the Stage

The 27th Man

by Will Carroll

Over the last 20 years, baseball has gone through many changes in strategy, few more obvious than the trend towards specialization. "Closer" became a part of the baseball vocabulary in the 1980s, and it's been followed by such species as set-up men, LOOGYs (Left-handed One Out GuY) and defensive specialists. Add to that list the multi-positioned super-utility player, such as Tony Phillips, Jose Oquendo and, most recently, the Angels' Chone Figgins.

In the past, the designation "utility player" was an almost derogatory term for a player who would probably never contend for a starting position, a nice way of calling a guy a bencher. Today, it's a logical reaction to 12-man pitching staffs. By having one player who can fill several roles, the bench becomes longer, making Figgins the 25th, 26th and 27th man on the roster on those days he's not starting.

The superutility player isn't a new phenomenon. As long ago as 1876, there were professionals who played at least 20 games at three or more positions. Research by Clay Davenport dug up the first instance of this. A player by the name of Amos Booth played 24 games behind the plate, 24 games at third base and 22 at shortstop, making him the pioneer of the superutility player. Others such as King Kelly, Pete Browning and the first player to get in 20 games at four positions, Doggie Miller, closely followed Booth. Note that most of these players played catcher in addition to a couple other positions. That's not a skill that has made it to the modern day; catchers are almost always just catchers now.

The superutility player has been around for more than a century, but just as rosters have stayed around 25 men deep--according to research by Clifford Blau--specialization has overtaken those rosters. This has been seen most in the use of matchup relievers--LOOGYs and ROOGYs, if you will--which has subsequently led to the need to use more roster slots on pitchers. Expanding the role of set-up relievers to specific innings in addition to the use of matchup relievers furthered the trend. Where ten pitchers were once enough, the five-man rotation and deeper, six- or seven-man bullpens limited the spots available for bench players.

In the modern era, rosters have been built to both create more power on offense while diffusing the power with relievers. The roles on a smaller bench became sharply defined, usually following a pattern of second catcher, extra infielder, extra outfielder, a hitter who bats opposite the extra infielder and outfielder, usually a left-handed hitter, and a defensive specialist with speed. In the AL, the need for a designated hitter forces teams to look for their matchup pinch-hitters within the ranks of their bench players, forcing a tough choice balancing the needs of the team, platoon advantages and injury risk.

The lack of flexibility this creates is apparent on a team like the 2004 Angels. The team dealt with a significant run of injuries, yet was able to keep players in their defined bench roles because of one factor: Chone Figgins. Figgins would play 92 games at third base, 54 games in center field, 20 games at second base, 13 games at shortstop, two games in right field and one in left field. Instead of being limited to the backup catcher (Jose Molina), infielder (Figgins), outfielder (Jeff Davanon, for the most part), and DH (a combination of players, led by Tim Salmon and whichever injured player needed to be off the field on a given day), the Angels in effect had a bench that was expanded by at least two players. Both Figgins and DaVanon are switch-hitters, making matchup management easier as well.