Thank you all for your generous and kind words regarding my first post!! Please continue to send along any feedback, both positively and negatively, throughout the season. Also, if something pops up in the broadcast that you would like for me to either clarify or explain in greater detail, please don’t hesitate to ask. With that in mind, a fan pulled me aside the other day and asked me about player options.

We read all the time about guys going back and forth from the big leagues to the minors, but when does a player finally run out of options? It’s an important part of the game, and can play havoc with managers/general managers as they try and assemble a 25-man roster. For example, the Brewers don’t have any wiggle room when it comes to Tony Gwynn. He has to make the opening day roster or else the Brewers will most likely lose him to another team. Most players are given a maximum of three options once added to the 40-man roster. Gwynn played with the Brewers beginning in 2006, 2007, and again in 2008. He went up and down from Nashville all three years, using up his allowed options. However, it‘s worth noting that regardless how many times a player is optioned throughout the season, it counts as only one option. Even if he was sent back and forth 5 times in one year, that would only cost the organization a single option. Does that make sense? There are plenty more limbs to the “option” tree but I just wanted to pass along one of the more important rules.

I’ll probably update this blog weekly. On occasion, though, I’ll write more should a big story, or even a funny one, develop.

Best,

Cory