Does a Good Manager Play all of the Players?

     I don't know what on earth I was thinking when creating this post; wait a second, I do now. I played all of my backups in one of my fantasy baseball leagues one day when I was getting slaughtered (Not Holy Cross league). So arose the question, does a good manager play all of his players? There are a number of answers to the question depending what level you are. Here they are.

    Certainly when you're in Little League, a manager should play all of the players, no matter how good or bad. Of course, in most Little Leagues, you have to at least bat the whole team and often they have to get into the field at some point during the game. Since Little League is not all about winning, but development, this is most definitely the way it should be. 

    Some higher Little League divisions (like 14U and up) maybe could have a different ruling for playing time, but seeing as how it's still Little League, the rules should probably stay as they are.

    Moving on to high school ball. When playing JV ball, the managers should get the backups in at least every once in a while. While winning is definitely a big part of high school baseball, it's still not always everything. This doesn't mean putting the worst players in a nail-biter game. But if you're crushing a team, might as well put some of your weaker players in. After all, JV ball has free substitutions, so you put guys in the field and take them out as you please. The batting order however, cannot have free substitutions. The reason for this is so you can't pull your best hitters in a close game and stick them all in the lineup whenever you want at whatever order you want.

    Moving on to Varsity. If you make a Varsity team, there's never a promise you're gonna get playing time. Of course, if you were good enough to make the team, you should be good enough to get playing time (all of these examples bar practice squads, of course). Managers are still going to be letting the worst players have a minimal amount of playing time rather than none, and this is fair. If you make the Varsity team, the same to a lesser degree on a JV team, you're good enough to get at least a little bit of playing time.

    Moving on to college ball. Again, for any division from select ball on, if you make the team, you're going to get some playing time because you're good enough to be on it. However though, if you've got a stud-filled lineup, there are no promises. Once you hit college ball, it's on you to be as best as you can be. If you get into games, great. If you don't, that's not on the manager.

    The same goes for Minor League baseball and MLB. There are some players at this level who can make a team but still not play. Once you get to a level this high, the manager puts his best lineup out for every game (unless a minor league manager is told by a higher source to play a certain player). But these teams typically play to win, so if you can't play because you're not good enough, then you're probably gonna get released, but if you don't, well at least you still get paid (unless it's the minors; then nobody gets paid).

    It is at this point that I must say that oftentimes the manager for minor league or MLB teams don't make the lineups. Some have computers generate it for them (which I think is stupid, but that's a post for another day). 

    Well, there you have it. From Little League through JV ball, and even mostly in Varsity ball, a good manager will play all of his players, even if not a lot (in regards to JV and Varsity). But once you hit college and up, it's on you to earn your playing time. If you stink, you don't play. That's just business.