This suspension, I understand. It will be interesting to see if Rogers bothers to appeal.
To many, 20 games sounds better than it is. That's only 4 games for a starter. Looking at it that way, Rogers' suspension is only twice as long as Sheffield's.
Can we quantify it? Sheffield has 15.5 Win Shares so far this season. He has played in 74 games this season, so he earns about .21 Win Shares per game. A 2 game suspension will cost the Yankees .42 Win Shares, or about 1/7 of a win.
Rogers has about 12.3 Win Shares so far this season. He has pitched in 15 games. So he earns about .82 WS per start. He'll miss 4 starts, so that will cost the Rangers 3.28 Win Shares, or just a little more than a full win.
By that measure, Rogers' suspension is 8 times that of Sheffield. Still seems light to me. I would not have been outraged if Kenny Rogers had received the Ron Artest treatment.
NBCSports.com has a poll. The question for the poll was "Was the suspension too harsh?". Forty-four percent (44%) think it is. Huh?
