Another rant about Fox.
Some of the pre-game discussion was about the Brewers using C.C. Sabathia on three days rest. The commentators, including the wooden Ken Rosenthal, suggested this was perhaps inappropriate, considering Sabathia will be a free agent.
What???? Sabathia is the pitching horse on a team that is desperately trying to salvage a playoff run, and whose #2 starter, Ben Sheets, is made out of rice paper. Pitching a guy on three days rest is not abuse. In fact, for the majority of baseball history, three days was normal rest.
The Brewers might have a duty to Sabathia not to destroy him physically, the same way a mining company should not send workers into an airless mine without oxygen, but pitching on three days rest does not qualify. Importantly, and contrary to the commentary, the Brewers do not have a duty to the open market to preserve Sabathia as a great free agent.
Nor do they have a duty to Sabathia in terms of making sure he gets maximum money in the free agent market. He plays for the Brewers. They are paying him. They are in a playoff hunt. Absent truly destructive behavior that would qualify as abuse of any employee, the Brewers ought to pitch him as much as they can to make the playoffs.
