A Recently Cut Brewers Pitcher Might Want To Experience A 9-5 Before He Says He'd Rather Have One

JSOnline- The Milwaukee Brewers made their final two pitching cuts of spring training Saturday and to say the least, neither player took it well.

Cravy and Scahill were not hesitant to talk. Cravy, in particular, was quite upset after compiling a 2.03 earned run average over 11 exhibition outings while holding opponents to a .116 batting average.

Rather than report to the minors, Cravy said he might seek “a 9 to 5 job where I get treated like a human, at this point.”

What had Cravy and Scahill most upset was they were told there would be a competition for jobs at the start of camp and pitched well, yet were cut anyway. Scahill allowed only one run in 12 outings (0.73 ERA) but was a non-roster invitee to camp, which didn’t help his chances.

Cravy, who compiled a 2.86 ERA in 20 outings for the Brewers last season, had a minor-league option remaining and the club exercised it. He said he was not certain he would report, however.

“It would just be nice to have the honesty straight up front instead of, ‘Hey, you’re competing for a job,’ then literally out-compete everyone and be told, ‘Sorry, we have other plans'. It says a lot about the integrity, or lack thereof, of the guys running the show, but what are you going to do? All you can do is put up numbers and sometimes that’s still not enough. I don’t think they would release me. I think it would just be me deciding to quit if I chose that route. I’m just not sure I want to play for guys who treat you like this."

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Some people may not be as understanding of a guy that was given the chance to make millions of dollars on a guaranteed contract and left the opportunity floating over the middle of the plate only for it to get shot straight to the pitcher's equivalent of hell (i.e. the bleachers). I, on the other hand, see where he's coming from. It's probably a pretty shitty feeling to be treated as nothing more than a talent when your talent is barely worth the league minimum. Professional sports are a business of financial shortcuts and false promises, and I would be willing to bet that would weigh on anyone that devoted their life to it only to see disappointing results. I am not saying that the Milwaukee Brewers owed Tyler Cravy so much as an explanation after he willingly (and knowingly) chose to enter such a cutthroat field, but I could see why he would want one after putting on the audition of his underwhelming career.

That being said, we can put the rest the notion that the average 9-5 is any more humane than pulling and pushing of a pitcher from a Major League team to and from it's Minor League affiliate. You might feel more respected showing up to an office in a shirt and tie than you do while waiting out a broken down bus in your travels from one hardly suburban city to the next, but that doesn't mean you are any more respected. Just because most bosses can't callously can you without justification doesn't mean they can't treat you like you as if you are just as replaceable. Literally the only thing that keeps cube workers from suffering the same fate as a middling reliever is a human resources department that tries it's damnedest to convince it's particular humans that they are more than just resources.

​At the end of the day? The forced smiles and phony friendliness aren't more accommodating to a individual's personhood. In fact, I would probably argue that the condescension that takes place in your average workplace is tougher to bear than simply opening your locker to a red tag that indicates you fucking suck. Tyler Cravy may think that the feigned cordialness of a stable job is what he wants, but I would suggest he thanklessly does the same dumb, monotonous shit... day-after-day...for months, years, or decades on end before he confidently proclaims that he prefers it to playing a kid's game for a living. The grass is always greener...even if that grass is tended by guys desperately holding on to their dream in Colorado Springs.