Neat idea from Sam Mellinger at the Kansas City Star:
Neat, but probably unworkable. As Sam himself points out, you may not know until 2PM one afternoon if Greinke is going to start that evening and that would create logistical problems. Sure, maybe you could limit them, and Sam suggests some ways to do it, but there would still be a lot of hassle involved.
I think the bigger problem, however, would be less one of logistics than of incentives. I don’t know the cut of Trey Hillman’s jib when it comes to this kind of thing, but what happens if ownership installs a total company man in the manager’s office and more or less forces him to do whatever he can to pitch Greinke (or whatever star on whatever team comes up with such an idea) against the less desirable opponents, thereby bumping sales on what would otherwise be a low draw? Or what if he’s strongly encouraged to pitch Greinke more than he otherwise would, such as late in the season when the game doesn’t matter and the guy could totally use a day off. In either scenario the tail of commerce is wagging the dog of competition (or some other terrible metaphor to that effect).
No, I don’t think such a sinister plot is likely, but the mere existence of a bad incentives can be a bad thing in and of itself and the law of unintended consequences can be a bitch, so it’s probably best not to go down that road.