'Super Two' rule stifles best prospects 

There are several reasons that clubs delay the promotion of top prospects to the major league level. The reasons can include physical ability, maturity, adjustments to breaking balls, hitting left-handed pitching, baserunning, developing a secondary pitch, fastball command, smoothing out a delivery, timing or shortening a swing.

Unfortunately, there is another reason: the ability to delay a player’s arbitration eligibility and potentially save the club millions of dollars. This is what baseball people call protecting against “Super Two" status.

Last year, the Washington Nationals delayed the promotion of Stephen Strasburg until June 8, although general managers, field staff, scouts and even teammates felt he was the best pitcher on the team coming out of spring training. This year, the promotions for top prospects like Mike Moustakas of the Kansas City Royals and Anthony Rizzo of the San Diego Padres were delayed. Granted, there were also baseball reasons contributing to both the Royals' and Padres' waiting until June to purchase their contracts, but when you analyze the exact timing of their promotions, it’s also clear that "Super Two" status contributed to the delay.

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