I think there’s some fan evaluation too. Sort of showing off some of the future players. Likely other organizations are evaluating those players as well.

You’ve also got to consider this FO is somewhat delusional, and is pandering to the fanbase so that attendance doesn’t start dropping off…although another year like this fraught with missed opportunities and terrible internal evaluations and I doubt that will be so far-fetched. “Winning as many games as possible” is PR babble for “we don’t want you to feel like you wasted your money, and even though we made mistakes, we want you to see some HRs and hopefully our terrible pitching doesn’t give up the game in the first inning or two.” They simply refused to admit that the team was ‘out of it’ when it was quite evident by late July. Even mathematical elimination hasn’t changed the crap they’re spewing.

In any event, there is probably a financial component to it, though more from the ‘we need these people to buy more tickets’ angle than the ‘we can’t start Gamel’s clock for another month’.

in this thread and the other thread.

First, I don’t need Joe Winklesas to make 10 starts to determine he sucks.

Second, By giving players innings and at bats at the major league level the coaches can identify things that can help the player’s overall development.