Today's featured question/comment comes from Slim Charles, who has been featured once before in this featured comment area that features comments from featured commentators:

Slim's question: Can you explain September call-ups? I'm pretty sure I understand but if I have it right then why would you waste a call-up for Bergesen now instead of waiting two more weeks. I know our starters are absolutely horrid (with an obvious exception, maybe two) but we are rebuilding. We can not lose site of that goal, despite our recent success.

Pete's reply: I checked with an Orioles official and found out that the Sept. 1 roster expansion is not really relevant to the Bergesen situation. He's not on the 40-man roster, so the issue is whether or not to add him to the 40-man and start his service time/option clock. It would be the same issue today as on Sept. 1, except for the amount of service time burned for the remainder of the season.

There are some subtleties to the roster expansion, but teams generally promote players who can add legitimate depth to the roster. That decision is impacted by the value of the player and his service status, so it has become more and more unusual for teams to bring up top prospects just to give them a taste of the major league environment.

In the case of Matt Wieters, for instance, the Orioles could probably make a legitimate case for bringing him up to be the third catcher in September. But they also could make a strong case for treating him like Evan Longoria, and remain very stingy about using any major league service time until he's here to stay.

Hope that helps.