The pre-game Showalter must go on

Breaking news: Jake Arrieta shaved off his mustache. Double-A Bowie outfielder Xavier Avery has been added to the Scottsdale Scorpions' roster in the Arizona Fall League. He'll join pitchers Kam Mickolio, Wynn Pelzer, Oliver Drake and Pat Egan, infielders Ryan Adams, Greg Miclat and Tyler Townsend, and catcher Caleb Joseph. Single-A Frederick pitching coach Blaine Beatty will serve as pitching coach for Scottsdale. Manager Buck Showalter says he's familiar with Bowie's Joel Guzman, who leads the Eastern League with 32 home runs and is one shy of Walter Young's franchise record. Don't get too excited, though. I brought up Guzman's name. "I saw him over there, the seven innings I saw, and I asked about him," Showalter said. "He's got a lot of pop. I know he was really well thought of by the Dodgers at one time." Showalter saw video of last night's brawl between the Nats and Marlins. "It's a tough game played by passionate men who want to defend their ground, so to speak, on certain issues. And there's always two sides to that," he said. "When something gets to that point, there's usually both groups somewhat in the right and both groups somewhat in the wrong. And that's why you settle it in different manners. Sometimes, there are a lot of wolf calls going on and sometimes there's not. I don't think there was much wolf calls going on there. "I was talking to (Brian) Matusz today about the proper way to defend yourself. 'Make sure if you do anything like that, you do it with your right hand.' That was No. 1." Showalter would like to see baseball allow September call-ups, but each team would designate 25 players for each game. Pick and choose which ones to activate. He also believes the playoff games should be held for seven days in a row, just like the regular season. Use all five starting pitchers, "the things that got you there," he said. "When we acquired (Curt) Schilling in Arizona, our whole idea was, if we got to the playoffs with the off-days, that Randy Johnson and Schilling, if they won their starts, we were world champions, which really isn't right. There are just some things from a baseball purist standpoint you'd like to see tweaked." I'd like to tweak that first sentence.