Except there is a reason for the "excess" short calls.

The reason is very simple. They want to discourage commuting to reserve.

Delta flight ops has finally (reluctantly) accepted commuting as a fact of life. It wasn't always so. We didn't used to have call in honest or deviate deadhead positive space or any of that. We couldn't even ride our own jumpseats until 2001 or somewhere thereabouts. Ron Allen fought the jumpseat thing tooth and nail. That's changed now.

But they still want reserves to live in base. They've been burned by some big IROPS in the past. Guys on short call were not the problem. They were there. Its the long calls who are the problem. They couldn't get to work because they lived 1000 miles away and all the flights they usually rely on were cancelled. The only reserves they had were the ones who lived in base. Which in New York is almost nobody.

I think assigning max short calls (especially in certain bases and categories) is company policy. And I don't think its going to change.