Midseason Meetings

[Tigers GM (Alex)]

Hear ye, hear ye. Come one, come all, to the midseason meetings. The points that will be discussed are as follows...

1. Longterm Salary Cap
2. Franchise/Restricted Tags
3. Sign & Trade
4. Tanking

If you have another issue that you'd like to discuss that we don't have listed please just let Mike or me know. We are currently saving talks about the Rule V draft until later in the summer. So without further ado....

1. Longterm Salary Cap

Mike and I have decided that starting in 2014, and every 2 seasons following that (2016, 2018, 2020, etc.), the salary cap will be increased by $5M. This is to deal with salary inflation, both in the real MLB and in our league. So following the 2013 World Series the salary cap will be increased to $105M.

2. Franchise/Restricted Tags

We have several options still on the table regarding tags, although they're all somewhat similar at this point. I'll lay the options out here:

Option A: 1 Franchise Tag - Every team will receive one (1) franchise tag per season. The franchise tag can then be applied to an upcoming free agent that you've owned for at least one full season (April thru September). You must declare what player you will use your FT on by the end of the World Series. The monetary amount of the franchise tag will vary depending on a player's position (SS will cost more than RP), with the amounts being decided by Mike and I later in the season. You will be allowed to choose how long a FT contract lasts, from 1-3 years. Franchise Tags cannot be traded or be redeemed if unused.

Option B: 2 Restricted Tags - Every team will receive two (2) restricted tags per season, an A-Level tag, and a B-Level tag. The A-Level tag would be for more money than the B-Level tag. Like with the franchise tag, the actual amounts would vary by position. After tagging your 2 players with restricted tags, they would then enter Restricted Free Agency, whereupon other teams would commence in blind bidding for the players by PMing an RFA account with their bids (bids obviously must be above the tag salary). Afterwards the tagging team would have the option to match the highest bid if they wished to do so. If a player doesn't receive any bids above the tag salary the tagging team gets to keep their player for between 1-3 years (once again, your choice when you officially sign the contract). If the tagging team elects not to match the highest bid for their player, the player will go to the highest bidding team, and the tagging team will receive draft pick compensation based on whether or not the player was an A or B-Level RFA. A big difference between the RT and the FT is that with a RT you would not need to have owned a player for a full season before tagging.

Option C: 1 Franchise Tag, 1 Restricted Tag - Every team will receive one of each kind of tag per season. Same rules as above would follow for each, with Franchise Tag salaries being higher than Restricted Tag ones.

3. Sign & Trades

For several years now people have complained about being unable to trade newly signed free agents before May 1st. Well, change is here. Starting this offseason, teams will be allowed to trade players for the first 48 hours following their signing, as long as both teams remain under the cap following the trade. Sign & Trades will not be allowed if either team in the deal is over the cap. Both teams must accept the trade within the 48 hour window or the deal will be voided.

4. Tanking

Mike and I are both concerned with the amount of tanking occurring in ODC. It seems like half of the league is constantly "rebuilding" and doesn't even try to win. Looking over to the NL, we see quite a few teams starting horrendous lineups with barely any actual major league starters (not saying this isn't in the AL too, just more so in the NL). This is both unrealistic, and against the spirit of competition. No team should have weeks where a 14-0, or 13-1 victory is basically guaranteed prior to the week even starting. In the real MLB it very rarely happens that a team wins more than 65% of their games in a season, yet here we have several teams a season reaching and surpassing that mark. As such, Mike and I have discussed several measures to lessen this apparent tanking. Here are some of them:

1. Player Salary Cap Minimum - Every team would need to spend a certain amount of money each year (say $40M) on their own players. So this could not be applied to obligations.
2. Draft Lottery - Do a straight up straight lottery for the non-playoff teams. Like in the NBA, worse teams would have better odds at the #1 pick.
3. Ban draft pick trading - The real MLB doesn't allow draft picks to be traded, so why should we? This would also make compensation a lot easier to handle as everyone would always have picks. It would also force teams to have farm systems, at least for a short while (some teams now barely have any minor leaguers, also something unrealistic and undesirable).
4. Consolation Bracket - Do a consolation bracket for the non-playoff teams to decide the draft order. Winner gets #1 pick, runner-up gets #2, etc. Then we would also add in a full compensation round following the first round of the draft where the order would be based on overall record, so the team with the worst record would get the #1 pick in the comp round.

If anyone else has other ideas feel free to speak up. These are just a couple of things that Mike and I have discussed.

Wrap Up: The salary cap increase and the sign & trade issues are basically decided already. The FT/RT and tanking issues are very open-ended still though, and we'd love to hear all of your opinions on them. And if there is anything else that you'd like to discuss just let us know and we'll see what we can do.

Cheers!

-Alex & Mike

[Deleted]

Here are my thoughts on this:

1 Salary cap im good with a increase of $5m every 2 years one question while I remember set for just next 6 seasons 15 mill total? SORRY this wasn't clear

2 Franchise tags im ok with but extension NO if you tag a guy you get him for ONE season and ONE season only CAN'T tag him twice and it should be for a fairly large amount where teams have to ponder if its really worth keeping the player at say 15 to 20 mill.

Restricted tags idk I just dont see the use just go back to old draft comp system (using player rater).(myself or maybe jimmy can help on fine tuning this) TO avoid confusion just add picks in where they should be. EX I sign Cano but I don't have my first which would have been 25 forbz would get #25 and my pick becomes 25.Like MLB does.

3 Sign and trades I don't have a feeling either way really. I don't see the purpose to be honest. IF teams both have to have the cap room. Why couldn't the other team just sign the player?

4 Tanking- I think maybe enforcing rules already on the books (roster minimums) would help solve the concerns here. Rome wasn't built in a day AND some teams may never become Rome but some are definitely trying.

A) Cap minimum- I don't know what this solves? large contracts for mediocre players come Free Agency time?
IF anything possibly cap Obligations to the more competitive teams.

B) Draft Lotto- This would be interesting but I don't think "tanking" is a large issue, sure for a few teams it's to there benefit but everyone wants to compete at some point right? HELLO you play to win the game

C) The Ban of draft pick trading- This would make me sad but TBH i wouldn't complain on this. IF this were to happen i think expanding the draft to 8-10 rounds would benefit the entire league if thats the goal is here. One question though would a ban on trading prospects be next? I mean u cant force teams to have prospects. Some teams have said "screw prospects" in many cases.

D)Consolation Bracket- How does this help the "rebuilding" teams that we are so concerned about? It doesn't quite frankly. The worse teams would be picking in the teens most likely lol. I DO whoever like consolation bracket for Rule V it would provide some incentive and solve the problem of coming up with a order for Rule V.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here is something i mentioned to mike and I guess got lost in the shuffle

Additional year on 1-6 scale could maybe tweak the current rule of 1ip or 1 ab I currently have Bard that's pitched 1 ip this year and under current rule id lost a full year of eligibility here I think we can all agree this sucks essentially 1ip = 1 year.

[Astros GM (Max)]

I like the consolation bracket idea. Very nice, seems like it will work.

I wouldn't want to ban draft pick trading, however, as those picks make or break some deals during the year. A pick can satisfy the gap between one team being iffy to them accepting a trade

Max

[Braves GM (Wood)]

all of it sounds like a good idea to me...personally ive thought about adding the no draft pick trade in my own leagues...doesnt mean they cant trade whomever they pick afterwards but it will help all teams build for the future as draft picks values change every year.

"There is no limit to what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit."

[Mets GM (Jack)]

just pointing out that im not tanking, im trying to win with a team that cant do it

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

It should be added that nothing is final with #4 and I wouldn't expect major changes there until 2015.

Psych, I like the idea of capping obligations, since it would more effectively solve the problem.

As for draft pick trading, that could be banned but with an extension of the draft, as Psych suggested. Obviously everyone can trade prospects but it at least allows everyone to operate with a farm temporarily. Another option is banning draftee trading until the end of that season.

Max does bring up a good point in that it takes away an aspect of trading. At the same time, we hope that we would be balancing this out by adding more strategic parts to the league (tags and sign-and-trades).

And about the minimum IP/AB Psych, I think bumping up the number to 10 IP or 30 AB works.

I appreciate the participation so far. Keep it coming.

[Diamondbacks GM (Jason)]

1) I agree pretty much on this one

2) I do like the tags idea. I like just taking one players real life contract. Another question from this would be would our current (if a player signs before end of season/world series you get to keep him) then be eliminated. Requires some fine tuning, but i like this direction

3)Sign and trade, agree with psych, don't really get this at all. Especially with a limit on trading. If you have cap room why not bid the extra .1M and just try to sign the guy. I could see making it april 1, or 15th instead of may 1st, but i kinda like that you cant trade them right away. This just seems like a loop hole waiting to happen to me

4)Tanking - in a league this size it would be impossible to have all 30 teams compete. There are so many util and other players that platoon, it would be really tough for that to happen. We also can use our minor like real baseball (IE i cant call up almora right now, i have to wait for the real cubs to do it) I mean realistically if we have about 5 teams rebuilding before season even starts, then about midseason we should prolly have close to about 10-15 teams trying to rebuild. clearly this will never be perfect, but some people are just better at it. (Jimmy, Psych compared to old braves, others are good too.) No matter what rules we make, there will still be people that arent as good as others.

As i said before, to me having to field a team of 10 players is useless and does nothing, as the teams that did do that still lost 13-1 or so for the most part and still were no competition. Adding 10 fringe MLB players wont help anything.

Id say that the best way to prevent tanking is making sure that the players you have and our eligible need to be starting.
Then also Randomizing the first 4-6 Picks. or having a lottery. I wouldnt go much lower than the 6 worst teams.

I also think it may help, because we have some really bad teams, to give them compensation. Like the teams in the lottery (last 6 teams or so) also get a non tradeable comp round pick.
- related what surprises me is how many lower ranked teams have no picks
- also if you are close or under .300 for the year stop worrying about your team in 2013. start
looking towards next year

I think that stopping draft pick trading is a really bad idea

there you go, some related and some random facts mixed in, just my thoughts.

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

Jason, you're right that we would need to fine-tune the tags. I suppose that we could push back the November 1st date if we are to keep the World Series deadline. Give teams more time to decide on franchise tags.

Sign-and-trades are something that several owners would have told me to add to the league. I don't think they'd be too common, but the line of thinking would probably be this: two teams are in a bidding war, one team wants the player at a reduced price, the other team wants something as a return. I like it because it's strategic, and as I've said before, I typically support parts of the league that make owners think and plan.

Of course it's impossible for everyone to compete, but many of the non-competing teams have horrid, doormat MLB rosters, some of which don't look to be changing for the better in the foreseeable future. Like Alex said, lots of match ups are blowouts before they begin. With all that said, it's pretty difficult to come up with any solutions to it.

I like the comp round for the teams with the lowest records. MLB recently added a competitive balance round at the end of the first which would act similarly to this. You also mentioned how many low-tier teams lack in draft picks - maybe banning draft pick trading would help to avoid this.

[Deleted]

The tanking issue is the one that is going to be most difficult to deal with as a league. Having much more knowledge of the comings-and-goings of the American League, I can honestly say that the league as a whole is very realistic. The only outlier is Red Sox, and maybe Blue Jays. Everyone else has a normal winning percentage. The minimum player rule helps, but doesn't solve the true problem. We just have to trust the quality of our league and its owners. The owners make the league.
Alex and Michael may need to at times work for the best interest of the league and not make everyone absolutely happy by sending a strong message to owners that are "tanking." Kicking bad owners out of the league is okay. Yes it is not always popular, but you have to do these things if tanking is truly a major problem.

[Deleted]

I'm okay with 1 and i like option C in 2. 3 makes no sense we should just allow teams to be over the cap for up to 12 hours after a signing. No lottory this isn't the NBA but I'll go with majority. WE SHOULD NOT BAN DRAFT PICK TRADING!!!!!! it's part of this league.

[Marlins GM (Kevin)]

1) I like it.
2) I agree with psych. If we do franchise tags it takes away from FA. IF we do them it should only be a 1 year thing. If we turn this into a vote teams with players like Kershaw, Cano, and Ells who dont have contracts and could be lost will of course vote in favor of it. If we start this it should be after the 2014 season cuz I wouldnt have traded Cano if I could franchise him and pick up his new contract. I dont like restricted tags at all.
3)It doesnt bother me either way.
4)Tanking is a tough think. If you have to have a minimum amount of money in players could take a team with a bunch of players in arbitration years spend money on people they dont want if we set it too high. Lottery is a no go for me. No pick trading could be interesting but would kill a lot of trading. Consolation ladder I dont really care if we end up doing this.

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

I'm happy that everyone is in agreement about the cap increase. It's safe to say that that is official now.

It seems as though tags and anti-tanking are our two most discussed issues, as expected. I understand that people dislike the tag for the reason that it waters down free agency somewhat. To help prevent this, it would be 1. difficult to tag the players and 2. expensive to keep them. We suggested that the player would have to be owned for the entire season prior, but there is the option to push this back (to, say, January 1st of that year). In addition, if every team only had one expensive tag, they could wind up keeping a mediocre player. One franchise tag is probably the best option since it keeps free agency still interesting.

As for anti-tanking, the best compromise so far has been limiting obligations. It forces teams to utilize their money elsewhere or lose it altogether. Like Twins said, booting bad owners is not always popular, although I'm not sure that the owners are a problem as much as the system altogether. I suppose there's only so much that can be done.

[Deleted]

1) I like it, so people in the future dont get too crowded with money.

2) I like Option A, because although some people have a lot of FA, i think if we have more than 1 tag then it kinda kills the FA. Also, I don't like restricted tags because then no one wants to bid on them because they may not even end up even winning the guy.

3)So after the 48 hours then it goes to May 1st? I dont like that, I just think the May 1st deadline should just be moved forward to March-ish instead of a 48 hour window when the guy you may wanna trade with may not even be on for that time, or like Jason said, people sign someone to a ludicrous offer just so you can trade him right away. Not liking this idea

4)I agree there are a lot of tanking teams

Salary Cap Minimum- I really dont like this, as some people just simply have too many young guys and thus their team is very cheap

Draft Lotto- i honestly don't understand Draft Lotteries, I don't keep up with NBA very much, much less the draft, so someone explain to me how draft lotteries work, because "Like in the NBA, worse teams would have better odds at the #1 pick." shouldnt THE worst team already get #1 pick? why would anyone else get 1st?

Ban Draft Pick Trading - I dont really like it, although it could boost some farms, and people like Jimmy couldnt have every single pick year after year lol

Consolation Draft- This is probably my favorite, Psych was saying how it would suck for rebuilding teams, well thats what we are trying to fix, the rebuilding teams to stop getting 20 wins and 14-0 losses every week, it would make them compete rather than purposely shitting all over the place like everyone is doing. My vote is for this.

[Deleted]

Jun 20, 2013 19:44:14 GMT -5 @jordan0 said:

Consolation Draft- This is probably my favorite, Psych was saying how it would suck for rebuilding teams, well thats what we are trying to fix, the rebuilding teams to stop getting 20 wins and 14-0 losses every week, it would make them compete rather than purposely shitting all over the place like everyone is doing. My vote is for this.

Doesn't matter to me really since ill be the one getting to pick early if I don't make playoffs.BUT if there really is a concern about the "tanking" teams this doesn't really help them IMPROVE. So ill ask jordan how does a bad team getting a worse pick help them?

[Deleted]

Jun 20, 2013 20:30:16 GMT -5 @psychward said:

Jun 20, 2013 19:44:14 GMT -5 @jordan0 said:

Consolation Draft- This is probably my favorite, Psych was saying how it would suck for rebuilding teams, well thats what we are trying to fix, the rebuilding teams to stop getting 20 wins and 14-0 losses every week, it would make them compete rather than purposely shitting all over the place like everyone is doing. My vote is for this.

Doesn't matter to me really since ill be the one getting to pick early if I don't make playoffs.BUT if there really is a concern about the "tanking" teams this doesn't really help them IMPROVE. So ill ask jordan how does a bad team getting a worse pick help them?

Alright, you do have a point there, teams like Braves and/or Astros are essentially fucked because they dont have many trade pieces nor good players nor cap. 

Honestly there's no GREAT way to stop tanking, its gonna happen, people were talking about in chat about a board of 11 people that would vote out bad/tanking owners, i like that, have a team of people who evaluated a way someone is running the team and vote them out if we have a prospective owner and they are really doing that bad, dont we want good owners in this league? even if they may be active or chat alot, it doesnt make them a great owner. 

[Deleted]

1. I agree
2. I like the restricted tags, would vote for 2 per year, and then the blind bid and match. I would frankly prefer some sort of extension system instead of FA system, but it is what it is.
3. Love the sign and trade, and to people who don't understand. It would let a team that has cap sign a player, then send him away and possibly pay some of his newly signed contract so that he can fit on the new team cap wise and get a preffered peice back.
4. BOOOO. The salary cap minimum is a pretty bad idea imo, I like the current roster minimum more. Because is 2 years I will have a full roster that may be only 10M...I don't think the lottery is a good idea either, why not just do it how the MLB does. I like the attempt at the draft pick trading...But its just not realistic the picks are traded all the time and it keeps trading very active which in turn keeps the league very active. Don't like consolation bracket for amateur draft at all...I like it for the Rule 5 since thats random right now.

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

It looks like what we can do with tanking is limit. We can make some changes but for the most part we have to find ways to prevent/exploit bad ownership.

[Diamondbacks GM (Jason)]

I dont get the big deal with tanking. I mean to me there is tanking (sitting out players that are in MLB) and there is rebuilding and not having anyone or very few people in MLB.

To me the first one is tanking, to fix it if you have MLB they must be in your lineup.

I know people are worried about winning 14-0 or what not, but really if braves added 10, 20 , 30 however many FAs to his team they would prolly still lose 14-0 maybe 13-1. In a league this size there just has to be teams that have no one. Really to keep it competitive there should not be restrictions against these teams, instead we need to help make them competitive.

[White Sox GM (Michael)]

Well, Jason, I like the comp round idea. More along those lines could work.

[Deleted]

im good with whatever. But the only thing i wanna chime in about is that nomatter what, i dont think blind bidding should be used. It causes people to either severely overbid as well as get someone who deserves way more, for really cheap (because others thought they had a good bid on another player). I think its just silly