05-07-2012, 08:18 PM
With the heated discussion from last night, let's try to lay out some logical and fair rules for tanking. This league preaches realism and frowns upon exploits of Mogul yet we've allowed teams to tank, build up a big money supply, and then hit the ground running. Realistically this won't happen. We don't have to answer to fans, media, owners, etc...
Now before we get into a possible rule discussion, there's no need for a pissing match of who did what in the past. There's no reason to point the finger at anyone. The purpose is to hold teams to be more accountable for playing within the spirit of the game.
I will NEVER support a cut and dry tanking win/loss policy. Factors like division strength, injuries, random drops, and under performances can hurt a team's chances. In addition to those factors I would also look at roster management and FA activity. Roster management would include both the major and minor leagues. A team having only one catcher on the MLB roster, playing crummy low 70s when much better options are readily available, or sitting on MLB ready prospects in the minors.
And yes I get some teams will want to hold off on calling up a prospect so that he has a chance at the ROY next season. Another reason I don't like a cut and dry policy is because once a team reaches the win limit, they can then start tanking and it doesn't really solve the problem.
What I propose, first is to have a review committee. This can be made up of admins, mods, or other veteran GMs. It was said yesterday that someone thought it should only be admins, but there also needs to be a checks and balances on the admins.
With the review committee no team would be automatically labeled as tanking. The win total would certainly be a factor, but as mentioned in the third paragraph it could be deemed that injuries, rating drops, poor play, etc... is the reason for your team falling under the tanking line and you might be off the hook.
With different strengths of divisions win totals can't be looked at as the same from team to team. If you're rebuilding in a division that has three 100 win teams then naturally your win total will be lower. But that same team should win more games if the rest of the division only has one team above 90 wins. Thus I think the following formula works well:
Your Wins - ( [81 - D] / t) = Real Wins
D = Average wins of remaining teams in division
t = Number of other teams in division
81 wins would make a .500 Win%, so this looks at your division strength. It looks at on average how many games are the other teams in the division above or under 81 wins. The end result is giving you your real wins after strength of division.
What is a good number for the tanking line? Personally I think 55 wins is good as it would require teams to basically win one-third of their games. 50 wins seems like it's too low and 60 wins seems too high. Since if there's gonna be 100 win teams there should naturally be some 100 loss teams as total MLB wins have to match total MLB losses.
Lastly I think penalties should be open-ended. A first time offender shouldn't be punished as much as a repeat offender and whatever sends the message to the individual GM would be best. For most it'll mean docking draft picks, but could mean docking WB spots, or cash fines as well.
Now before we get into a possible rule discussion, there's no need for a pissing match of who did what in the past. There's no reason to point the finger at anyone. The purpose is to hold teams to be more accountable for playing within the spirit of the game.
I will NEVER support a cut and dry tanking win/loss policy. Factors like division strength, injuries, random drops, and under performances can hurt a team's chances. In addition to those factors I would also look at roster management and FA activity. Roster management would include both the major and minor leagues. A team having only one catcher on the MLB roster, playing crummy low 70s when much better options are readily available, or sitting on MLB ready prospects in the minors.
And yes I get some teams will want to hold off on calling up a prospect so that he has a chance at the ROY next season. Another reason I don't like a cut and dry policy is because once a team reaches the win limit, they can then start tanking and it doesn't really solve the problem.
What I propose, first is to have a review committee. This can be made up of admins, mods, or other veteran GMs. It was said yesterday that someone thought it should only be admins, but there also needs to be a checks and balances on the admins.
With the review committee no team would be automatically labeled as tanking. The win total would certainly be a factor, but as mentioned in the third paragraph it could be deemed that injuries, rating drops, poor play, etc... is the reason for your team falling under the tanking line and you might be off the hook.
With different strengths of divisions win totals can't be looked at as the same from team to team. If you're rebuilding in a division that has three 100 win teams then naturally your win total will be lower. But that same team should win more games if the rest of the division only has one team above 90 wins. Thus I think the following formula works well:
Your Wins - ( [81 - D] / t) = Real Wins
D = Average wins of remaining teams in division
t = Number of other teams in division
81 wins would make a .500 Win%, so this looks at your division strength. It looks at on average how many games are the other teams in the division above or under 81 wins. The end result is giving you your real wins after strength of division.
What is a good number for the tanking line? Personally I think 55 wins is good as it would require teams to basically win one-third of their games. 50 wins seems like it's too low and 60 wins seems too high. Since if there's gonna be 100 win teams there should naturally be some 100 loss teams as total MLB wins have to match total MLB losses.
Lastly I think penalties should be open-ended. A first time offender shouldn't be punished as much as a repeat offender and whatever sends the message to the individual GM would be best. For most it'll mean docking draft picks, but could mean docking WB spots, or cash fines as well.
Cleveland Record: 5631-4946 (.532) [2054-2071, 2083-2104, 2110-2135]
AL Post: 16 (ALC), 11 (WC) - ALDS Win: 12 - ALCS Champ: 7 - WS Champ: 4
ALW: Mariners + Angels Record: 1072-864 (.554) [2042-2048, 2105-2110]
AL Post: 3 (ALW), 4 (WC) - ALDS Win: 3 - ALCS Champ: 1 - WS Champ: 1
NLW: Rockies + Padres Record: 3230-2753 (.540) [2017-2042, 2072-2082]
NL Post: 18 (NLW), 4 (WC) - NLDS Win: 7 - NLCS Champ: 4 - WS Champ: 0