MiLB misunderstanding?

[Admin]

when we assign years to minors, say 3yrs, and they dont attain major league status after 3 yrs, even tho they may have been signed to play in our game, they are lost to MiLB free agency.
is that clear to everyone? any questions about it?
after the season i will subtract 1 yr from all minor guys. those getting to 0 are lost, even tho they may have a salary.

[Minnesota Twins]

It seems like if you sign them to a contract then you have them signed to your team and they shouldn't be taken off of their team. Maybe that's just me tho...

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

if i have a guy under major league contract, what does it matter if he runs out of minor league years? seems like the guy should 'honor the contract'.

[Admin]

even with a salary they are not considered major leaguers. why assign years if you can skirt around it so easily.
so maybe then you cant sign a player until he attains major league status.

[Admin]

the only thing that makes a major leaguer A major leaguer is 150 ab's or 50ip. thats all. you can sign him to a contract but he can still be placed in the minors, as our rules state. thats still considered a minor leaguer.

while we're at it, anything else? lets do it now.

both pitt and nyy were working under different assumptions. nyy wouldnt have traded jennings without me telling him about my interpretation of the rule. pitt wouldnt have traded for him too.
work it out boys or i will null the trade until we are all on the same page.

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

i dont think anybody is trying to skirt around anything. i was just intending to play according to a very defensible interpretation of the rules. besides, i dont think it is as painless as you imply. if a guy runs out of minor league years and you sign him to a major league contract, then you are using a roster spot and salary. that's not a small thing (especially the roster spot. that's very valuable real estate.)

i dont have too much of a problem if we null the trade. but i dont think i like the rule as you are interpreting it and i think if other people would speak up, they might agree with me. or maybe not. if not, then cool beans. but if so, maybe we can change the rule (even if we null this trade)?

i mean, what if, say carlos santana (or any huge rookie) had run out of minor league years and then got hurt just before he reached 150 at bats. we would have had a screaming match in here about the interpretation of the rules. im glad we discovered the issue now instead of after something like that!

some closers take almost the whole year to pitch 50 innings. does it seem right that someone could get almost a full season worth of stats out of a closer and then lose him because his years ran out and he got hurt at 48 innings? it doesnt seem right to me that i could lose someone who is signed to a contract! in major league baseball, you have 6 years to put a guy on your major league roster before he becomes a minor league free agent. you dont have to play him...just put him on your roster. should be the same thing in our league maybe?

id like to know what other people think. ,if other people like the commish's interpretation, then im fine with it even if i dont like it. but if nobody likes the rule that way, then maybe we can change the interpretation. regardless of who gets jennings (really, im not going to be that upset if i get my 2 time cy young award winning, NL strikeout leader back!), i think my interpretation is more fun for the league.

[torontobluejays]

How about this as a solution. If the minor leaguer is signed to a contract and runs out of years, the owner has the option to keep him on his major league roster for the length of the contract or loose him. Under the current rule, the owner would be penalized twice. First, he looses the player, second the salary assigned to the player would still be on the books. If we allow the owner to keep the player on his major league roster, he has to think about using a roster spot for someone who may not play. The player cannot be put on the DL, but could be put on the waiver list.

[Deleted]

The commissioner does not have an "interpretation" of the rule - after all he wrote it. Therefore he has the definition of what the rule means. I have always operated under that definition and have not had any problem with it because I always padded the number of years allocated to each of my minor leaguers in case of injury, etc. I think it is unfortunate that it has been misinterpreted, but if questions had been asked about what as now perceived by some as gray area the whole situation would have been avoided. To change the rule now does a disservice to those of us who have been operating under the correct definition of the rule.

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

To be honest, I didn't think it was a gray area. I would never think to ask the question "If I have a player under contract, can he be taken away from me before the contract ends?" You can't fairly say it is my fault for not clarifying a gray area. Signing and keeping Jennings is squarely within the rules as they are written.

Of course the commish makes the final decision...and his decisions are final. I won't disagree with that! Of course his rulings have to be consistent with the rules as written, and they always have been.

[Deleted]

I said you NOW see it as a gray area. If a minor leaguer reaches 0 years without becoming a major leaguer you lose him, the fact that you signed him to a major league contract is immaterial. What else could the years assigned to minor leaguers mean? No where does it say or even suggest that you have until then to sign them to major league contracts.

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

Frankly, I don't really see it as a gray area. If I sign someone to my major league roster, he is now on my major league team and under my major league contract.

What else could the minor league years mean? The minor league years could mean the number of years you have before you have to sign him to a major league contract, or else you lose him.

Again, I will defer to the commish and the league. I just want to get my full viewpoint out there.

[Deleted]

FWIW, I was also under the assumption that you were allowed to sign a guy (let's say Bowden who's years are up) to a major league contract in order to keep him.

[newyorkyankees]

When I accepted the trade offer in question I did so solely based on my total misinterpretation of the rules despite them being explained to me. I knew that the major leagues who had reached their max AB's/IP needed to be promoted at the end of the year, traded or lost. Those players all had 0's. Not sure what any were at prior to them reaching their quota's. My misinterpretation came for the players with a 1 by their names. I was made aware I would lose them but thought I had till the end of the season to do something with them. Partly that is why I promoted Neil Walker when I did-he had a 1 by his name but had reached his minor league max AB's so I mistakenly thought he as opposed to the others(Jackson, Tabata, Brignac, Sanchez) needed to be promoted or lost now while the others could wait till i declare my 25 man roster shortly after the season. I would like to find some way to make the trade work as I did not intentionally accept under false pretenses, just a misinterpretation of the rules due to my newness to the league.

[Admin]

a minor guy with a contract is still a minor guy. guess i was horribly mistaken about the simplicity of the rule. you draft a player, assign years, and if he isnt a major leaguer by that time you lose him. because our league is predicated on player movement, what else could it mean? he's out of years and i can still keep him? a minor guy with a contract is still a minor guy. nobody complains about not having to waste a roster space at the end of the season because a minor has a salary. he goes right back to the minors. everybody then accepts the fact that he's still considered a minor. a minor guy with a contract is still a minor guy. sorry for any confusion but lets all say it together,
a minor guy with a contract is still a minor guy.

[Deleted]

my thoughts are, any minor leaguers with expiring contracts can be signed to a major league contract at any time (end of season) to avoid having to cut or release them. I was even thinking with zero AB & zero IP. they are currently property of the team that has them on their minors and can be done with as we please. signing a player to your MLB roster takes a roster spot with salary cap implacations and we've discussed all possiblities such as injuries, poor play (late bloomers) to protect ourselves and let's not forget we all have some 17 or 18 year olds in our minors that are really good players whom we don't what to give up on. not all of them will hit by the age of 22/23.

but...

searching back through last years minor leaguers cuts i was almost certain someone signed an expiring minor leaguer to a contract. i'm not sure but was in SD and the player could be mat gamel, he was signed to a 5 years, $600,000 contract and the years started in 2010 but only went until 2014, the 2010 year was worth more than the other 3, mistake or legit sign. can anyone confirm.

but...

as i was looking back through old posts, i found a post by the admin answering a question.

doincashmansjob.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=milbc&action=display&thread=2359

Re: Announcement
« Reply #4 on Dec 12, 2009, 11:46am »

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they have 1 year remaining, the 2010 season. if they dont become 'major leaguers' by the end of next year, they become minor fa's.

so i guess the real question is what is a 'major leaguers' considered in this league. a player who has 150 AB & 50 IP or a player with a signed contract.

i like the idea of holding onto an investment, players have values, jennings would have had no value over the final month of the season. i would like to see the rule interpreted like this.

as for the trade.... if i traded a player due to a misunderstanding, i would like to have the oppurnity to have is nulled but if the other party disagreed, a trade is a trade.

i would really have hated to lose a player like buster posey to an AB, injury, poor play.