Rule change proposed for future years

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

Was thinking about the problem of people cutting end of contract players and them going into the blind bid process (thus skipping free agent period.) I think it is desirable to have as many players going to the FA period as possible. Not everyone has money in season for blind bids.

Anyway...came up with the following proposal. Tell me what you think.

Suggestion for a rule change...If you lose a high priced Free Agent, you get a supplemental draft pick in the next year's entry draft.

Reasons why we might like this rule:
1. It would help mitigate the 'salary dumping' of lower teams to higher teams later in the year.
2. It would reduce the 'cut and resign end of contract guys' problem.
3. It's similar to the real life MLB rule.

How would it work?
I see creating 2 classes of players...Players making $10m or more are Class A. Players making between $5m and $10m are Class B. (No draft pick considerations for players making less than $5m.

If you lose a Class A free agent, you get a supplemental pick that would come between the 1st and 2nd round. The supplemental pick order would be based on the salary of the player lost (highest paid lost player is first pick and so on).

If you lose a Class B free agent, you get a supplemental pick after the 2nd round. Again the order is according to the salary of the player lost.

I'm thinking supplemental picks cannot be traded. Use it or lose it.

[Deleted]

I am not taking aim at you directly Pitt, but with this change, you stand to gain 4 picks. Two first rounders (Hanley and Hamels) and two second rounders (Street and Ichiro).

I would also stand to gain a pick from Jeter but given how he is playing, isn't a pick better than him to begin with? With that said, I do agree that something should be done.

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

obviously....i would not implement this change until THE FUTURE. (ie...everyone would have a chance to prepare equally...not before 2013 draft.)

never make a major rule change that affects the current year. didnt think i'd have to explain that.

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

oh....and the $$$ limits were just illustrations. and im guessing we'd cap the number of pick you could receive.

[Deleted]

my opinion is i dont think its necessary.
the 'salary dumping' is part of the game. this year we have a wide open eastern division with 4 teams vying for 1st place. trading to improve is part of it.
i dont see a problem with 'cut and resign'. cant recall anyone trying to do that this year. nothing will get thru with the 4 eastern teams along with minn and milw waiting to pounce.

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

the only problem i have with cut and resign is that it rewards teams who are tanking salary in the current season. the teams trying to win are typically tight on the cap and cant bid on high priced blind bid guys.

its not a HUGE problem in my opinion. id just like to see all those end of contract guys go into free agency rather than recycling among the lower cap teams.

[torontobluejays]

I don't like the supplemental pick system for losing free agents. If you don't want to resign your players, that is your choice. The salary cap makes the league competitive because it forces us to make choices of who to keep and not keep.

As for the dumping of high price free agents and resigning them much cheaper, one way to stop that is to require whoever wants the player to assume the contract for either the full value of the contract or the 1/2 value credit that the team cutting him gets. This would greatly reduce the dump and resign practice. Personally, I have not seen the practice abused and don't see the need to change things.

[Deleted]

Supplemental picks would not make any difference unless the maximum # of minor league years (currently 75) is increased or eliminated, or we allow teams to drop an unlimited number of minor leaguers. We dropped 2 rounds out of each draft because too many teams were maxed out on their minor league years and are talking about limiting the # of minor league drops to be allowed. Now we would be adding more players back into the draft. Seems contradictory to me.

[detroittigers]

"This year we have a wide open eastern division with 4 teams vying for 1st place. trading to improve is part of it."

Dear White Sox,

I would like to state for the record I am still vying for first place and am actually nine points closer to first place than you are. If you'd like to give up and hand over your players, that'll be fine.

Sincerely,

the Tigers.

[Deleted]

i offer my sincere apology to the mighty tigers, yankees, and red sox. certainly didnt mean anybody was 'tanking' or not playing hard.
i believe i will keep my collection of slugs(known as a roster) for the time being. feel free to offer any trade proposals.
chi

[newyorkyankees]

Jun 5, 2011 21:32:00 GMT -5 @chicago said:

i offer my sincere apology to the mighty tigers, yankees, and red sox. certainly didnt mean anybody was 'tanking' or not playing hard.
i believe i will keep my collection of slugs(known as a roster) for the time being. feel free to offer any trade proposals.
chi

No worries on my end. Never have "tanked" in the past. Made moves for the future, of course but my definition of tanking is more where a team just doesn't really do anything at all. Not starting pitchers, or playing position players(in this league since we have to slot someone in every spot on offense, it is harder), in other leagues I have seen teams play their scrubs while the better players ride the pine. That in my mind is more akin to tanking. I go with the hotter players as anyone would.

The trading away of players on expiring contracts mirrors real life in all sports and since we are a bidding league in terms of contracts we are artificially creating the contracts we have. So we should have to deal with whatever happens with that player.

If the player sucks we release them and eat the contract. If they go into FA we can bid for them next season. Awarding of supplementary picks does kind of contradict the shortening of the draft so as not to completely max out our minor league years.

Also I think teams will now make less moves if they know if they just hang onto a high priced player till the end of the season they will automatically receive some compensation. Am I wrong but if a player goes into FA in real life baseball and is signed somewhere else then you lose him, the other team doesn't send something over to you for signed your FA player.

I'm fine with whatever is decided and am still relatively new here so don't know all that has gone on in the past, but I'll just deal with whatever hand I'm dealt. I'll win, or suck or fall somewhere in between and the sun will rise and the sun will set. Just my 2 cents.

[Minnesota Twins]

I don't think any supplemental is necessary. If someone wants to try to cut a player to sneak a multi-year deal I say let them try. Our league is active enough to stop this from happening IMO

[Deleted]

I don't like the idea of a supplemental draft pick. It takes away from the draft and number of years on minor leaguers. Plus, you reward someone who signs guys for 1 year at 10million per year. If anything, maybe allow a franchise player that you can resign for 1 year at an average of the top 5 at his position.