are we...

[Admin]

going to penalize teams who dont come close to the innings limit of 1450?

......2013....2012
Pit...  +3.....+22
Phi.. -120....-29
KCR.... -3...-126
NYY... -6....-143
Min.. -46.....-93
Tor.. -31.....-31
SDP.. -37......-7
Bos. -135...-272
Tex.. -98...-218
Chi... -45....+22
Mil.. -201...-187
LAD.. -77...-102
Bal.. -212...-178
Det. -266....-219

[Admin]

we could start the penalty at -100 innings. very easy to get below that point.
the following looks at current rosters and how many starting pitchers on each
5-x
6-xxxxx
7-xxxxxx
8-
9-xx
only 1 team in the league has 5 SP's on their roster. all others have at least 6.

[Minnesota Twins]

What would the penalty be?

[torontobluejays]

Why do we need to penalize teams for not utlizing innings? They are only hurting themselves.

[Admin]

we had a short discussion last september about teams not playing their best players thru-out the season. please insert the 'T' word here for a better draft position.
this is about playing your best offense and pitching(i would like to see some defense but thats another thread)
you old timers should remember that we originally had only 1200 ip's to play with. all wanted the max and now we have it. ya gotta use it.

[Minnesota Twins]

Same reason we require a valid lineup for batters. To prevent tanking i suppose.

[torontobluejays]

And what prevents someone from picking up terrible pitchers and using them. They reach the same result of tanking and reaching the innings. There are ways around any rule we set up to prevent tanking.

[Admin]

very true tor but at least they would have to spend some money.

something has to be done. there needs to be a penalty waiting for someone who doesnt play a player like, oh, say.......matt carpenter for the last 1-2 months of the season.
there is no reason to be almost 300 innings short...or give me a good reason.

[torontobluejays]

spending $325k is not much to spend to tank.

[Deleted]

Why not limit teams to 162 total games started by SPs like we do each position player? After all SP is just one position as is 1B or SS.

[torontobluejays]

Why does something have to be done? This is not a problem. The teams that have done that, if intentional, have not succeeded in turning their draft picks into winning teams. In the 5 years that I have been in this league, only 3 teams have won the championship. Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Toronto (me) are consistently near the top of the standings and each have one the championship (I do note that Baltimore did have a bad year last year). Tanking seasons to get draft picks has not helped anyone in this league. Prospects are such a gamble. Those who do the best research get the best picks. I regret to have to admit that the team that has had the best use of draft picks is Pittsburgh. He is consistently near the top of the standings (winning 3 times) and has traded his way to get players. If I remember right, he traded to get the pick to get Strasburg.

If someone wants to use tanking as a way of planning for the future, let them. If someone wants to mortgage future seasons for championships this season, let them do what Pittsburgh did. It is each owners decision how they want to build their franchise. It is not cheating, it is strategy. If we want to mandate teams use so many innings in a season, why not mandate that each team spend a mantain a minimum salary of $80m during the season so that everyone has a fair chance to pick up Tanaka when he hits 50 innings. I am sure the owners clearing space to get him would not like such a rule. This is all about strategy and as history has proven in this league, tanking does not work.

[ex-Pittsburgh Pirates]

I agree with much of what Blue Jays said. But I also see White Sox point of view. OF course, someone will just pick up terrible pitchers and start them. I think it is more important to make teams use their best players. I have more of a problem with a team that never starts their ace pitcher down the stretch than a team that falls 200 IP short. Maybe that's hypocritical. I don't know.

Anyway, I'd support putting a smallish penalty on someone who doesn't use their innings...but I'd make the limit very attainable. Something like 1250 IP. And the penalty be like $5m off next years cap. But I'm ok with leaving it as it is and relying on everyone's eagle eyes (and the commish's discretion) to clamp down on tanking.

[Minnesota Twins]

ok Tor has convinced me. I don't think we need to do anything.

[Deleted]

Not necessary.

[Deleted]

This is a good observation by the admin.

In 2 years, 14 teams, only 3 passed the max innings, 4 others team were under -30. Maybe the max innings are too high?

Although I would like to see more teams closer to being under 100 innings, it's just not worth picking up crapping mop up pitchers. Innings only guarentee you strikeouts.

I don't think anyone is tanking or else they would pick up this crap pitchers and chewing up innings.

Sometimes I miss a start because of a day game and I'm at work and can't make the switch before the game starts. This happened a few times.

Pitts does well in this league because he puts in time and effort. I just hope he puts the same into his other leagues.

With all that said, I wouldn't change anything but would keep an eye on the innings pitched every year and revisit this again