Why?
As we’ve expanded, rebuilding has become a more difficult process that can take years. As a result, a large portion of the league enters each season without intending to compete for a playoff spot. This has caused frustration for both competing and rebuilding owners.
The end result of all this was the tanking that took place last season, which our current rules were not able to stop.
GOALS
- Address rules that have resulted in the league being largely split into two groups of perennial contenders and constant rebuilders.
- Maintain the general structure as a deep-keeper, but not quite dynasty league.
- Eliminate incentives for tanking.
Proposal:
REPLACE DRAFT WITH AUCTION, USE POOL OF GRUNDLEBUCK$ FOR KEEPERS AND DRAFT
Each team would start with a pool of Grundlebuck$ for keepers and an auction draft.
Teams use their Grundlebuck$ to buy keeper slots. The first 4 are free, each one beyond that escalates in value; #5 costs $10, #6 $12, and so on.
Your first 4 farm keepers are also free. They are a fixed cost of $4 after that.
You can keep as many or as few players as you want within your budget. The money left over becomes your budget for the auction draft. At the auction you would bid against other owners for the players you want. Minimum bid is $1.
BENEFITS
- Tanking incentive eliminated — draft order/budget not determined by standings.
- Should enable quicker rebuilds. Teams with fewer keeper-quality MLB players could use larger auction budget to improve roster instead of having to trade draft picks to contenders.
- More freedom to build your team. Use your Grundlebuck$ for more slots to keep your team together or toss a few guys back and use your larger auction budget to outbid everyone for your favorite targets.
How it works
DOWNLOAD TEAM BUDGET CALCULATOR
$200
– $106
= $94
BASE BUDGET
(ALL TEAMS)
SAMPLE KEEPER COSTS
BUDGET FOR AUCTION DRAFT
MLB KEEPERS
K01 Free Darryl Strawberry
K02 Free Ken Griffey Jr.
K03 Free Roger Clemens
K04 Free Wade Boggs
K05 $10 Jose Canseco
K06 $12 Ozzie Smith
K07 $14 Don Mattingly
K08 $16 Steve Sax
K09 $18 Mike Scoscia
K10 $20 Lenny
NOTES
- MLB keeper slots 1-4 are free,
keeper slots after #4 are $2 x slot number
(#5 x $2 = $10, #16 x $2 = $32, etc.) - Farm keeper slots 1-4 are free, $4 flat cost after
- $200 is base budget, money can be traded
- Budget is only limit on number of keepers
FARM KEEPERS
F01 Free Domonic Brown
F02 Free Dustin Ackley
F03 Free Andy Laroche
F04 Free Danny Hultzen
F05 $4 Jesus Montero
F06 $4 Bubba Starling
F07 $4 Kyle Drabek
F08 $4 Travis Snider
Traded picks
CONVERSION TO GRUNDLEBUCK$
If we vote to approve this proposal, all traded picks would be converted to Grundlebuck$.
- If you have extra picks, you would add the value of your acquired picks to your base draft pool. Picks traded away would be subtracted.
- 2018 values are per pick, 2019 and beyond by round, since standings were not known at time of trades.
Click here for draft pick to Grundlebuck$ conversion values and current draft pools.
Below is a quick rundown of how pick value was determined.
1. Calculate equivalent value of prior draft pools:
$200 - $152 = $48
team budget
cost of 12 MLB & 8 Farm Keepers
draft pool
(per team)
$48 x 15 = $720
draft pool
(per team)
teams
total value of all picks
2. Determine value of each pick:
Pick value was calculated by averaging the point totals above replacement of the best player available at each draft spot from 2013-2016. Calculation for pick 1.1:
635 / 21585.9 = 2.9%
best player available PTS
Total pts of available players
percentage of draft pt value
2.9% x $720 = $21
percentage of draft pt value
total value of all picks
Draft pick value (rounded)
Related proposals
Farm Eligibility (only if draft/keeper proposal passes)
Since there would only be budget based limits on keepers, it has been proposed that farm eligibility be changed to MLB rookie limits – 130 AB/50 IP, to prevent MLB players being kept for $0-$4. Age and performance limits would no longer be necessary. This should increase quality of players available at auction. If approved would start after 2018 draft, currently eligible players could be kept as farm keepers.
Offseason Free Agency
Closing offseason free agency has been proposed. Sleepers and players whose value jumps are often claimed prior to the draft, this would require them to go through the draft or auction.
First Year Player Draft
One issue identified as preventing quicker rebuilds is the need to use high picks on new MLB draftees, who are among the riskiest players. Separating from the main draft would allow rebuilding teams to acquire them without using high picks. Proposal is for 1-2 rounds for non-playoff teams, spots determined by lottery. If auction is approved, this may not be needed.
Farm Player Transaction Periods
Limiting farm transactions to a specific weekly or monthly period has been proposed. We would either use standings based waivers or a separate FAAB system. The idea being that most value jumps occur in-season when ranking updates are released and acquisitions shouldn't be based on who can get to the site first because they have the most down time at work.
Other options considered
Many options were considered before arriving at this proposal, but abandoned because most felt they did not adequately address one or more issues raised.
Draft Lottery System
A draft lottery was under consideration and may still be an adequate fall back option, but was not supported for the following reasons:
- Tanking incentive still exists in any lottery with odds weighted to bad teams.
- Going to a lottery with equal odds or reverse odds was seen as punishing bad teams even if they did not tank. May actually hurt ability to rebuild.
Increase/Decrease Keepers
Full dynasty and returning to a lower number of keepers were considered. These did not really address tanking and some felt moving in either direction would only marginally affect competitiveness. Overall owners favored a league with more keepers, but wanted to improve rebuilding ability.
Increasing Dues or Adding Penalites
All owners stated that money was not a factor in their decision making.
Adding a 6th Playoff Team
Could still be considered, would only marginally address competitiveness issues. Playoff structure would need modification.
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