Major League Keeper League

[Madigan33]

How would this be considered tanking if you traded these 2 to a contender for better players in the future???

That was my point. "tanking" could take on a bunch of different meanings. I think it is best to just leave it alone and expect everyone to play fair. I thought it was strange he dropped Sizemore, but I don't have a problem with it.

[bvargus]

As a relative newbie to the SN website playing in my first keeper league, I made a couple of mistakes early, but this move with Sizemore was not a mistake. I don't know why other people are denying what occurred here, when the person responsible isn't even denying it himself, just as he did not respond when it was questioned in an email quite awhile back. I applaud Smitty for having the guts to raise the issue and stay with it. At the same time, as Ray said, there was no rule against it. So we need to make one, and move on and forget aobut it.
As a longtime Commissioner in a face-to-face league, I know that someone will always find ways around any rule you make, but you have to start somewhere. (Personal pledges don't cut it, only hard and fast rules.)
I like the 10% rule but don't have enough experience to know if it will make a difference and how we would enforce it? If we do a lottery (and there's conflicting testimony so far on whether that is feasible) it should be for non-playoff teams only, as WP suggested.

[bvargus]

On second thought--a 10% rule would prevent those aforementioned trades for prospects when teams are out of it--which, by the way, is not at all the same as tanking.
So I'm in favor of a lottery for non-playoff teams as a way to give them a chance to improve without giving incentive to tank.

[Rally Sally]

If there is an official vote on a lotto, I would vote yes. It would have to exclude the playoff teams though; I earned that 12th pick!

Regardless, I can say that I will always field the strongest team that I can, although I doubt it will be enough next year. Damn you people blessed with foresight! :) But if playing all out means that I lose out on a draft position to someone who tanked, so be it. That would just make this league more of a challenge.

[bvargus]

Back to the baseball at hand for a moment. I can't figure out how I can lose Game One because a bases loaded wild pitch scores TWO runs--including the tying run--when my pitcher, Papelbon, is a WP-0. I don't understand what goes on in this computer game.

[bvargus]

But that's the whole point, isn't it? Make the playoffs, get a chance to win it all. Miss the playoffs, be part of the lottery, which provides a chance to get better, but no guarantee of where you'll pick.
It works for the NBA. Granted, the Celtics tried to tank at the end of the season a couple of years ago. But they got burned because they didn't draw any of the three ping pong balls, which left them drafting fourth despite having the worst record.

[thisisray]

Thanks Aray. From what most people have been saying they have no problem with the move. I think we can all get over it now and have the draft in the order it is without a lottery. This draft is much different than the other ones because of the player pool. I think we will be fine from here on out.

The rosters and draft orders will come out shortly after the season ends. Good luck to billyv and RallySally in the Championship. I'm rooting for my division mate RallySally to take it down :D

[TefJ]

I think, like Aray and Ray, that it's time to move on. If you look at the draft position, the only teams behind Ray are those who, going into the last day, had a legitimate shot at the playoffs. I also think that Nythawk and others are right when they say that this problem won't be as big in the future. Since it wasn't a very big problem this year, and likely won't even exist in the future, I say let's just leave it as is.

It was a great season, though, and a fun playoffs for my team. In game 3, we were down 2-0 in the series, 4-1 in the game, 1 out, with A-Rod up. Had this been real life, you could pretty much pencil in a groundball A. Being as it's strato, A-Rod hits a walk off grand slam. We went on to win game 4, but fell short in game 5.

Needless to say, I was quite surprised. Usually, in my experience, when one team is vastly superior, playing an inferior foe, the crappier team almost always wins.....Not this time. Oh well, there's always next year.