by PAULMINICUCCI » Tue Jan 17, 2006 12:17 pm
It is interesting to see the responses to this issue, one seems to be this is so unfortunate that it is causing distress to the whole league and somethng should be done to stop it; one is join a private league (this is); another is you can't stop people from doing stupid things- just play through it; while a fourth is "look take advantage of this guy and join his division, use whatever as a competitive advantage."
I generally subscribe to the "It's America, people have a right to be stupid" theory. However, I don't think this falls into that category. I do not think this is someone being "stupid" i.e. he does not realize what he is doing. I think he does. For one he offered some very strange trades to many players and got irritated when I didn't want to trade my best performing players (and man are they few here) for a mangerie of crap.
So, I think the purpose of this "tanking" is misery loves company. If I cannot enjoy this game neither can you.
I will repeat some things and then shut up.
1. This isn't an ace with a 1.59 mil salary. I have seen teams do passably well with that in fact, this is every player is at the minimum and $67 million in salary unspent if memory serves me correctly.
2. I have looked at the record book and been in 14 leagues or so, no one has listed a team with more than 109 losses, probably there is one, but this guy could lose 130. I have never seen a team that lost more than 14 games in a row. I think this guy had 45 in a row.
3. The league could do some things, it could require a minimum expenditure of $5 million for the prescribed 5 starting pitchers. It could simply code that in and say "sorry you must have pitchers totaling no less than 5 million." I have never seen a team where that wasn't true.
4. This is like collusion in a sense where an owner is not playing but manipulating the game. The league could have a rule that says in a private league whenever 11 teams feel that unsportsmanlike conduct is manifest that the league steps in and takes over.
As I mentioned I play this jerk the least of anyone (unbalanced schedule) and I played him three times (he beat me twice) before the collapse, so in that sense it is a bad deal personally, but I would not complain if it was only my misfortune.
5. Finally, I think the league should either a. stop this guy from playing again or b. allow players in a private league to deny him entry.
In the end I think we all will have to just play through it and make the best of it.