The other reason it's good to protect an expansion era team is that is really when free agency began to boom, so you would see guys that played for multiple teams. In the deadball era, pretty much every guy played for just one team, so you don't have to worry about protecting them because no one else can have them.
I totally agree that these rules are very tough. The Giants have :shock: six S9* worth at least $9M, and I don't think I'll be able to use any of them because that eats up too much salary. Forget about Willie Mays, too, at 19% of my allotted salary. :cry: I guess we're all going to be suffering out there, except for maybe the Pirates and the Orioles.