Me, the GM . . . HAL, the manager . . . tanking??

[gbrookes]

I wrote "I personally don't see anything wrong with it". By that I meant "I don't see anything wrong with your leaving your lineup blank".

:)
Geoff

[ROBERTLATORRE]

Churning your lineup so you pay $30mil in waiver fees and end up with a $50mil roster is tanking.

Playing .75m players over $6mil players is tanking.

Making unbalanced trades is tanking.

Setting your "E" steal rating players to steal more and your sluggers to bunt more is tanking.

Setting your lineup vs RHPs with 5Ls and 6Ls is tanking.

HAL does not make bad decisions in most cases. Does he manage better then the top players here? No, but he does a respectable job. I don't consider blanking lineups and pitching rotations tanking. But then again I am frequently in the minority here.

I almost never do it except in the beginning of mystery card leagues though.

[keyzick]

Well said Geoff! Excellent points!

[edgecitytx]

It's not tanking if you don't set your team against your opponent every night. It might be poor strategy, but it isn't tanking. Tanking is what Latorrer said above, trying to lose. There are successful managers here who don't touch their team from beginning to the end. There are successful managers here who manage way too many teams to deal with day to day. There are managers here who travel. I'm one of them, and I love to adjust my team every night when I'm home, but on the road, I leave it alone. It never occurred to me anyone would call that tanking.

[Irahays]

How can you tank before the season even starts?

As long as all the money is spent who cares? The salary cap will ensure a competitive team no matter what his lineup is.

Tanking is ending the season with $30million in payroll.

[durantjerry]

I can see their point. You should not have told anyone. What they didn't know wouldn't have hurt them.

[Badjam]

It is not tanking. You are actually gaining an advantage because Hal will adjust the lineup game to game to take advantage of each opposing pitchers weakness. We are forced to set lineups for three games at a time. Letting Hal get involved is a way around that. If you play the CD-Rom game to recreate a season you usually will manage only one team and let Hal manage the rest of the league. The end results are very close to real life results. This would not happen if letting Hal help with lineups is such a stupid idea. I would assume a computer programed to manage a team, if necessary, is probably considered an average manager. Therefore, Hal being the manager is probably a better manager than a majority of the newer guys just learning this game. Are the people that like to bat Babe Ruth lead off tanking because they are not following a traditional idea of the proper way to make a lineup? Of course not. People are free to choose their own way of seeking an advantage to win some games. How about the guys that sign up for a live draft and then don't show up for the draft and let Hal draft for them? Is that tanking? Hal does a good job of drafting in live drafts. Sounds like the guy trying this is going to actually spend more time following his team than most of the rest of the managers in that league, which is quite the opposite of tanking.

[l.strether]

[quote:88afc1af58="Badjam"]It is not tanking. You are actually gaining an advantage because Hal will adjust the lineup game to game to take advantage of each opposing pitchers weakness. We are forced to set lineups for three games at a time. Letting Hal get involved is a way around that. If you play the CD-Rom game to recreate a season you usually will manage only one team and let Hal manage the rest of the league. The end results are very close to real life results. This would not happen if letting Hal help with lineups is such a stupid idea. I would assume a computer programed to manage a team, if necessary, is probably considered an average manager. Therefore, Hal being the manager is probably a better manager than a majority of the newer guys just learning this game. Are the people that like to bat Babe Ruth lead off tanking because they are not following a traditional idea of the proper way to make a lineup? Of course not. People are free to choose their own way of seeking an advantage to win some games. How about the guys that sign up for a live draft and then don't show up for the draft and let Hal draft for them? Is that tanking? Hal does a good job of drafting in live drafts. Sounds like the guy trying this is going to actually spend more time following his team than most of the rest of the managers in that league, which is quite the opposite of tanking.[/quote:88afc1af58]
I would really hope you don't actually believe this. Following your logic, doing nothing with your completed team would be an optimal strategy. There are so many problems with that logic, they are too long to list.. 8-)

[Badjam]

I'm not saying a hands off approach is the best way but I am saying having Hal involved in day to day managing is not the disaster you make it seem. There are many people that leave the bullpen choices entirely up to Hal because if you are not comfortable with all of the choices in the bullpen 2 logic, Hal will do an OK job of using the bullpen for you. Many people do that and don't tell anyone up front so you do not have a chance to get upset about it. I wouldn't recommend letting Hal do your batting order every day but it might not be a bad idea if you are facing Catfish Hunter one game and Satchel Paige the next. That would be a good way to create two separate righty lineups. You are assuming a persons attempt at making their best decisions are automatically better than Hal's. That is not the case. I have seen as many bone head moves by people as by Hal. Another person may want to combine their own decisions with some of Hal's and find a happy medium between the two. It is a strategy available to explore. Not all strategies need to be approved by you or anyone else. I have seen some lineups people use that I would not agree with but to them it may be the best lineup they can think of. This game is a learning process for all of us. Actually thinking about your team and coming up with an approach to a season is called formulating a strategy even if it involves finding the line between how much tinkering is enough or not enough. Attempting to apply this strategy can not be called tanking. I will never judge if it is a right or wrong approach but I will defend a persons freedom to explore their options. You seem to automatically dismiss the learning experience available simply because you do not believe in it.
Not sure how you came up with me saying it is an optimal strategy? I clearly said Hal is probably an average manager, most of us but not all of us can do better than average.
Still waiting for another manager to step up and speak against the "how much Hal is enough or too much" experiment. Looks like most of the community in this forum supports his right to explore as he sees fit with his $25.

[AeroDave10]

[quote:ebda857573="Badjam"]Looks like most of the community in this forum supports his right to explore as he sees fit with his $25.[/quote:ebda857573]

I can't believe this "debate" is still going on. I've only seen one guy really oppose the initial poster's opinion and declared his actions to be "tanking". Everyone else seems to agree that it's not. Case closed.

Let's talk about the next great 200x theme league idea. Anybody got one?