Trashing a Barnstormers Team, and League! WHY DO IT

A salary dumping rule was added to the 20XX Players Championship Tourney

Salary Dumping: If a manager drops his team salary below 90 percent of the original starting salary, please report this to me immediately. I will ask OnlineGameSupport to return the team to its previous state above 90 percent and lock the manager out. If this situation occurs with the same manager twice, that manager will be disqualified and prohibited from participating in any future 20XX Tour events.

Event 1 League 5 -we have another salary dumper. down to $75M. Not in my division.

BOTH League 1 and League 5 players have been reported to SOM - who has of course not responded to both of my e-mails so far. Nor have both participants responded to my private e-mail. Yes, this will cause a need for rules to be put in place for both our tournaments beyond what is spelled out in the Fair Play policy rule at:

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/help/rules

I think that players championship rule of 90% salary floor is probably a good place to go, and would like to recommend it become part of the official rules for at least next year, if it cannot be instituted for all upcoming leagues.

my 0.2 cents worth

Mr. Baseball World and I were discussing this in private e-mail last night. (He's running the Players now) I will probably take it to the Board of which MrBBW is a member of anyway. Sounds simple enough - but this wouldn't come without proper language to add it to both the official rules AND to make sure that all members understand it upon signup. And (sigh) more work for us to watch for it.

you expect people to both read and understand the rules???

Surely you jest...

League 13 also has a free falling low payroll team.

Consider my earlier post in this thread where I told a player to change his stadium and he changed it to another one in the same grouping. I'm really missing all the hair I used to have.

Owner on both of those teams is now "Strat-O-Matic" - so this is in process.

I've asked them to return the teams to 100 Mil value with lineups that use most of that money and make them competitive. I'll look into the alleged third team and see if we need to do the same.

And I will gather the board together to see what we want to do going forward. SOM is talking about not allowing a team to go below 10% and as was mentioned, the Players Championships is using that.

There will be more coming out I'm sure - I've suggested a mention in the blog - I will offer up a general e-mail to all registered 2017 Barnstormers players on this issue.

I appreciate the heads up on this - going forward - e-mail me - and perhaps the Barnstormers Forum may be more appropriate a place to start a topic like this.

Guys, this was posted over in the Barnstormers Forum. But it is just as important to be here where hopefully more people may see it.
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I know this isn't what YOU call it. A lot of newbies will tell you they are just trying to improve their rapidly sagging team. But let me tell you. If you spend the majority of your time cutting lose what you consider to be players who aren't living up to your expectations, you'll put yourself into a downward spiral which can ultimately wind up with getting your team "taken over" by SOM along with stern warnings from SOM or myself about "Salary Dumping"

This is right there in the SOM "Games Rules" in the upper right corner. Read down until you hit upon the rules regarding "Fair Play". "Salary dumping. You may not jettison talent from your team, hold a "fire sale", or otherwise make wholesale changes to your roster that reduces the overall salary value of your team."

What happens if you do this ? SOM says "If you violate any of the above rules, at our discretion, Strat-O-Matic.com will seize control of your team and you will not be eligible for a refund. Repeat offenses will result in a ban from ever playing the game again."

Guys - you CANNOT make your team better by dropping a player in favor of another player of lower value which is going to happen when you take the drop penalty. It aint gonna happen, no way no how.

What IS going to happen is that your team will start losing more and more games - your division mates will have a tendency to win more games than might be natural - and the other 8 teams in the league have LESS of a chance to win the wild card.

Little tweaks to fix your team are always welcome - change your lineup, change your hitting or pitching preferences, change your team strategy - but DONT drop a player and take the salary hit. It just wont make a positive difference for your team. Veteran Barnstormers players know this - this is a NEWBIE mistake pure and simple.

This happened to two teams earlier in the week and may happen to a third team. SOM took over the teams, restored the team to a normal salary and a competitive lineup, and the player who spent the money no longer has any control over his team. He spent the money and SOM is NOT refunding - you were warned !

And as the Barnstormers Commish, I will now have to take a more active role in policing this and warning you. SOM is now saying they want to develop guidelines that do not allow a team to drop below 10% of it's initial value. That means for the 100 Mil league, you team MAY BE taken over if your ROSTER VALUE falls below 90 Mil.

Please don't get caught up in this team management mistake. Clearly SOM says that if it happens TWICE, they will ban you from playing SOM ONLINE. Clearly many of you will feel quite innocent at trying to make your team better, BUT - you will never find a team that has been able to be competitive with a 10% or lower salary than the rest of the teams.

Play smart - post your team link in the main ATG forum, ask for advice to improve your team but don't start playing the "You're Fired" game with your team.

Moose - The Commish