Dumping players will get you in big trouble.

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 - TRY TO MAKE A TRADE - 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. I know that 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 in the league.

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.

ADDED 10/23/24 - SOM developed the League Ceiling setting for league commish's to use to try and combat the use of salary dumping. Although SOM revoved it from being used for 140 Mil and higher cap leagues. Barnstormers and Players will always use the League Ceiling settings.

Moose - The Commish

The one POSSIBLE exception to this is for those that may wander over into the "Mystery" Leagues. You get one of 5 possible cards and if the clues you get point to the fact that you might have gotten a players "worst" year on the card, logic dictates that he be replaced by a player of as much value as you can get out of the drop and better your position. This is the ONE possible scenario where a drop here or there is encouraged as part of the whole strategic league format.

Also, that "personal" e-mail that everyone got - with the information from the first post ? This was sent to all 168 players although by using BCC - it "appears" that it was sent directly to you. I didn't mean to try to point the finger at any individuals or imply that YOU were dumping. However if you ARE a newbie and you learned something from it - then all the better. - I got replies back from a lot of vets defending themselves and I should have put in the e-mail that this was not going to anyone in particular. - Sorry.

I am one of those who on occasion cuts more than I probably should -- particularly when I don't seek trades first. So your admonishments were well received in my league offices.

But I have also been able to turn teams around dramatically with 1 to 3 changes, done early on, that reflect the reality of the Division opposition, and League wide teams' weaknesses & strengths.

Nevertheless, you are correct -- if one keeps cutting & replacing beyond a very limited amount, then one castrates & prostrates oneself before many if not all of your League opposition.

Thanks for all you do, Moose.
~~,__o
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PS
However, I am kinda chuckling at the "who not me" responses you got!

WIth the recent “glitch” whatever that is supposed to mean to the system, and the game playing the way Mark Pelletier showed with Jack Pfeister coming in 9 straight games in relief with no effect on tiredness, it seems a bit petty to enforce rules, when the game itself cannot enforce any sense of standard play. This recent gameplay by Strat is extremely disturbing and not for lack of reimbursement but a total lack of being able to play a game that has been out for over 10 years. These final spots come down usually to a single point, all I can think is wow

The SOM flaws has nothing to do with basic fair play. The Commish has an excellent reason for this rule. We are talking about drops that would be excessive in mystery leagues. A practice that includes dropping $9M starters and ending up with $4M starters.

Just to clarify one thing, the Pfeister pitching 9 straight days glitch was specific to a non-Barnstormers league and (somehow) related to the custom deck shuffle, and it did affect his fatigue (it was the Pfeister owner who complained to Strat because he was coming in every game and tiring too quickly - Strat says they resolved it now - we'll see).

Not involved in BS this year, but $200 MM is an exception, since it is very difficult to spend more than about $170 MM for your lineup, rotation, and 3 good relievers. Perhaps the guy castrated his bench to upgrade one of his regulars?

Tried to email this to Mighty Moose but the email got kicked back so I'll post it. Just an explanation of recent roster changes that (hopefully) indicate I'm not just a self-sabotaging idiot (rather, an idiot in the draft):

I'm guessing this isn't as much of an issue given the $140m cap, but just in case it raises any eyebrows I wanted to explain the roster changes I just did for Darwin Barniequests2 in Event #5 league 10.

Went from $5.49m Campanelle/ $4.27m Delancey platoon to the $7.51m Campanella full time card. Puts more dollar value in my starting lineup plus Delancey sucks I never should have drafted him; I was getting too cute with my roster.

Dropped Herb Score (7.91) for Hal Newhouser (7.24). Herb was the wrong card for my power-heavy ballpark and division - giving up 38hr in 99 innings.

Switched out Suggs for Wilcy Moore to make the above possible.

I realize in-season roster changes are generally a loser's game but I wanted to explain my rationale. -matt

Thanks for the post. I will give it a shot passing it to moose. He's the boss but my understanding is that you only are at risk if you drop your roster value to below 90% of the original amount. At 140 mill that would mean falling below 126 million. You are above 137 mill as I recall and a long way off. Always good to be proactive though so appreciate your post.

I dropped my Sonic account. Use my Comcast mail to reach me, like MrBBW did.

Yes like Rick said, this is not a concern until your salary APPROACHES the 10% below cap level area. And by that time, you will most likely already have found yourself losing even MORE than ever before due to just having made that many changes.

Some strategic roster changes are always welcome, but the players that lost control of their teams were showing some 45-55 drops in both pitching and hitting. Some tendencies I was seeing was dropping a player they just acquired after only a single 3 game set. THAT mindset is just tossing money away.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Moose