Moneyball Baseball League Chat

2 things id like to see
1: Gentlemans agreement that no other managers go over the cap this year
2:Prospect draft held after Arb's starting next year.

It's the non participation in the prospect draft that's a killer. Yes, let's beef up the penalty but do so prospectively.

Are you saying that it would be too high a price in your opinion?

No, I'm saying the opposite. That is a true disincentive to go over the cap, in addition to losing a player(s) for the current season.

Thanks I agree

Wait, why do we need a gentleman's agreement to ensure that nobody goes over the cap this year when the cap + losing player(s) is clearly in our rules? I'd love to go back and re-bid on a couple guys if that's the case. Gotta have a cap this year, but one consistent with current version of the rules.

And I say this as someone who is at risk of blowing over the cap this year.

Acuna won't have the monster card this year that he normally does.

Oldmansmith said

“ Not saying that anyone would intentionally do this but I think we should make sure that even unintentionally teams will have to pay a heavy price if it happens.”

I agree with oldmansmith.

The interplay between the mechanics of the league allow teams to go over the cap and the rules don’t produce a uniformly effective deterrent. So there is room for improvement here. I agree with everyone who says rule changes shouldn’t be made during a season. So we’re talking about next season.

I will throw out a couple ideas.

One element of MLB structure that is absent is the luxury tax. In addition to the suspension of arb players, we could force teams that go over to take a hit to their $140MM cap the following season. For instance, the penalty could be 100% of the first $1MM, 200% of the 2nd $1MM and 300% of everything above $2MM. This would be a pretty easy, one-time calculation for Phil and it would be also easy for him to adjust that team’s sheet. And fully transparent.

Another idea would be to dock a team a prospect pick THE FOLLOWING YEAR for each $1MM it goes over. And if a team loses a prospect pick, should there be fewer prospects injected into the system that year league-wide, or should the lost picks stay in the pool and be allocated to the teams with the poorest finish the previous year?

Put them all together and it would be hard to imagine a scenario where a team doesn’t feel the effect of a salary cap infraction.

I'm not for a "gentleman's agreement". I'm not trying to go over the cap, but if I do (due to unlucky arbs) I've already figured out that I'll lose an ARB guy. I knew going in that our prospect draft takes place before the arb and that I wouldn't lose out there.

I'm all for changing the draft date for prospect draft starting next year but I would have possible done things differently in Free Agency had we done it for this year.

Wait, why do we need a gentleman's agreement to ensure that nobody goes over the cap this year when the cap + losing player(s) is clearly in our rules? I'd love to go back and re-bid on a couple guys if that's the case. Gotta have a cap this year, but one consistent with current version of the rules.

And I say this as someone who is at risk of blowing over the cap this year.

What I was saying and what I believe Paul J is agreeing with is that the way the rules are now, I could intentionally go over the cap by 3mil and have absolutely no penalty to pay by merely nominating Turnbull as my arb guy that gets suspended since he has no card anyway. All I'm suggesting is that for the good of the league I will make sure that I'm under the cap so that doesn't happen. I was hoping that everyone else would agree that that would be a good thing to do as well.

I am going to do my best to stay under the cap. I could get screwed if they decide to price guys differently than previous seasons. I have already talked with Randy and it looks like I'll be ok. but can't guarantee as it will be close.

That's all I'm saying. As I know it will be close, I'm not gonna just go out and sign $2M and $3M free agents. I'm gonna try to stay under. My last FA's will all be $1M or less. Like Randy, I could just go over on purpose and designate McKay who will be uncarded but I will do my best to stay under.