Changes to ensure teams are fielding a legitimate roster
Feb 19, 2018 12:17:07 GMT -5
CardsGM (Mat), RockiesGM (Jarrod), and 1 more like this
Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2018 12:17:07 GMT -5
Hey guys,
I've been talking with Jarrod and we both feel that there is a concerning trend in this league that will require us to slightly alter the rules to help prevent. While rebuilding is perfectly fine (in fact, I 100% encourage it, especially in a dynasty league of this format), it is not okay to fail to field a lineup. Part of fielding a lineup is ensuring that you're doing what you can to reach the minimum of 35 IP in every weekly matchup. We altered the rules prior to last season to prevent teams from gaming the system to try and win ERA or WHIP with only a few IP by causing teams to lose ERA and WHIP categories if they fail to reach 35 IP. While that change was needed and I think was a great change for 2017 (and beyond), it doesn't address the biggest issue: that issue is rebuilding/tanking teams not even trying to reach 35 IP. To give some actual hard evidence that this has become a problem, I went back and looked at the roster violations related to this. In 2017, teams failed to reach 35 IP 28 times - that's staggering. In fact, 2 teams failed to reach the 35 IP threshold 8 and 9 times, respectively... (that's about 42% of the season!!). While I understand that occasionally injuries or bad match-ups may cause a team to fail to hit 35 IP, it should not be happening more than 1 or 2 times in a 21 week season. In real baseball, even the teams who are obviously tanking and have no intentions of trying to win are required to field an actual roster.
As a result of the abuse of this rule last year (and the fact that it's almost for sure to happen again this year without any penalties or punishments added), I think it's imperative that we add some type of penalty to abusing this rule. With almost every rule in our constitution, we have some form of a penalty that is assessed if a team fails to follow the rule. It is not good for the league if 20-25% of the teams aren't even trying to hit 35 IP and are handing out easy wins in ERA and WHIP every week. I'm not asking teams to completely compromise their rebuilds by signing a bunch of average to below avg FA on costly deals, but I am saying that you must field an actual roster even during that rebuild (that includes enough pitching to hit the 35 IP threshold). At the end of the day, 35 IP is not difficult to hit... If you have several RP and 5+ healthy SP, you should be able to EASILY hit that every week.
As for the penalties that could be added, here is what I've been thinking:
The penalties would not kick in until the 3rd time the rule is violate in a given season. So if a team fails to reach 35 IP 1 or 2 times, nothing happens outside of them losing ERA and WHIP in those weeks. However, if they fail to hit 35 IP a 3rd time in a given season, a penalty will be assessed. Then, escalating penalties will be issued out for each time a team fails to hit the 35 IP (e.g. a more serious fine will be assessed after the 4th time, then a more serious penalty after the 5th time, and so on). With this structure, it gives teams a legitimate grace period (I can understand teams having a couple rough weeks and failing to reach 35 IP 1 or MAYBE 2 times), but will help ensure teams aren't rolling out SP rotations with only 2 or 3 healthy SP each week.
As for the penalties, I haven't come up with anything concrete yet, but I do think it needs to be something that would actually hurt teams rebuilding (e.g. a $1 million fine in the current season wouldn't really cause rebuilding or tanking teams to stop abusing the rule). Maybe we do escalating fines that impact teams in the following season? So for example, if a team fails to reach 35 IP for a 3rd time in the 2018 season, they are assessed a $2,000,000 fine that hits their cap in the 2019 season. Then, if it happens a 4th time in the 2017 season, they are hit with a bigger fine that is also issued in the 2019 season. Then, if it happens a 5th or so time, they are restricted from signing FFA in the following season (just an idea).
Sorry for the long wall of text, but this is an issue that I think REALLY needs to be nipped in the bud prior to the 2018 season starting. Again, I'm all for teams rebuilding and making moves to set themselves up for future seasons. However, being in a rebuild does not mean that teams are no longer required to field an active roster. Let me know what you guys think, as well as ideas for penalties for this rule.
I've been talking with Jarrod and we both feel that there is a concerning trend in this league that will require us to slightly alter the rules to help prevent. While rebuilding is perfectly fine (in fact, I 100% encourage it, especially in a dynasty league of this format), it is not okay to fail to field a lineup. Part of fielding a lineup is ensuring that you're doing what you can to reach the minimum of 35 IP in every weekly matchup. We altered the rules prior to last season to prevent teams from gaming the system to try and win ERA or WHIP with only a few IP by causing teams to lose ERA and WHIP categories if they fail to reach 35 IP. While that change was needed and I think was a great change for 2017 (and beyond), it doesn't address the biggest issue: that issue is rebuilding/tanking teams not even trying to reach 35 IP. To give some actual hard evidence that this has become a problem, I went back and looked at the roster violations related to this. In 2017, teams failed to reach 35 IP 28 times - that's staggering. In fact, 2 teams failed to reach the 35 IP threshold 8 and 9 times, respectively... (that's about 42% of the season!!). While I understand that occasionally injuries or bad match-ups may cause a team to fail to hit 35 IP, it should not be happening more than 1 or 2 times in a 21 week season. In real baseball, even the teams who are obviously tanking and have no intentions of trying to win are required to field an actual roster.
As a result of the abuse of this rule last year (and the fact that it's almost for sure to happen again this year without any penalties or punishments added), I think it's imperative that we add some type of penalty to abusing this rule. With almost every rule in our constitution, we have some form of a penalty that is assessed if a team fails to follow the rule. It is not good for the league if 20-25% of the teams aren't even trying to hit 35 IP and are handing out easy wins in ERA and WHIP every week. I'm not asking teams to completely compromise their rebuilds by signing a bunch of average to below avg FA on costly deals, but I am saying that you must field an actual roster even during that rebuild (that includes enough pitching to hit the 35 IP threshold). At the end of the day, 35 IP is not difficult to hit... If you have several RP and 5+ healthy SP, you should be able to EASILY hit that every week.
As for the penalties that could be added, here is what I've been thinking:
The penalties would not kick in until the 3rd time the rule is violate in a given season. So if a team fails to reach 35 IP 1 or 2 times, nothing happens outside of them losing ERA and WHIP in those weeks. However, if they fail to hit 35 IP a 3rd time in a given season, a penalty will be assessed. Then, escalating penalties will be issued out for each time a team fails to hit the 35 IP (e.g. a more serious fine will be assessed after the 4th time, then a more serious penalty after the 5th time, and so on). With this structure, it gives teams a legitimate grace period (I can understand teams having a couple rough weeks and failing to reach 35 IP 1 or MAYBE 2 times), but will help ensure teams aren't rolling out SP rotations with only 2 or 3 healthy SP each week.
As for the penalties, I haven't come up with anything concrete yet, but I do think it needs to be something that would actually hurt teams rebuilding (e.g. a $1 million fine in the current season wouldn't really cause rebuilding or tanking teams to stop abusing the rule). Maybe we do escalating fines that impact teams in the following season? So for example, if a team fails to reach 35 IP for a 3rd time in the 2018 season, they are assessed a $2,000,000 fine that hits their cap in the 2019 season. Then, if it happens a 4th time in the 2017 season, they are hit with a bigger fine that is also issued in the 2019 season. Then, if it happens a 5th or so time, they are restricted from signing FFA in the following season (just an idea).
Sorry for the long wall of text, but this is an issue that I think REALLY needs to be nipped in the bud prior to the 2018 season starting. Again, I'm all for teams rebuilding and making moves to set themselves up for future seasons. However, being in a rebuild does not mean that teams are no longer required to field an active roster. Let me know what you guys think, as well as ideas for penalties for this rule.
