We've been hard at work for the past few weeks and can now announce a few new policies that will be enacted immediately. Huge shout-out to Groundouts serving on each committee: Dave Spurrier, Ken Simone, Mike Mihelich, Chad Boysen, Paul Henderson, Jeff Swenson, Scott Curtis, and Chuck Tinkler.
1. TANKING COMMITTEE
We started by defining tanking as "trying to lose games for the purpose of improving draft position." The fallout from the practice is a reduction of balanced competition and usually decreased levels of involvement. A few past examples include:
Leaving top players unused or grossly underused.
Unnecessarily playing players out-of-position.
Flipping platoons to create artificially weak lineups.
Self-sabotage by manipulating bullpen settings.
Our focus was contained to actual in-game play and usage practices. Important: tanking does not include rebuilding strategically via the draft, or trading away quality veterans.
We will re-introduce a lottery for the first three picks of the 2022 Annual Draft. To disrupt strategic tanking, the actual number and identity of teams involved won't even be determined until after the season. Using a dice roll (probably during our Winter Meeting) here is the formula that includes all non-playoff teams:
Teams entering the lottery
Roll 1: teams 1, 4, 7
Roll 2: teams 2, 5, 8
Roll 3: teams 3, 6, 9
Roll 4: teams 1, 2, 3, 4
Roll 5: teams 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Roll 6: teams 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
As you can see, a dice roll of 1, 2 or 3 results in a completely random chance for the bottom 9 teams. A roll of 4, 5, or 6 results in essentially a weighted lottery that includes up to 12 teams. The worst teams still have a slightly better chance at the top picks, but without nearly as much incentive to try to purposefully lose.
The committee put great effort into this solution, and we acknowledge that no system is foolproof, and we can't fully prevent someone committed to losing, but we've tried to minimize the motivation. By not revealing how many teams will be involved until after the season, it will hopefully deter teams from jockeying toward the bottom, now that the odds and payoff have been significantly altered. No team can fall further than three spots from their natural position, which won't greatly curtail rebuilding efforts.
Kudos to the committee, which started with a very wide range of opinions, for working hard and reaching a conclusion that satisfied all of our objectives.
2. ROSTER COMMITTEE
Work is ongoing as the Roster Committee continues its efforts. We have one announcement to make, with more expected in the days and weeks ahead:
Rosters will be rolled back from the current 50 players max, to near pre-pandemic levels with an offseason cut, at the end of the PGB season, around October 1, 2021. All eligible released players will go back to the 2022 draft pool. This is pending a standard 162-game MLB season.
Hey Commish, could you remind us how the die rolls would work in each of these scenarios for the lottery? Enquiring minds want to know...
True, but who can resist tweaking? For me, a CM isn’t just set it and forget it.
You can check the last time a CM was pushed, so that would give some indication of attentiveness.
Does the game have the ability to track how times a mgr looks at his team?
Ex. You can see if I have only looked at my CM once last month or how many times someone pushes a new CM?
Just curious because this tool could help monitor if a mgr isn't playing his team.