Roster Committee Report
A ton of work has been concluded by the roster committee. Huge thanks to members Chad Boysen, Mike Mihelich, Paul Henderson, and Jeff Swenson. We juggled a LOT of different plans and ideas, some fairly conservative and a few wildly radical. But early on, we agreed that on a 1-10 scale, we needed to make a Level 7 impact to meet these core objectives:
Explore methods to influence greater talent equity. Are there fair ways to narrow the growing talent gap?
Establish year-end procedures. Create an offseason calendar for any roster mandates.
Increase engagement. Solutions should aim at gaining traction with all managers.
Of course, only time will tell if we were successful, but the committee feels uniformly confident that PGB will be better with these changes. So here we go.
A New Rule 5 Draft Returns
A traditional-style three round draft of non-protected players.
It starts with teams providing protected lists of 16.
Draft order determined by inverse order of winning percentage.
Teams add one player to their protected list each time they lose a player.
Each team can lose a max of three players before their roster is frozen.
Teams may re-draft unprotected players from their own roster, if desired.
Draft slots are non-tradable.
Players drafted do NOT need to remain on the 2022 active roster.
Draftees must be retained on the offseason 34-man roster.
Changes to Offseason Rosters
All rosters will be trimmed to a total of 34 players during the offseason.
No distinction between normal and injured players.
Eligible released players will be returned to the 2022 draft pool.
2022 rosters will be revert to our standard 40 players + 2 restricted.
Approximate Winter Calendar (Dates not finalized)
Rule 5 protected lists submitted October 15. Rosters frozen.
Draft will be one round per night for three nights approx. November 15.
Offseason rosters set to 34 players on December 1. Rosters unfrozen.
Winter Meetings approx. December 10.
Official draft list posted January 1.
Annual Draft starts week of February 7.
Tanking Committee Report (recap from March 16)
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
Dice Roll of 1: teams 1, 4, 7 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 2: teams 2, 5, 8 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 3: teams 3, 6, 9 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 4: teams 1, 2, 3, 4 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 5: teams 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
Dice Roll of 6: teams 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 will participate in a lottery for top 3 slots
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.
Giant kudos to the committee of Scott Curtis, Ken Simone, Chuck Tinkler, and Dave Spurrier. They started with a very wide range of opinions and worked hard to reach a conclusion that satisfied all of our objectives.
Still likely to be a good pick, but if you were counting on the #1 pick you could be out of luck. Not complaining, just stating one of the things that will change. Sounds like a lot of thought was put into the changes so thanks to each of you on the committee. I thought 34 players was aggressive at first, but it will help make a lot more usable players available to the up and coming teams.
So trading for future draft picks from the teams at the bottom of the league won't be as valuable since they are no longer guaranteed to be top draft picks.
I'll make a ruling without any consultation whatsoever, and say yes. In theory, each team will acquire the near-equivalent of their 17th, 19th, and 21st best players, so the idea of a team actually cutting loose a Rule 5er from their top 34 would either be an epic drafting blunder or the signal of enormous pre-draft roster disparities. Addendum added to the bullet points above.
So they do have to be on the 34 man protected list?
Sorry for the lack of clarity. They don't have to stay on the ACTIVE (26-man) roster. That's a slight distinction from past Rule 5s, where the player had to be active all season long.
Players acquired via the Rule 5 draft don't have to remain on the roster? I would think they must either be part of the 34 man protected list, or offered back to the team they were drafted from.