Background
Atlanta Tanks - Guinness
Im taking over this franchise after they have gone through a very bad stretch. There was some drama at the end of last season and this preseason. The commisioner tried to remove the owner last year when they fell below the .250 threshold that WIS set as the minimum standard to be eligible to be booted. The league, or at least a vocal minority would rather this owner be allowed to stay. The commish succesfully had the original owner booted at the start of this season. I joined the league and took his team, but WIS later allowed the owner to return. Currently the previous owner is in the league with another team (Which is probably not in much better shape). It is possible that the league will further pressure me to give up this team. I would hope WIS wouldnt interfere and allow me to keep the team that I intended to turn around. From what I can see, the other owner didnt put much work into this squad the past few seasons. Im not judging. I had some stretches with other teams that werent much better when real life got in the way of my WIS time.
What Next?
My initial thought after it became obvious that the league doesnt really care about the potential of tanking or implementing MWR was to leave the world. But then I figured I could try to make a point with this team. I could:
1) "Tank it Up" and win 42 games a year, stockpile top draft picks, transfer money to internationals, etc etc. and attempt to build a powerhouse to show the world that it is more disasterous to have rules that allow this than it is to remove an owner for not meeting the very minimum win requirement.
2) Show how easy it is to turn a team around. Im not an HBD expert. But I do feel that the lightbulb has finally gone off and I Forest Gumped my way into some good strategies and a decent blueprint. Im starting to see some turnarounds with my Sandburg team and I took on a challenge in Here I Go Again--although they had some legitimate ML players--Im not sure that this team has more than 1 or 2.
I decided to go with option 2. I dont have the patience to spend an entire calendar year to prove my point. I dont know if I could handle this world for that long. This team could serve as a validation of my new strategies to build a winning HBD team since I am taking over a team has minimal ml talent, and no all stars. I cant speak fully to the minors yet. But generally it looks like they are loaded with older fill ins--not future ml talent. There are likely a few future stars with the high draft picks. I havent dug deep enough yet to evaluate--and I cant see projections yet.
I likely wont be an active trader. I just dont see much trade bait. Only a couple of major leaguers have value along with the most recent draft picks. To improve this year, it will have to be through free agency. I may be able to count on 1 or 2 major signings, but mostly it will be guys off the scrap heap.
Again, I dont profess to be an expert at all--thats kind of the point. I'm a middle of the road owner at best. I plan to turn this team into at least a .500 team. I wont rule out any strategy, but in all likelihood I will have to do it primarily with scrap heap free agents.
I will post my thoughts on any current players that I plan to keep, and on the prospects once I get a handle on them. I will post more on my free agent strategy and my overall ream building strategy once signings are over. I'm doing this thread for myself to document my strategies and keep me on track, as well as for the community. It could be a a good example of what to do, or maybe what not to do.