Posted by MikeT23 on 9/22/2010 8:54:00 AM (view original):
Rebuilding isn't an exact science. There are hundreds of ways to build a team so there are hundreds of ways to rebuild a team. But you don't have to trade away all your BL talent, strip your payroll down as far as possible and win 45 games. If you're in a world where 60 wins gets you 10th pick, the world has problems you can't solve. Personally, I think you can be competitive and rebuild at the same time. By competitive I mean "not three days off for your opponent". If teams are choosing you as a good spot in the schedule to give players a day off, you've done something wrong. At the end of FA, you can take 10m and sign 4-5 FA that are legit BL players. Or you can take that 10m and turn it into 5m of prospect money. It's all about "How much do I want to win BL games?" vs. "How little do I care about today as compared to future seasons?"
The thing that gets me is when someone is 10-30 or 30-70 and they do nothing to make their team better. If you say "There's nothing I can do", you're probably incompetent at HBD. If you just do nothing, you're not interested in winning BL games. A lot of us call that tanking.
I just started a new team (sorta - it was the same franchise I had 12 seasons ago, just reclaimed it) in Mays. the team is a nightmare (had 2 legitimate big league bats and one legitimate pitcher) and I budgeted 65 million to player payroll. I could have jacked payroll up to about 100 million and, with the guys I had, maybe won close to 80 games, but instead I decided to rebuild, trade the few worthwhile veterans for prospects with the goal of contending for a playoff spot by my second or third season in the league. After my trades, a few option buyouts, and siging 4-5 cheaper free agents to one or two year contracts, I have 1 million left in excess payroll. If my team does start off 10-30 or 30-70 (I think it is better than that but I have not scouted my opponents so I do not know), am I tanking if I decide to spend my prospect payroll bonus on a couple of internationals instead or wasting half the money in a transfer and getting another marginal big league player so I can win an extra 5 games in a season that is already toast? Or maybe I should tade away my top prospect who is a year away form the bigs for 3 marginal big leaguers that may win me an extra 10 games?
If this was called Hardball Season and you played only one season with each team, I would absolutely do that. But my goal is to win championships, not have 85 win teams that miss tha playoffs each year with 100 million dollar payrolls.