It all comes down to your personal preference and what sort of world you want to play in.

The most common refrain from people who advocate soft tanking is, "There's no difference between winning 60 games, and winning 65 games."

To me, there's definitely a difference. I would much rather win 65 than 60. I would much rather win 70 than 65. I would much rather win 75 than 70, and I would much rather win 80 (or specifically, 81) than 75. To me, the fun of the game is trying to be as competitive as possible, all the time. If you are in a competitive world (that doesn't allow tanking/traderape/etc), then the playoffs are sort of a crapshoot anyway. Sitting on top draft picks year after year to build a super-team is like using a cheat code... it's just not really that interesting to me. But again, that's just me, and anybody can play the game the way they want to. I just don't want to be in that world.

Additionally, there's talk about MWR screwing over people who have bad luck. But what soft tankers don't realize is that "good luck" can also happen. My World Series in Happy Jack came following a 79-win season. I improved my team a little bit, but figured I would be in the 85-win range and hopefully sneak into the playoffs in a weak division. I wound up winning 103 games and the World Series. So you never know when that little extra that you think bumps you from 70 to 75 wins actually winds up bumping you into the playoffs. Or that little extra that you think goes from 80 to 85 actually makes you go from 80 to 95.

And yes, I do think that any owner who can't rebuild on that progressive scale is not a competitive owner. Even in good worlds, you can build a 65-win team out of scrap heap FAs.

I'll tell you why I like MWR's. It adds a level of complexity and realism to the game for me. I took over abeam in one of Mikes worlds. It had very little majormleague talent, and only one high end prospect in the minors. The easiest course of action without the min win rule was to play the status quo game. Let go my expensive arb players go, use some AAAA players from triple A, make some waiver claims and a high rule 5 pick to build out a roster. If I still needed guys in could sign a couple of bargain basement free agents.

Instead I signed some full price free agents kept the arb guyz that would help me win over the nextbfew seasons and made trades that weren't me firesalling my few ML assets but would improve my club present and future. I won 74 games when i could have won 55 and "wouldn't be trying to lose"

In year 2 it is more of the same, because of the MWR. I know that bad seasons really put you behind the 8 ball in Mikes scheme so in an effort to keep in the 75 to 80 win range, I rebuilt most of my pitching staff (it still sucks) and promoted my top prospect with only 1 year of minor league experience.

Part of the reason I do these things is the chance of getting bad luck, which yanks seems to think is the end all be all. In the game and in
life, you can either accept luck and shrug your shoulders like a child and pout about bad luck or you can anticipatete and try and mitigate it.

Another reason to "aim" for 75-80 wins instead of 55-60.   82-84 win teams regularly make the playoffs in my worlds.   You catch some "good" luck with your 75 win teams while your opponent catches some "bad" luck with his 90 win team and you're suddenly in the playoffs.   You can win a WS by going 14-10 over the next 24 games.

Posted by MikeT23 on 3/14/2012 8:47:00 AM (view original):
Another reason to "aim" for 75-80 wins instead of 55-60.   82-84 win teams regularly make the playoffs in my worlds.   You catch some "good" luck with your 75 win teams while your opponent catches some "bad" luck with his 90 win team and you're suddenly in the playoffs.   You can win a WS by going 14-10 over the next 24 games.

An 80 win team could never win the World Series in one of your worlds; a 78 win team, however, is golden.