I'm interested in opinions on this...

What do you think about owners who not only don't manage their minor league teams, but actually set them up to get slaughtered (i.e. 2-man rotations, 250 pitch-counts, etc.)

Is it good for the world?

Bad?

Does it matter at all? Why/why not?

I'm not sure I have an opinion either way...yet.

To me, it doesn't matter. The minors are for developing players. If you're going to let me score 28 runs, I'm getting more AB. Your crappy hitters aren't stopping my pitcher from getting 9 innings. So, to me, you're helping me develop my players.

However, it does matter to some. They feel the guy who "saves" 750k by not filling out his minor league rosters is gaining an advantage.

Mostly, I think people are "offended" that owners don't care about their minors and hate seeing the 29-1 scores. Personally, I'd be concerned if the owner had a history of jacking up payroll and bailing when the team got old. He would have a crappy, old team with little/no prospects. That leaves a mess for the next guy. Of course, no one with that history gets in worlds I commish so it's not a problem for me.

It indicates laziness by an owner.

Too lazy to sign all their draft picks.

Too lazy to promote appropriately.

Too lazy to fill out lower minors with Training Camp arms.

Everyone can have a busy week and forget to do their promotions resulting in massive retirements or understaffed teams to start the season (I've been guilty of this, myself), but when it's brought to an owner's attention, they need to act on it.

If not, eventually the owner will be too lazy to be bothered with renewing, and as a commish, you'll be with a trainwreck of a team to try and get filled.

I think the opinion I'm developing has a couple of parts.

I hate anything that 'games' the system, whether it be in HBD or in regular fantasy, where the rules of the game help create something unrealistic.

I know this game attempts to create 'realism' in many ways for a fuller experience. I'm totally for that. There are no organizations out there that would let any pitcher throw 250 pitches per start or run 2-man rotations.

If people do this to save money, perhaps there should be "floor" for minor league payroll - or a minimum roster number to be kept (don't know how you would implement that - other than creating some sort of 'interlock' that prevents signing big league guys until minimum numbers are met).

Lastly, to Mike's reference above about getting the # of AB's, etc., would players be getting an artificially high number of IP or AB because of this? Would development be abnormal? It just seems to me that those kinds of orgs have the potential of wreaking havoc on other franchises.

I, for one, could not care less whether the teams perform well (as there is no real benefit to it). But I would care how my real prospects develop. It may help the game if there were some sort of minor league incentives built in.

Again, don't know how it could be implemented, but anything that helps make the game more real would be cool with me.

A player, due to durability, can only get so many AB/IP per season at 100%. So, unless you're willing to play guys at 91%(or pick a number not 100), he can't get artificially high AB/IP. But there are times when I can't get enough AB for all prospects at a certain level under "normal" circumstances. Getting 9-10 in a game helps with that.

I think minor league tanking is a harbinger of a short-time owner.

He's sacrificing one entire level of his organization (or half a level, if it's just pitching), meaning in a few years, he'll have nobody that is in the development queue ready to step in.

In Ron Cey, owners are asked to have an appropriate # of pitchers and players (i.e., no pitchers playing OF, no OFs playing pitcher), and owners are advised that they are not allowed to have massive pitching fatigue at any level (i.e. a lot of 0 (0)).

Owners are told that failure to comply with the above can mean that they aren't invited back for future seasons.

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1. If I have full rosters, I have replacements(who are inactive). If I'm running my minors properly, no one is fatigued. If I'm not running them properly, I guess I shouldn't complain about someone else. Non-issue.

2. I'm of the belief that an inning is an inning and an AB is an AB. Nothing more, nothing less. It sounds like you want owners to not only have full rosters but quality rosters to boot. Good luck with that. Non-issue.

3. I think a guy with 6 teams is going to have time issues. I struggle with 4 when all 4 worlds are running full-steam at once. I can't imagine anyone having more goof-off time than me. If a 6-team owner micomanages his minors like I do, he won't have time. If you're letting SIMMY run your minors, I could argue that YOU'RE neglecting your minors. Non-issue.



Next.

Aren't there 2 different issues here?

1) Is he running his minors properly as a ML development pipeline?

2) Is he running his minor league teams properly as stand-alone baseball teams?



I think we should all care about (1), but (2) is an owner's own business. At any given level of a properly run minor league system, there will be anywhere between 3 and 10 important prospects; i.e., guys with at least some marginal chance of playing in the ML at some point. Does an owner have these prospects? Is he drafting with some level of care? Signing his top picks? Investing in amateur scouting of some kind? Does he make some effort to ensure promotions and playing time are handled correctly for these prospects? Does he avoid silly prospect-for-player trades? If the answer to all of these questions is "yes", then it seems to me everything else is window dressing. How the cannon fodder is managed is of no concern to competitive ballance. Maybe he's doing an experiment in player development, just to see what would happen with some cannon fodder, so he can become a better owner with his real prospects. Of course, if an owner has 0 (0) pitchers at every level, then we have to wonder where the important SP prospects are. But if he has important SP prospects at AAA, A+, and A-, but none at AA, then no one should be too concerned if he has only one SP starting every game at 0 (0) at the AA level. The $750,000 is pocket change and no one ought to get upset about that. Just my $.02 here.

Quote: Originally Posted By silentpadna on 10/15/2009
I'm interested in opinions on this...

What do you think about owners who not only don't manage their minor league teams, but actually set them up to get slaughtered (i.e. 2-man rotations, 250 pitch-counts, etc.)

Is it good for the world?

Bad?

Does it matter at all? Why/why not?

I'm not sure I have an opinion either way...yet.

If the owner lets his minor league teams become trash, the entire franchise will begin to slide. When he leaves, it becomes someone else's trash, or no one else's trash for a long time. I don't see any way to defend that. It's just a baby playing in his sandbox, which of course seems to be popular around here.

I agree with mike on this one.

Maybe my attitude is maybe a bit like Allen Iverson's attitude to practice, but it's the minor leagues. I worry more about what's happening at the ML level,

Myself, I try and run full minor league squads, but I don't micro-manage, as I've got way bigger fish to fry. I don't care if someone's loA team goes 30-114. I don't feel any lower as a human being, nor does it have any affect on my quality of life.

Having said that, I go nuts when I see prospects stagnating or being abused by overuse or neglect.

Minor leagues are for prospect development. Hell, they don't even bother to tell you if you win a level world series.

i agree with camden68

































































and miket23

Us name## guys have to stick together.