Not sure if the source is relevant, but for those who remember McHale's Army, I once heard him discuss a revolving door franchise where you trade everyone prior to their second arb, and are able to keep your payroll low, compete in the IFA market every year, and sustain success.

he seemed pretty knowledgable about the game, and seemed pretty confident it could be done. I tried it in Mike Trout and didn't come close to succeeding (in large part due to failure to acquire any real IFA).

is this type of theory viable? Curious what people think.

Let's break it down -

If you delay promotions, you get 4 $300+K seasons out a player. Add 1 arb season, That makes 5 seasons per player before you have to trade them for whatever you can get or you release them.

25 players on an ML roster. If you nail this system, you'll have to come up with 5 ML rookies every season.

If you want to have a good team, lets' say 4 of those 5 have to be above average.

Where do you get these 4 above average rookies every season?

Promote 1 above average IFA every season. (Which you've already seen can't be guaranteed.)

If your team is always good, you're never drafting low. So you'll have to budget and know how to draft and get a bit lucky to have your #1 draft pick be above average. Let's say that happens every season (even though it won't). That's 2 players.

If you are in a world with its share of less-that-expert HBD GMs, some seasons you'll pull an OK ML player with your #2 pick. Some seasons you won't. And some years you'll pull on OK player, but they play positions that don't match one of your 5 openings. Hard to have a good team with crap D. And you need the right balance of pitching. 7 short relievers won't work. So let's say every other season your 2nd round pick is that 5th player you need ever season. Not average, but OK. Roll / bench player.

That leaves you needing 2 or 3 players every season, 2 being above average.

You'll have to sign 4 of those 5 2nd season arb guys to trade them. I'm assuming the 5th player you're letting go is the below average one who won't have any trade value with an Arb 2 salary, so you released him.

Looks like you'll need to find 2 GMs in your world, every single season, willing to trade you 1 above average prospect for 2 players who are also above average, but about to get expensive.

How hard can that be?

And don't forget if you delay promotions to get that 5th cheap season, you'll play 24 games every season with 5 $327K players on your ML team that nobody else wanted. Best of your MinL non-prospects. Rule 5 players. Dregs of FAs. That's going to put a dent in your playoff chances and cost you and extra $1.5M / season in salary.

Please report back in 5 seasons when you've got this up and running.

I tried and failed. There are chances that there were other issues though- like me not building a good team for okc- the park I was in, and certainly at the beginning of this experiment I'm not convinced I was a particularly good owner anyway (or maybe throughout the experiment lol- still learning for sure).

What at if we change the assumptions a bit. What if you are able to sign a stud IFA some of the time. What are you getting when you your second year arb stud?

I dont know know that it can be done. And obviously it depends what talent you started with. But MA seemed to think it could be done.

The strategy sounds like it's very dependent on ripping off new owners who don't understand how valuable prospects are. I also doubt McHale meant to literally trade away everyone, including top 5 SP's or .900 OPS SS's. Are you talking about a punt the draft strategy? You only need about 10 high-end ML players (3 SP's, 2 RP's, and 5 legit bats) surrounded by role players to contend year in and year out. If you get the top IFA every year you could realistically sustain success. But you wouldn't trade them away, not the studs anyway. But you can't guarantee you'll always get the best IFA year in and year out.

It was on the old Rickey radio that knuckle ones used to do. I don't know if that can still be accessed, but I do believe he was talking about trading away everyone before their second arb

that strategy might work in ****** worlds

I've harped on this enough in other threads. This strategy keeps a team competitive and is probably even a very intelligent way to run a franchise - simply never pay more for a player than he's worth based on his past accomplishments, done.

You can almost guarantee you get the best IFA year after year by stripping your budget of everything but payroll - minimal coaching, medical, training. Everything but IFA scouting.

What gives you a shot at a championship run is boning other owners for prospects. Trade away the high dollar IFAs you've already broken (no medical). Trade away your first round draft choices who you know aren't worth a crap but the other guy sees "1 (28)".

It wouldn't work if no one trades with you. Unfortunately, someone always bites.