Radical idea for a new league Topic

for the record, ive played before _andrewbody_. with that said, i was thinking of the best way to replicate baseball back in the old school days before there were free agency and trades and players played for a team for life. thus, i give you the Lifers League. when a player of yours files for free agency, you alone are able to negotiate with him. when a player is released, he will stay unemployed until he retires (unless his initial team once to resign him.) also, in order to maximize this idea of consistency, all team names and cities will be permanent. if this idea has legs, i will come up with realistic sounding team names and you will be able to pick among them.

have you ever wanted to really develop 15 season long attachments with your players and hatreds for your division rivals? this is the best way. the draft, international free agency, and player development will be absolutely pivotal.

now, i know many of you will say this is stupid. of course, this won't be for everybody. i know a chief complaint among the naysayers will be that it's very dependent on the luck of the draw at world formation. and, you know what, YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. however, las vegas seems to be popular enough, so i'm guessing 31 others will be willing to take that gamble. nonetheless, the teams with bad draws will be able to be competitive very soon through shrewd drafting and ifa signings.

for the record, the league rules will be enforced as follows: you attempt a trade? you're booted from the league and immediately replaced. you sign a player whose rights are with another team? you're booted from the league and immediately replaced, and the player is returned to his original franchise.

please post your thoughts and sitemail me if interested.
2/1/2011 10:00 PM
From a high-level, I like the concept.  Don't see it taking hold over a long period of time.  You need to have 32 owners, all of whom are totally committed to the draft and player development.  Which is a good thing, no doubt. 

But if one or two of those owners slips with respect to the draft, or decides to up his major league payroll because he feels obligated to keep his departing FA's (because he may have no choice) at the cost of neglecting his draft scouting budgets, then he's going to have a severely crippled franchise in a couple of seasons.  And then once the major league team runs it's course and the owner realizes that the minor league cupboard is bare, he's going to bail.  And the next guy is going to inherit a crippled franchise and not be allowed the opportunity to fix it other than have to start a lengthy internal rebuild from scratch.

Again, there are some good aspects of the concept.  Just think it has some inherent gotcha's if you don't have the right mix of veteran owners.  And since new worlds have to have at least 8 first-time owners . . . that may be a recipe for problems.
2/1/2011 11:00 PM
Posted by tecwrg on 2/1/2011 11:00:00 PM (view original):
From a high-level, I like the concept.  Don't see it taking hold over a long period of time.  You need to have 32 owners, all of whom are totally committed to the draft and player development.  Which is a good thing, no doubt. 

But if one or two of those owners slips with respect to the draft, or decides to up his major league payroll because he feels obligated to keep his departing FA's (because he may have no choice) at the cost of neglecting his draft scouting budgets, then he's going to have a severely crippled franchise in a couple of seasons.  And then once the major league team runs it's course and the owner realizes that the minor league cupboard is bare, he's going to bail.  And the next guy is going to inherit a crippled franchise and not be allowed the opportunity to fix it other than have to start a lengthy internal rebuild from scratch.

Again, there are some good aspects of the concept.  Just think it has some inherent gotcha's if you don't have the right mix of veteran owners.  And since new worlds have to have at least 8 first-time owners . . . that may be a recipe for problems.
You wouldn't need to raise your budget. If no one can sign FA you can just wait for players demands to drop.
2/1/2011 11:07 PM
And trades happened in "the good ole days". Ever hear of the Curse of the Bambino?
2/1/2011 11:07 PM
Posted by usfbully on 2/1/2011 11:07:00 PM (view original):
And trades happened in "the good ole days". Ever hear of the Curse of the Bambino?
they were much, much rarer though. more often than not, the heroes stayed with teams for seemingly their whole careers. contrast that with today, where it is unheard of for players to spend their whole careers with one team.
2/1/2011 11:23 PM
Correct. There just wasn't free agency as there is today. If a player was released he could be signed/picked up by another team. The only way players switched teams was via trade or if they were released. Your idea is an interesting one but your "rules" are flawed if you want it to be based on how baseball used to be prior to Messersmith/McNally.
2/1/2011 11:28 PM
A great deal of trades back in the day were also just for cash.
2/1/2011 11:29 PM
ok. so scrap the idea of it replicating old school days at all. just consider the idea itself.
2/1/2011 11:37 PM
If you have exclusive negotiating rights with all and any players drafted or signed by your team, salaries would be low, because you could wait till the end of the FA period to resign your players, at a greatly reduced rate .
2/1/2011 11:58 PM
I don't see that as an issue, either. The playing field is still equal because everyone would do it.
2/2/2011 4:15 AM
It's an interesting idea, but limited in that everyone would have to use the same "strategy" for building teams (and/or tank) and there's really not any way to maintain an elite team under this setup (which may be part of the point, I suppose).

Even if you are dealt a stacked veteran team at the outset, there is only one way to replenish the the upper tier talent, and that is through IFA. You would consistently lose your edge drafting the lower tier first round prospects, and you could never hope to make up that ground with a bulk of picks, because no one else is allowed to sign your type A or B FA. So, with no trading, you're left then with IFA being the only route for a good team to bring in any top flight talent.

Because of that, and because payrolls can be kept very very low (just let FA demands drop until you are ready to pay them pennies on the dollar), you will see *massive* prospect budgets and really out of control IFA spending. In many Worlds now, IFA can go for over $20M; some over $30M. In a World like this, there's no reason to expect top tier talent for anything under $40M. And it'd be just about mandatory to stay competitive.
2/2/2011 6:51 AM
absolutely. as far as tanking, restrictions could be placed on that. it wouldn't be a set loss number, but more of a case by case basis. the budgets we'll be radically different, as will the strategy to stay competitive. that's the main draw here!
2/2/2011 7:16 AM
It is an interesting concept.  The only tweak I'd make is the released player just sitting inactive until he retires.   If a team releases a player, they've relinquished their rights to the player.   After all, Babe Ruth played for the Boston Braves when the Yanks released him.  

And, of course, there would have to be minimum win requirements because there is no doubt that some owners will make it a race to the bottom every year.
2/2/2011 8:51 AM
The problem with the minimum win requirements in a world with these rules is that your hands are tied in terms of being able to make moves to help meet the MWR.
2/2/2011 9:07 AM
I like the idea, btw. I just can't see 32 different online personalities abiding by the rules, even by penalty of ejection from the league.
2/2/2011 9:10 AM
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