Posted by MikeT23 on 3/7/2013 7:37:00 PM (view original):
I think our difference of opinion comes from the way we're looking at it. I'm looking at the back end of his career, when he's sliding down, and you're looking at the front end cost.
I don't necessarily think either is wrong. I just think throwing away 20 games is a big mistake many, many owners make to get that year when the player is on the decline.
I do agree that there are different ways to skin the cat and a lot of it probably depends on how you structure payroll, etc.
However, take this example and I think you will see that (at least in some cases) it's really not "losing" 20 games, but "gaining" 140 games:
Here would be a standard way to progress prospects, call it Scenario 1:
1st pro year: HiA
2nd pro year: AA
3rd pro year: AAA
4th pro year: Start the year in ML, 1st year of service time
Compare it with Scenario 2:
1st pro year: HiA
2nd pro year: AA
3rd pro year: AAA for 20 games, then ML
4th pro year: Start the year in ML, 1st year of service time
From the 4th year on, it's exactly the same. The difference is that I get 140 free games in year 3. I can take whatever money I would spend on a starter in Scenario 1 and still spend in Scenario 2, only now that would-be starter can come off the bench or be part of a platoon and I have a lot more depth.
An example of this was how I promoted
Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Esmailyn Maduro ; I wanted him to start in S22, but by promoting him in S21, I could use him as a starter (technically, the right-hand of a 1B platoon) and bring the declining but still productive
Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Del Perez off the bench, which is a nice luxury.
Without the loophole, I would have just started Perez the whole year and been okay, but bringing Maduro up probably produced an extra 10-15 runs in S21, and didn't affect anything from S22 onward. Now there's definitely situations where it doesn't make sense to do it. But in a lot of cases, it's a pretty substantial advantage.