[USML Announce] New Rule Proposal

[Richard E. Robbins]

Oh how I love the language of a litigator. . .
 
Simpler?  Only if you mean fewer word changes to the Constitution.  We
already have many constraints and limits that must be checked when trades
are made, this adds one more.  Someone will make an honest mistake on this
one and it might not get caught for a bit and then we will need to untangle
things.  I wouldn't object if there wasn't an attractive alternative.
 
"Open market price" -- let's see, in the auction, after bidding has
concluded for a player, do we ask the high bidder how much further he was
willing to go and then charge that amount?  When you buy something in a
store, do you pay more than the advertised price because you were willing to
do so?  Face it, our historic FAAB process does not in any way, shape or
form result in "market" prices being paid.  It results in inflated prices
being paid.  If you are the only person interested in a player, I'd say that
nobody else attributes value to the player and that his price should be the
minimum price.  
 
Face it, Mark, what you really mean to say is that you dislike the fact that
people may pay less money for FAAB players using the eBay style process,
which means that there is a possibility that someone will create a keeper
through this process.  You want a process that encourages high FAAB salaries
to avoid this.  Unfortunately, that creates tension with our limits on
imbalanced trades.  You'd rather have an imbalanced trade go through than
allow for the remote possibility that someone ends up with a keeper because
only one team had interest in some scrub player.
 
A majority of the league may agree with you that it's better to maintain a
system that tends to inflate salaries of FAAB players, even if it allows
what would otherwise have been a trade that we outlawed as part of our rule
changes last year and even though there is a simpler alternative that
creates no administrative overhead, is neutral as to the cap and the floor
and actually results in something closer to market prices for FAAB players.
 
-- Rich
 


  _____  

From: announce-bounces at usml.net [mailto:announce-bounces at usml.net] On Behalf
Of MBBlocker at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 7:59 AM
To: announce at usml.net
Subject: [USML Announce] New Rule Proposal


Gang:
 
  Contained below is a new rule proposal, which is in fact a revival of a
proposal that Andy Klein had made and then withdrawn.  I understand that
Andy fully supports the revival of this proposal as an alternative to either
the "skinny FAAB" proposal" or the "Ebay bidding" proposal.  
 
  The proposal is to prohibit players acquired with FAAB dollars as asterisk
players.  To me, this seems like the simplest proposal for dealing with the
problem of creating asterisk players to use in trades.  The only purported
"imperfection" in this proposal is that there may be some limited instances
of players who would otherwise legitimately be asterisk players.  For
example, if a star player is traded from the NL, he might net a final
bidding price of $25, but would not be an asterisk player and therefore
could be traded.  In general, though, the number of instances in which this
occurs would be limited, and its impact is lessened by the fact that we have
a salary cap in place.
 
  I do not prefer the skinny FAAB proposal (which, as many have pointed out,
I originally proposed last year) because it creates problems for teams near
the salary floor.  I do not prefer the EBay bidding proposal because, while
it will work in avoiding creation of unwarranted asterisk players, it
unnecessarily reduces the salaries of other players acquired through FAAB.
For example, suppose I really need a second baseman, and bid $15 on that
player out of concern that others may want that player.  If I was the only
one voting, my bid would be reduced to $5, even though the open market price
is really $15.  I don't prefer that outcome.
 
  Anyway, here is my proposal:
 

Rule Proposal:  Players acquired by FAAB shall not be treated as asterisk
players in the year that they are acquired.

 

  

Proposed revisions to USML Constitution

 

 

Section 12.12 shall be revised to read as follows (underscored text added):

 

An "Asterisk Player" is any player who is (a) in the final year of his
contract or (b) who has a salary of at least $25 and was not acquired
pursuant to section 14.3 during the course of the present season.

 

 

 -- Mark B.

 

 

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