RC Vote Needed for the Following Proposal on Rookie Bonsuses

[Brewers GM]

Oh, I wasn't made aware and must have missed the thread. 

The only time I was contacted for my absence was by Colby and I was back on the boards within a few days... I will admit that I'm disappointed to hear this but understand if things were happening and I wasn't around to help out.

[rcankosy]

Oh, I wasn't made aware and must have missed the thread. 

The only time I was contacted for my absence was by Colby and I was back on the boards within a few days... I will admit that I'm disappointed to hear this but understand if things were happening and I wasn't around to help out.

Consider yourself reinstated, so your vote counts.

[Brewers GM]

3.  Allow rookie bonuses to be spread out in the same manner as standard player contracts, BUT allow the rookies to retain all of the existing rights of rookies whose bonuses are not spread out (i.e. prospect extension rights, EDR, etc).

I'm not 100% clear on the benefit of #3 (or #4).  In the short-term, yes if you spread the bonus out it will give you more room in that year for a larger bonus.  However, the next year you'll have that much less cap space, and if you do this on a regular basis you're back at square one of having no room left because the space you should be saving for bonuses is already used up from prior years.  Am I missing something?

[Brewers GM]

Another thing I would like to suggest, and it was successful in Moneyball was an up and down minor league system. Allowing the movement of players from the 40 man to the minors (EDR) is an easy way of clearing cap without dropping players. And I know a few of us would like to replace some of the garbage in our EDR with what we consider useful prospects. Again just a suggestion.

A reminder that the EDR is not the equivalent of the minors, it is the Entry Draft Roster.

There are tons of players available in the minors for free that would be better bets than guys drafted after the first few rounds.  If you can clear up 'the garbage' on your EDR and fill it up players you add via FA then you'd be nuts not to do so and we'd render the draft obsolete.  You can't do that in MLB, those players are already on someone else's roster. 

The purpose of the EDR is to keep the entry draft relevant by giving a special exemption to those players you draft.  We decided it was important to preserve the draft, if you disagree with that I think it's a different discussion (but I don't believe that's your position).

[Dan Wood]

Not what I was saying, I was just making a suggestion since it worked rather well in Moneyball

[Brewers GM]

Not what I was saying, I was just making a suggestion since it worked rather well in Moneyball

Fair enough, I'm not really familiar with that league.  Do they have a direct EDR equivalent, and has allowing non entry draft players to be placed there had any impact on the entry draft itself?  How many rounds of the entry draft are actually useful?

[rcankosy]

Does this issue go away if we simply cut existing draft bonuses by 50%?  After further thought, the administrative burden of maintaining one salary cap for 30 teams is daunting enough let alone two.  Also, I believe that many teams can create the cap space by cutting impending free agents and players that might no longer be in the team's plans.

[Dan Wood]

Roy, that may work...it seems to be doing well in MB. I would vote for that.

Ben - to answer your question, it makes things a lot easier. We are currently in the second round of the first draft, but it was a big help during the season as I believe it facilitated trade activity as well as GM management.

Again, I will use myself as an example...in order to sign my first rounder I dropped four specs who I liked, yet had limitations to them. Had I been allowed to move them to my EDR roster (MILB - in MB) I could have created to room without dropping anyone. That would benefit my team in that I scouted the players dropped, but if given the choice I would have gladly removed them from my 40 man roster. This in my mind would have helped my team long term because, as I stated before, I valued those prospects even though they may have been fringy at best. It just gives a GM more choices I feel. By the time the end of the draft rolls around, most are checked out. This is also an easier way of managing funds.

A lot of the people in this league play in Moneyball, and there are certain aspects where that league is more fun, and more real.