I voted no but I’m on board with some slight changes in the proposed rules.
I don’t think you can do a blanket 4 years in minors before being eligible for rule 5.
What about the 16yo kids we sign in international??? If I’m a competing team I’m not gonna want to use up a bunch of my roster spots (and start the arbitration clock!) on 20yo kids who won’t see majors for another 2-3 years maybe.
However, if I’m a rebuilding club why not take all the 20yo international kids from every competing team using rule 5 and stash them at min salaries on 40man until 3 years later when they are in majors and I’m competing or I can then trade them back at premium prices. Then all these players (which would be most prospects because how many actually make majors by 20yo?
) would all be FAs in AFB at the ripe age of around 23. There’s major pitfalls in this.
Also, what I just described above goes against the spirit of the rule IRL. It’s meant to prevent hoarding of prospects who are ready to play in majors but not given a chance by their team. In our league, as proposed, it would be used to pillage prospects who are still not close to being ML ready by teams who are happy to fill a roster spot with a non points accruing player (which takes us back to the tanking issue....)
IRL the rule is not eligible until after 4 years of minors if acquired when older than 19. And not eligible until after 5 years of minors if acquired when younger than 19.
I would argue that because of the fantasy baseball loophole I described above that we would need to be more restrictive than real life, not less.
Perhaps 6 years for intl players and ones drafted out high school and 4 years for drafted out of college. If worried about keeping track and the admin work associated (which is why I’ve originally not been on board with this when brought up the last few years) then maybe make a blanket 6 years until eligible and a single column in sheets that counts the years in minors without having been on a 40man.
Sorry for the mega response but there’s a lot going on in this league right now and while I appreciate everyone’s passion, I’ve been in this league too long to see a bunch of changes go through without people thinking things through and the repercussions.