Rules and regulations - does it all come natural to you?

[joefromchicago]

I'd agree that most baseball fans don't really understand roster rules such as waivers and the 40-man roster and the Rule 5 draft. For the average baseball fan, those things don't really matter all that much. But if you're playing a baseball management simulation, those sorts of things become much more important.

A few comments about the Rule 5 draft. It has been held, in one form or another, since 1903. The idea behind the draft is the same now as it was then: teams should not be allowed to "hide" players in the minor leagues and impede their progress toward the major leagues. Right now, the rule states that a player who:

• is not on his team's 40-man roster; and
• has been in the minors/majors for at least four years if he was signed after his 19th birthday; or
• has been in the minors/majors for at least five years if he was signed before his 19th birthday

is eligible for the Rule 5 draft, which is held during the MLB winter meetings in December. A player taken in the Rule 5 draft must remain on the drafting team's 25-man active roster (not just the 40-man roster) for the next season. If the team wants to demote him, it must first offer him back to the team from which he was drafted.

Now, you can say "that was very enlightened of the owners to care about struggling minor leaguers who couldn't break into the big leagues because the teams that held their contracts wouldn't make room for them." Maybe. But, at least in the beginning, the owners wanted a chance to sign players whose contracts were held by minor-league clubs. In effect, it was an organized form of player poaching as the MLB clubs snatched players while paying only a fraction of their value to their minor-league clubs. Later, when major-league clubs started owning farm clubs, the Rule 5 draft became a way redistribute talent from teams with deep farm systems (like the Cardinals) to teams without (like the Browns). In short, there may have been some concern for the players when the owners instituted the Rule 5 draft, but the owners were mostly looking out for the best interests of the owners.

[Brad K]

In short, there may have been some concern for the players when the owners instituted the Rule 5 draft, but the owners were mostly looking out for the best interests of the owners.

I had wondered about that for a long time as devising a rule that appeared to be due to concern for the players seemed so out of character.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Brad K

I had wondered about that for a long time as devising a rule that appeared to be due to concern for the players seemed so out of character.

So true! Back when the Rule 5 draft was instituted, the minors were almost entirely separate from the big leagues, so if major-league team wanted a minor-league player, it would have to arrange some kind of deal with the minor-league team. The owners figured it was far easier just to pass a rule that allowed them to buy the players at a set price - which was usually far below what the player would get on the open market.

And why, you might ask, would the minor leagues permit that kind of thievery? Well, if they didn't, the majors would declare them to be outlaws and then none of their player contracts would be safe from the predatory clutches of the MLB. So it was a lot like a protection racket. In fact, much of the early history of baseball resembles nothing so much as an organized-crime family.

[Timofmars]

Originally Posted by FuzzyDarkness

At the end of the first season I ran into the problem of the Rule-5 and I knew about it but didn't want to lose all my progress that I made through the season. So I disabled the Rule-5-draft, went into Commisioner Mode and released the 4 players that were claimed by other teams so they come back to me.

From now on I'll just play this save without the Rule-5-draft and I'm happy with it.

So you can always disable certain things you personally don't like.

Some people might think this is cheating but I want to have fun playing this game and I have A LOT OF FUN!! I just adjust it to my liking

You can also learn some ways to deal with the rule 5 draft. I never have a problem with it because I prepare for it. And I like the pressure it puts on you to use those eligible prospects or lose them. It helps force me to keep a clean house instead of hoarding any and all prospects freely. It helps poor teams get some free players from the rich teams that never have interest in rule 5 players since they are able to pay out lots of contract money to have better options already on their teams.

So if you want to protect a prospect, you need to put them on your 40 man roster. That will give you 3 full option years to keep the player in the minors at minimal costs, allowing you to develop him without him accumulating ML service time that would move him toward eligibility for arbitration and eventually free agency, both of which mean higher salary costs. And in this time, he can be a backup player you can call up in case of injury.

The AI seems to only draft rule 5 players if they are good enough to play in the ML for a team right now, since the player must be kept on the active roster. So if your prospect still has a current overall rating of 20, you shouldn't need to worry about protecting him. Nobody should want him. And if somehow they did draft him, there would be a good chance they would release him back to you before the season is over once they have someone else available that they want on the active roster.

If you don't have a space in the 40 man roster, why? Who don't you need there? I mean, you have 25 active roster players. That leaves 15 slots for backups on the 40 man. Are they some veteran backup players there you don't really need? Or some other prospects you will probably never use for you own team, but that you keep there just to protect them? Then trade them to make room.

Another thing that sometimes happens is that you have a bunch of relievers that seem to have a decent overall rating, but you never found a good trade for them, so you hang onto them. Well, low stamina relievers that are incapable of being starters have very little value in the game. That is, pitchers with less than 25/100 stamina are generally worth a lot less than all other pitchers and position players. There's barely any interest in even a 40/80 rating reliever, so don't hoard these players. You can easily get one like that if you need one later for next to nothing in a trade, or for free off of waivers. I often have low rated backup relievers in AAA that I don't keep on the 40 man, and they don't get drafted in rule 5. And if I need the player in the ML because of injuries, I can move him up (since 60 day DL opens up a spot on the 40 man roster), and he can usually be moved off the 40 man roster later by passing through waivers without being claimed.

Or maybe you have a lot of prospects eligible for rule 5 who are good enough to be picked. Then you probably don't need all of them. Trade away the ones that aren't in your future plans and let the other teams deal with the rule 5 issues. Maybe get yourself a fresher prospect in the deal.

[FuzzyDarkness]

Thanks again to everybody for the tips but in my current off-season I guess I just have to let go of a few.



You can't keep them all...

[omg_pwnasaurus]

Yup what Tim said. Also, one good option to help manage your 40 man is to try and target players who have very low service time so as they don't need to be protected and involve players from your side that do. That might mean adding some extra value to the trade that might perhaps make it slightly angled in the AI's favor in terms of player value but will provide roster management/surplus value to you. MLB teams often do these types of deals where at first glance it might have you scratch your head based on the player given up but a portion of the value might come from the roster manipulation that results.