MLB Owners Concerned About Tanking

[MrCrowesGarden]

Nothing groundbreaking in the article but at least the owners are somewhat aware:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14696 ... al-meeting

[ZigZagCardsFan]

I don't think tanking is as big of an issue in baseball as it is in basketball and football where draft picks are able to help teams right away. Baseball prospects seem like much more of a crap shoot and you're more often than not having to wait 2-3 years to see if highly regarded prospects are going to make an impact.

[BW23]

I think tanking can work with the right plan, but none of that aim should really be about the draft picks. It should be about taking chances on trades. That's how you can truly suck but get rid of a good SP for an Addison Russell or take a flyer on someone like a Jake Arrieta.

[Hoot45]

It still grinds my gears when anyone gushes over what the Cubs have accomplished, as if they didn't tank hard for a half decade to get where they are.

[ndistops]

It still grinds my gears when anyone gushes over what the Cubs have accomplished, as if they didn't tank hard for a half decade to get where they are.

I don't blame anyone for feeling that way, but three years does not equal a half-decade. The Cubs sucked in 2010 and 2011 but it wasn't on purpose, it was Hendry being Hendry.

[Hoot45]

It still grinds my gears when anyone gushes over what the Cubs have accomplished, as if they didn't tank hard for a half decade to get where they are.

I don't blame anyone for feeling that way, but three years does not equal a half-decade. The Cubs sucked in 2010 and 2011 but it wasn't on purpose, it was Hendry being Hendry.

Spare me. I've heard the whole, "Hey, we didn't suck all those years on purpose!" argument plenty of times before.

[ndistops]

It still grinds my gears when anyone gushes over what the Cubs have accomplished, as if they didn't tank hard for a half decade to get where they are.

I don't blame anyone for feeling that way, but three years does not equal a half-decade. The Cubs sucked in 2010 and 2011 but it wasn't on purpose, it was Hendry being Hendry.

Spare me. I've heard the whole, "Hey, we didn't suck all those years on purpose!" argument plenty of times before.

I hated 2012-14. I trashed Theo more than I'm proud of. I'm just saying in the two years before he got here the Cubs were losing because they were incompetent. Unless you think the Cubs traded Chris Archer for an expensive Matt Garza pre-2011 in some sort of double-secret stealth-tanking move, in which case I've got nothing for you.

[TheoSqua]

I don't really blame Epstein for tanking, and I think it's the difference between intentional tanking and major league tanking.

A team like the Cubs actually wanted to get better. They have financial incentive to get better. When Epstein came in his plan wasn't to intentionally lose for years in order to get better. His plan was to rebuild the way the organization was run from the foundation up. That reorg was what caused the losing. It may seem minor, but in their circumstance I believe the cause was restructuring the organization and the effect was losing.

The place where I see tanking being a problem in the major leagues is the way revenue sharing works. There's little incentive for certain teams to make a profit because they can lose and still make money from revenue sharing. So you have teams like the Marlins where the owners honestly could care less if they win or lose because the money is rolling in either way.

Having a sports league where there is no incentive to win outside of personal pride is a bigger issue than someone blowing up the way the Cubs are run and restarting. I don't see a problem with management starting over with a rebuilding plan. The losing in places like Chicago and Houston sucked but it ultimately led to a better product.

[ndistops]

I hate tanking as a general rule. I understand not everyone can be good every year, but doing things that serve no purpose other than to make you worse annoys me. I've been rooting against Philadelphia in the NBA draft lottery for a few years because of it.

I wouldn't mind at all if MLB instituted a draft lottery for all non-playoff teams where the top 20 picks were all determined by random draw. And eliminated the ties of draft money and IFA money to draft slots (the biggest culprit of the current situation, IMO). That would stop, or at least disincentivize, teams from utterly bottoming out their payroll.

[pioneer98]

I don't really blame Epstein for tanking, and I think it's the difference between intentional tanking and major league tanking.

A team like the Cubs actually wanted to get better. They have financial incentive to get better. When Epstein came in his plan wasn't to intentionally lose for years in order to get better. His plan was to rebuild the way the organization was run from the foundation up. That reorg was what caused the losing. It may seem minor, but in their circumstance I believe the cause was restructuring the organization and the effect was losing.

The place where I see tanking being a problem in the major leagues is the way revenue sharing works. There's little incentive for certain teams to make a profit because they can lose and still make money from revenue sharing. So you have teams like the Marlins where the owners honestly could care less if they win or lose because the money is rolling in either way.

Having a sports league where there is no incentive to win outside of personal pride is a bigger issue than someone blowing up the way the Cubs are run and restarting. I don't see a problem with management starting over with a rebuilding plan. The losing in places like Chicago and Houston sucked but it ultimately led to a better product.

I may be nitpicking a little but the problem with the Astros especially is they cut their payroll to the bone. I guess in my opinion whether you become the Marlins for 1 year or 4 years you were still the Marlins. The Astros and Cubs might not have gotten revenue sharing money (like the Marlins), but they turned profits in those down years. For example, they still got their cut of the national MLB TV money.