The Ninth Man…. And beyond
Daniel Valois
This is an
idea I would like to submit as a rule change proposal next year but am bringing
up to you now for discussion.
The
proposal concerns the status of minor leaguers selected as compensation picks
for the loss of one or more of our top free agents. The basic idea is to give
that selection more value than it has under the current rules.
As the
rules stand now, a minor leaguer selected as a comp pick does not count towards
our 8 minor leaguer quota. This means that a team in the relevant situation can
carry nine or more mins for the whole year following the draft. However, at the
end of that year (at the appropriate deadline), our min quota must once again
come down to eight or below before the next draft.
I propose
that the selection of a min as a comp pick allow us to carry more than eight
minor leaguers for more than a year. Here’s how this would work.
Let’s say
you pick minor leaguer Joe Blow as a comp pick. He would then be flagged as
your Ninth Man (say he’d be highlighted in green, for hope …, on the draft and
roster sheets). This player would remain flagged as long as you own him,
provided (i) he’s not released; or (ii) his status does not change to MM or Y1.
Basically, this means that you can carry nine or more minor leaguers as long as
the Ninth Man remains a min on your roster (the number of years this can apply
can be left open for discussion; I return to this below). Of course, the same
would apply for the 10th, 11th, etc. minor league on
one’s roster if they’re all drafted as compensation picks (so you can have a
flagged Tenth Man, Eleventh Man, etc.).
Obviously,
this would only apply if you have nine or more mins at the end of a given
draft. If someone who has selected a min with his comp pick (a flagged pick) finishes
up the draft with 8 or fewer mins, the flagging is voided, and we’re back to
normal (i.e. the current situation). Granted this could, to some extent, reduce
the available pool of minor leaguers that are available each year, but only marginally
(there have been 23 compensation picks the last two years- I’m not counting
this year-, all rounds included, only 8 in the first round), and the benefits
would, in my opinion, override this minor “drawback”. Here’s how.
To begin
with, the pool of available minor leaguers each year is practically endless. I
know many owners, when they’re done with their eight minor leaguer selections,
wish they had one or two more picks left so they could get another minor
leaguer or two that they like. But I agree that this may not be the case for
everyone.
But, the
main point of this rule modification would be that it would give the selection
of a min as comp pick a lot more, which could have a positive effect on two
fronts: (i) it would make the loss of
one (or more) of our top free agents a little more palatable, and, (ii) it would
make the rebuilding process of a team a little easier by allowing a team to
carry more young players on its roster for a longer period of time, thus giving
that team more chances that one of them would pan out.
If we agree
with the idea, we may discuss the details of how this Nine Man flagging applies
exactly. Does it affect all comp picks or only first round comp picks, etc.? Would we want to impose a time limit on the flagging of a
particular player (3 years? 4? Indefinitely), etc.?
Feed-back
welcome.