Baltimore Case

Case
The Baltimore Orioles have broken the 200+ loses rule over two seasons, with a total of 202.

Rule
More than 200 losses over a two year period and the owner will be asked to state their case as to why they should be allowed to stay. If allowed to stay the owner must reach 70 wins or be replaced.

Baltimore Comment
To the owners of the Gary Carter Memorial League...

Here is my plea and the reasons I believe I should be allowed to stay in the Gary Carter league after losing 203 games in 2 consecutive seasons...

First off, I am an original owner. I wasn't blessed with the greatest of 'sim-drafts' (via the preseason 1 What If Sports draft). I had very little major league talent and even worse minor league talent (as only ONE minor leaguer (Cook) from my original day-1 team ever made an impact at the ML level). It was just luck of the draw.

With that being said, I had very trying times and bad teams in seasons #1 & 2. I did the best I could to avoid losing 200 games then, but they were very poor teams. In season #3 &4, I tried to mask the organization's lack of talent by bringing in over-aged and over-priced talent That worked for 2 seasons as I made the play-offs, but there were still no prospects in my minor league system and the team was aging badly.

So before season #5...I traded 2-3 aging stars to get a few prospects to build on for coming seasons. I thought I would have some growing pains, but I expected to stay competitive. Unfortunately, the ML talent did not produce to my standards. Several key players were injured and a lot of teams had good years in the AL that season causing me to loss a league-high 106 games.

When season #6 started, I knew I had to win a minimum of 69 games to avoid losing 200 in 2 consecutive seasons. I was prepared to spend big in the off-season, but as many of you noted....it was an extremely poor free agent class...so I signed the 4-5 best guys that I could...but I knew that none of them were going to be "impact players". Still, I improved the team with the best talent that was available at the time.

During Spring training, I lost 2 of my ML starting pitchers (George & Harvey). I kept the best players that I had available and flew North as the season started...The "Sim Gods" were not kind to me as I started off 5-27 this year.....FIVE AND TWENTY-SEVEN!! I played my best players, I used my best line-ups and my best pitching rotations...but I just could not win games and the result was a .185 winning percentage.

So I called up a few prospects, traded a few more (prospects) for ML talent and "tweeked" the team the best I could...I was on such a roll that I thought I would still reach the 69 win mark, but injuries hit again as my RF (Grissom) hit the DL twice, down the stretch and I ended up 3 games shy of 69 (I ended 66-96 for the season).

Now I realize, a rule is a rule, and I did break the 200 loss / 2 consecutive season rule.... but to go from 5-27 (.185) to 66-96 (.407) was a pretty big turn-around. The Orioles are trending upwards again, my team finally has a few prospects in the pipeline and the team has a lot of salary cap available to trade for more ML talent this off-season.

I realize that if I am allowed back, I will have to win 70 games next season or I will get the boot....but that isn't unrealistic as I just went 66-96 after starting the year 5-27. Also understand that I lost 30 (THIRTY) 1-RUN games this season. The addition of 1 more player, or one less injury, could have made me 96-66 instead of 66-96.

I know I am a good owner. I have already completely rebuilt horrible teams to playoff contenders in other leagues and if I am allowed to stay, that is what I plan to do with this team. This game involves a lot of time, talent, and a little bit a luck....unfortunately, I only had bad luck this season. I hope you guys consider all of the things that I mentioned above, as I truely want to be a part of the Gary Carter Memorial League. Thank you for letting me plea my case.

Final Decision
It’s always hard to take that kind of decision. Baltimore has some good seasons under his belt, but also has some bad seasons. Overall, the team has losing records, but not that bad. Baltimore’s owner is active and want to play. I have taken a look at his other franchises in others worlds, and he is doing fine. He shows winning records over all his teams.

Despite the fact that Baltimore may have traded some players that would have been helpful for his ML team, i feel like he was really trying to win. I know that we have to be aware of “Tanker”, but we also have to trust people when they says that this is not what they are doing. There is a part of luck in a season, and when you don’t have much deep in your farm system, a major injury may hurt you really bad.

The comments from the others owners of the world are shared on keeping him or not. Also, after reading Baltimore’s plea, I believe that he deserves another season to show us that he can put a competitive team on the field. As an original owner, he wants to stay in the world and be active.

So, I’m going to allow him to stay for the next season, but as the rule says, he will have to win 70+ games or be ask to leave.

Some Facts
Trades:
• 15 in S1
• 8 in S2
• 11 in S3
• 4 in S4
• 4 in S5
• 7 in S6

IFA
• 1 in S1
• 2 in S2 (1 at 10.0 mil)
• 1 in S3
• 0 in S4
• 2 in S5 (1 at 17.0 mil)
• 1 in S6 (1 at 14.0 mil)

History
• 61-101 in S1
• 92-70 in S2
• 91-71 in S3
• 78-84 in S4
• 56-106 in S5
• 66-96 in S6

Anonymous Comments
"This was brought up at the beginning of the season. He absolutely has to go. He was trading away ML talent and made no impact moves or call ups to improve his team. He has enough prospects he could of traded for a good ML this year."

He clearly said he was looking to be competitive in 2 more seasons and that is the exact definition of Tanking. For the integrity of the league he hsa to go. Have no sympathy for tankers."

"I'm OK with allowing him to stay and try for 70 wins next season."

"Tswayne signed the 4th highest paid INT Free Agent this season. He taded his best players for prospests at the start of the season. TANKER,"

"I would keep him. Very close on the loses. His other teams do well.He clearly likes Baltimore as all his other teams are from Baltimore. He has more wins this year than last year. Give him a warning that has him winning more games next year. It can be hard to find owners that have been here all six seasons. Keep him"

"No, in my view, any violator of the 200 loss rule should not return."

"I think he should be given another season. His team isn't a 100 loss team. Bringing him back means having to watch his trades closely next season, but I bet he can win 70 games with that team next season."

"yes I vote he stays as it looks like he wants to stay, he is an original owner and has had a division title to his credit."

"I say give him another season. It does not appear he was tanking as his prospect budget was less than $20 mil. On an unrelated note, the Cubs still have a $31 mil prospect budget."

"I think he should be booted.. Its not like he started out with a new team that sucked.. He has sandbagged a team that won back to back 90+ wins in seasons 2-3, he blatantly adverised that he wasnt trying to win and was attempting to trade away his ML talent this season to build for next season.. I dont think you can honestly enforce the anti-tanking rules in the future if he is allowed back.. I trust that you will make the correct decision and will not throw a fit if you decide to allow him back..."

"I do not believe that he should be asked to leave. He has been here from the start and has had some good seasons in the early years. I am in almost the same boat. When you play in a unbalanced division, the losses seem to pile up. Hell, the SOB in my division has gained the advantage though some shrewd trades and wins 115 games a season....that unbalance removes much of the incentive for any owner to even come backl. If tswayne is willing to come back and pay his money to WIS (after all, that is the bottom line), then I say he be allowed to do so."

"Let him stay, he is an original owner and is not over the 200 losses by a significant amount. He has also been sucessfull in the league previously."

"Here's my 2 cents, even though I'm not returning for next season. I'd keep him if it were up to me. He's not going to end up that far below the 200 loss total, and from what I can see it does not look like he's tanking. I looked over his trades this past season and none of them stand out as being awful. I also looked at his history in other leagues and from what I saw, he has never tanked for the purpose of re-building in any other world. "