Apologies for being late to the rule proposal debate.
I was not too pleased to see that after I've spent years accumulating money, the league is now considering a proposal designed to counter that strategy. I'm tempted to propose what to me is a similar rule change abolishing all E contracts and eliminating all minor league roster slots, but that would be petty.
Those of you seeking parity would do well to consider that there are some managers, myself included, who will never win if the only measure of success is finding the best baseball players early in their careers. Every year, I sell most of my draft picks and rely on the kindness of other owners to help me through the draft. I'll never spend the time and money necessary to know details about high-school prospects. And I'll never know enough about players to make smart trades. But I've gotten pretty comfortable with how much a given player is worth in money. Take away that aspect of the game, and you've taken away my only chance at a competitive advantage. Take it away, and there's no way I'll ever contend.
If people really want to change the league, why not spend several weeks coming up with gradual changes that can phase in over time? It seems like every year, everybody waits until the rule change deadline to talk about this stuff, and the proposals are all vague and impossible to understand fully, so they rarely get voted in. If people really thought about it, I think we could all come up with long-term changes that would make sense and that everyone could agree to. But when they take effect immediately, it screws up everyone's strategy right away. No one's gonna support that -- other than the teams in transition that benefit the most from a paradigm shift.
I am the one most in favor of a salary cap and parity. I am not sure I understand your concern. You will still have all of your money. Only the money you spend that is actual salary counts against your roster. You can trade for a low salary B1 - B3 player from another manager and give him as much money as you want and only the salary counts against you. You can still bid on free agents and C players and buy rookies with your money. The only times you would not have the full effect of your money is if you already have a lot of expensive players that put you close to the cap. If spending 1.5 million on a free agent put you over the cap you would not be able to do that. Well, not really. According to the rule I proposed, you could spend the money and go over the cap and then trade away or cut player(s) to get under the cap.
