Rules 2 (Playoff Injuries) and 4 (Playoff Hitter Usage) pass. The other 2 rules do not pass.
Remember that this required unanimous consent - I strongly recommend that anyone interested re-propose the 2 rejected rules in next year's normal proposal period, as they would likely have passed easily in a simple-majority vote.
It would be nice to hear from the dissenting voters and have a discussion as to why they were against these proposals. I am not suggesting that they need to be blasted for voting against them. Merely asking for some discussion so we can see if the proposals need tweaking. My gut feeling is that someone has already acquired players that would benefit them under the old rule and believes they have a chance to make the playoffs this year. Which of course would be a legitimate reason to vote against the pitching rule. I am not sure why anyone would be against the days rest between series proposal.
We were not expecting the rules to be voted on for this season when the proposals were made and did not believe they had a chance to pass with a unanimous vote being required. So getting 2 out of 4 passed is quite surprising. I would mention that rule 2 is insignificant without rule 1 passing, so rule 1 will definitely be proposed again next year.
I will fess up to voting against rule 3 (pitcher usage), for exactly the reason that Gary suspected - prior to the rule being proposed and, indeed, prior to this discussion beginning, I acquired Joe Thatcher for SFE, and I valued him for that deal based on the prospect of being able to have unlimited usage of him (subject to normal rest rules) in the playoffs. I actually think that Jeff's rule is a good one that I will almost certainly vote for next year, but I selfishly decided to vote against it since it would effectively have applied retroactively against me.
With respect to not giving advance notice, I actually went back and forth quite a bit as to whether or not I would vote against it, not deciding to do so until the last minute. So hopefully Jeff will forgive me for his effort being (temporarily) for naught there.
To be honest I wasn't expecting any of the rules to pass b/c of the unanimous nature of the voting.
I actually thought rule 1 was a "no brainer" that didn't give any one team an advantage over another and actually mirrored the MLB playoffs pretty accurately.
And I agree, voting for rule #2 and not voting for rule #1 doesn't make any sense in my mind since they are directly tied to each other. Rule #2 is pretty much worthless and doesn't actually change any thing without rule 1...lol
Tom, no hard feelings on the vote issue. I would have voted the same way you did if I was in your shoes. Having a vote this late after trades was going to be a factor and Tom T. and myself new that issue might arise before I ever submitted them.
No worries though, I'll resubmit them next off season when a unanimous vote isn't needed. I hope the playoff teams this year don't get bit in the ass like I did this past season on the rest issue and not being able to start your aces....or maybe I do
