Some time ago, Ted began writing on his Magnum Opus, which he titled An Arrogant Jerk’s Guide to Sustained Winning. We had lots of fun debating the many nuanced nooks and crannies of his thoughts—which is my way of saying Ted and I argued a lot about things we basically agreed on. Such was our lot in life, right?
Anyway, after some “time off,” I’ve been thinking a lot about that.
Yellow Springs is on some level of cruise control now, or pretty close. We still need to get through the next couple seasons of that $31M speed bump I created by signing Dong-po Thum, to his long-term deal, but we’re getting there. I have hopes. The team has a strong pipeline going through the system (mostly, anyway). We’re flush with cash. Barring another rash of catastrophic injury luck, we should be able to at least win for the foreseeable future.
It’s to the point that I’ve occasionally had thoughts about handing the team off and finding a starter-kit to go at it again. How, I’ve thought, would I go about trying to build YS9.2 if I had another shot at a growing team?
Which brings me around to Ted’s Magnum Opus.
As I thought about it, I figured I would take a few moments and put my own ideas on the page in my own place. What the heck, right? I mean, sure, the Nine have a strong history of October collapses, but who can possibly point to the team’s year-over-year record and not be … well … happy? Trophyless or not, I’ve got a foundation strong enough to speak from.
Ted started his thing with a bit of an over-view—kind of a statement of philosophy that I mostly just agree with. So I’ll start with a small quote from that opening salvo:
Ted wrote: So back to the question. What makes a winning franchise anyway? My answer is having more value than other teams. That value can take a lot of forms, but still, whatever they are, you want more. If you didn't win last year, you don't have enough. I visualize it akin to a dragon guarding a big hoard of treasure. It's MY big pile of treasure. I cherish it. I marvel at it. I'm continually looking for ways to make it bigger. I absolutely never do anything to make it smaller. Call it treasure. Call it value. Call it whatever. But it's mine. You can't have it. I may trade part of it for part of yours, but I've decided that the trade makes my precious pile of value prettier than it was before.
This pretty much drives everything I do. Every move is made with this mindset. If a move appears to make me more likely to win now, but could damage my glorious pile of baseballey goodness later, I don't make it.
What I like most about this is that it starts with Mind Set.
“Sustained Winning” is different from what I’ll call “Wave Winning.”
Wave Winning like breaking out in a battle field. You amass your forces in a single place in time, and go for it. Once the winning is done, the infrastructure around you is essentially spent, and you fall back into a rebuild, then when the tides have properly built again, you ride back up the wave.
There is nothing wrong with Wave Winning. Flags fly forever, right? Wave Winning is post and parcel of the real world. I mean, in modern day sports it’s hard-hard-hard to build a team that wins over several decades unless you’re one of the absolute top revenue markets in any particular sport. Even then, it’s hard. So, the basic Mind Set of Wave Winning is built into us OOTP GMs simply by watching the real world around us. The narrative of coming up the curve and then falling seems as true as gravity.
There is a major difference between real world sports and OOTP, however, that suggests a Mind Set should be (or at least could be) come upon differently. That difference is this: In real life, small market teams will always be small market teams, but in OOTP literally every franchise, if nurtured properly and blessed with an occasional splash of luck, can become a behemoth. Put another way, while the Royals will always have the Royals’ revenue stream, the Nine are not so constrained.
In my opinion, this is what allows Ted’s quote above to have so much power.
So, while there is absolutely nothing wrong with Wave Winning, I want to be clear that this is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about Sustained Winning, which, to my mind, means winning 95+games per year forever.
This is where I’m starting. This Mind Set.
The Goal. Win 95 games+ every year, forever. My purpose as a GM—my commitment to the team’s fanbase—is to work diligently toward amassing value throughout the system such that they never have to face a losing season. Ever. I want literally every step I take to be moving closer to my goal of winning 95 games every year, forever.
What follows over the next several chapters, then, are based on two basic questions: (1) What are these resources that we so covet and desire, and (2) what tools and tricks do I need to use to gather and then grow them? A lot of this will be old hat to a lot of folks around here. But it’s my way of looking at things, and if I want to waste a bunch of time beating my chest against the forces of nature, well, so be it. As Sean says, it’s all worth two points, right? I mean, what the hell else do I have to do?
Anyway, I’ll end today on a simple note. I gave myself about five minutes to free-associate on the idea of “what is a resource.” The list below came out, so—while I’ll probably rearrange some things or add things I missed—I figure I’ll use that as an outline going forward.
Working List of Resources
Cash
Players (Stars)
Players (Good)
Players (Roles)
Pitchers (conversions, pitches, “stuck” CH)
Hitters (skill values)
Platooning/Handedness (three-legged platoons)
Defense (catcher, middle, corners)
Draft Picks
Comp Picks (for Players/Unsigned Draftees)
Contract Extensions
Free Agents
Trades
DFA Bin vs. MiL Reserved Roster
Stadium
Attendance/Season Tickets/Ticket Price
Fan Interest
Coaches
Doctors/Trainers
Budget
Revenue
Salary Cap
Other Teams’ Salary Caps
Other Teams’ Budgets
Other Teams’ Farm Systems
Other GM’s Opinions
Bonus Cash
Other Team’s Bonus Cash
IFA
Scouting Finds
The Waiver Wire
Minor League Free Agents
Minor League Playing Time
My Time