The YS9 WAY: Priorities

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The YS9 WAY: Priorities

Post by RonCo » Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:17 pm

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I was going to jump into the YS9 Way of player evaluation, and likely some conversation about platoons, but I got to thinking about the whole premise of this and realized that the issue of priorities is probably a better flow. A previous boss of mine had a thing about focusing on What’s Important Now (which, of course, he converted to WIN).

There is, I think, a hierarchy of needs when it comes to creating and running a system.

You can say that about anything, right? Any machine, any work process, anything that’s complex. A human body needs to be able to acquire oxygen beyond all other things. Then it needs blood and a functioning lung. Then … all the way to Maslov’s hierarchy of things that are important for happiness. It’s complex. A baseball team, whether it’s in OOTP or in this real world is no different. If the fundamental foundations aren’t there—if it has no ability to gather cash, or no way to turn that cash into long-running revenue, then it has no way to turn that revenue into players and coaches and whatnot, and without those … well … we’ve all been there.

There’s also an old saw that says “winning fixes everything.” That means that winning draws fans and fans fork over cash and all that. It sounds good in a conference room, but it’s not quite so airtight as one might think.

It is, after all, my opinion that the root of failure of a team to move from generally competing to actually winning is very often leaping to go for it too soon—meaning before the infrastructure is in place. Ultimately, this is also the difference between a Wave Winner and a Sustained Winner, it’s just that the concept of “infrastructure” of a Sustained Winner is much greater than that of a Wave Winner.

Aside Here: I thin it’s important to note here that there exist certain conundrums in this Sustained Winning concept—the biggest of which is that if everyone does it, then no one can succeed. Sports is a zero-sum game, after all. It is physically impossible for every team in the league to win 95 games every year. That said, I think it is philosophically possible for every team in the league to build out the basic infrastructure needed to be a perpetual “winner.” In my thought experiment here, though, a league comprised of 100% equally functional Sustained Winning infrastructures would simply mean that the target drops from 95 wins a year to 81 wins. That, my friends, would be an amazing league to be in.

Anyway, the point here is that the priority I have in my mind is infrastructure.

All the time, really.

I say that because the concept is so ingrained in my mind, and the foundation of the Yellow Springs program has been in place for so long that, to be honest, I kind of forget about it these days. That said, here is my order of priority:
  • Revenue
  • Minor League Pipeline
  • Maintaining the Major League Roster
It strikes me that this is also the baseline priority I had taking over the Nine.

These are intertwined, of course. At the top level, anyway. For example, winning games does draw fans, hence create revenue, which means that even in this early stage you are best served to find enough baseball talent to win some games. But anyone who has attempted to build from zero knows it’s not as simple as that. OOTP is a fickle beast. Sometimes you win some and still they do not come—as Edmonton’s GMs can tell you.

Still, to me the main point is this: Revenue is to OOTP teams as oxygen is to the human body. Revenue converts to budget. Budget converts to players. Cash, of course, helps. But cash is like CPR. It keeps you alive until the real thing comes along. Early in a build everything is about building revenue first.

Here are some thoughts on things I toggle to create revenue:

Ticket Prices: Ticket price adjustments are valuable. Given the vagaries of the sim schedule, it’s hard to be perfect here, but if I’m on the top of my game, I raise ticket prices a bit when good teams come into town, and on the weekends, and I lower then for weaker teams and week days. I do this now. I did it before. I’m also not afraid to plunge ticket prices way down. There is, in my opinion (which means I don’t know for sure) a relationship between fans coming to games (attendance) and Fan Interest. This makes some sense. I mean, going to the park is fun, even when your team is a loveable loser.

Season Ticket Prices: I think it’s understood by most that Season Ticket revenue is not lost via the Gate Sharing we have in the BBA (40%). This means you can afford to drop tickets during the spring because you get 100% of the discount vs 60% of in-season revenue. Of course, everyone should do this, the overall impact is minimal…unless, of course, they don’t.

My general view of fiddling with ticket prices is that I try to approach them as fun little “what if” games. Yes, early on you can screw up, but all that means is that you push your rise out a little. Shrug. But I will be the first to admit that I don’t understand the real algorithm here, so playing with it and paying attention to results is a way to at least get a gut feel for what will happen.

Anyway, one general rule of thumb I’ve taken away from things is that “real life” maxims probably apply. Meaning one might be best served to be slow and gentle on the price hikes, but fans often welcome a sharp discount.

Shrug.

Stadium: My view is that a team’s stadium is one of the most important resources it has. The bigger the better, even when the team is losing. There is some inkling in my head that a bigger stadium draws more OOTP fake-fans than a smaller stadium does—though I haven’t tested it. But beyond that, there’s the ordering of events things to think about. Sure, maybe I’m only drawing 15K fans to my 35K seat stadium, but when I start winning, I may well wind up winning fairly quickly—and in the BBA you can only add 5K seats per season, so it will take me six years to go from 35K > 65K. SIX YEARS! That’s six years where my revenue stream is being throttled by my lack of foresight.

Putting my money where my mouth is, when I took over the Nine I immediately went on a PPT rampage and built a new stadium, then began adding seats.

Smartest Move Ever.

Winning: Finally, we get to winning. By that, what I mean is Using All Your Budget/Salary Cap. As a general rule, whether in the early stages of a build or in Sustained Winning mode, you should put as many resources as you practically can on the field. So if I leave very much salary cap untouched, I’ve lost out.

A key piece here—and something Ted really railed against—is that it’s vital at all times to avoid Bad Contracts. In this context, and Bad Contract is one that creates potential problems in the out years. When you are a behemoth, you can absorb some of that risk. My $170M budget this year (vs. $110 Cap) means that if I needed to eat a contract, it’s not a big deal. But when your budget is $120M against that $110 cap, you’re totally hosed is a long-term contract goes sour. Some GMs look at that and say, “that’s the risk you have to take.” I look at it and say, “if that goes south I’m screwed for four years.”

So, yes to Ted’s view. To quote again:
Ted wrote: 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.
This stands true even when my glorious pile of baseballey goodness is really just a meager chicken in a pot.

Bottom line: long-term deals, especially that extend into the wrong side of players' aging curves, are ticking time bombs to my plans of Sustained Winning. I did sign one of them during my first couple seasons in Yellow Springs (SP Domingo Castillo as I recall), but I traded it away before the year was up (yes, looking him up, he pitched 16 games for me in 2028).

One-Year Contracts: The corollary, of course, is that there are no such things as bad one-season contracts. I want to spend my cap, and I want to avoid risk in the out years. Over-pays for established stars fit both of these needs—and in many cases can add value by increasing fan interest, and hence revenue (the oxygen of the game). Big splashy deals can also be kind of fun to watch. They also give you trade chips for the deadline—which can be used to create Minor League capital.

Aside: Realize that what you’ve done by buying a 1-season deal and flipping them is effectively convert that chunk of your salary cap into minor league infrastructure. This may seem pedantic here, but that’s what I’m thinking as I sign 1-season deals. Sure, I expect they will help me win, which will improve revenue stream, but they could also serve to improve my minors.

If I don’t decide to flip them and they perform as expected, I can often reap the benefit of an additional compensation draft pick, which is still doing the same thing.


Literally everything I’m doing (even today) is geared toward improving or sustaining revenue, or adding to my minor league organization.

--- All right. I think I’ve beat this dead horse enough, so I’ll leave this here for now.

There’s more to talk about, of course. I think my next bit will be on the #2 thing on my list—developing and managing the minor leagues “properly” (he says, beating his chest), and then maybe I’ll move into the majors—in particular how I look at player values and the use of platoons.

Yes, that’s what I’ll do.

Unless, of course, I change my mind.

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Re: The YS9 WAY: Priorities

Post by jiminyhopkins » Mon Sep 20, 2021 1:32 pm

*sigh* This is why I will never win.

Good on ya, mate, but I just don't have time or mental capacity for all that. Glad most people do, though, otherwise it'd be a boring league!
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