Wisdom and Links: Tanking and Baseball

Tanking. It’s not a word that comes up in baseball all much.

You often will see NFL, NHL and NBA teams “tank” so that they have a better shot at top prospects, but it’s rare that you hear the words said in Major League Baseball. Partly it’s because of the different structure of the league: one single great player can change an entire team in the NHL or NBA, and a great quarterback can pave the way for an NFL team.

However, no one player, no matter how amazing, can save a bad MLB team. If the 1962 Mets had had Mickey Mantle, they still would have stunk (although they probably wouldn’t have been the worst team ever like they often are considered to be). If the Phillies had Bryce Harper this past season, they would not have suddenly been transformed into playoff contenders.

And yet, given the success this season of the Royals, Astros, Twins, Mets and Cubs built upon years of prospects built up thanks to horrible performance and the trades of established stars, and what seems like the beginning of a similar process by the Atlanta Braves, one must wonder- are we entering a time where years of “tanking” will become a common strategy?

Now, it should be noted that not all- or even any- of the above performances were the result of tanking.

The Twins, for example, became bad because they lost most of their best players to free agency, made some bad transactions (going with Tsuyoshi Nishioka and trading away J.J. Hardy before 2011, for example) and saw Joe Mauer’s production plummet in the years after his injuries.

And while the Royals traded Greinke and the Mets traded away then-NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey, it’s not like they were going to go to the playoffs with them anyway.

But now…the Braves.

Atlanta has traded away Andrelton Simmons, a year after they traded Craig Kimbrel. Jason Heyward, Justin Upton and Evan Gattis are are also now gone. There are some rumors (since apparently squashed) that Freddie Freeman is also on the market. The Atlanta Braves, who not that long ago were playoff contenders, are now heading straight towards the cellar, where they likely will remain until a few years into their new stadium.

In some ways, it’s a genius move. They’ll get the attendance boost that usually comes from new stadiums (even ones as unusual and unneeded as the one they are moving to), and then, as the honeymoon ends, they can hopefully have a brand-spanking-new team filled with prospects to challenge for the NL East title.

Well, maybe. Because, well, if it doesn’t work, the Braves have begun to sell away every marketable player they have (sans one or two), and if they do bad drafting and developing, they will be sending their team into a death-spiral for a decade or more.

So…no pressure. Because if not done right, tanking can just become outright stinking up the joint.

–

Wait, no links? What is this? Well, you see, I didn’t have many links this week, so I’ll roll them over until next week, where I will go over what I’m thankful for and also give you your links. So, until next time, this is Dan Glickman, signing off.