Miami Marlins Rumors: Why “tanking” is a good thing
By Jared Wolfe
MLB Draft is not the reason for tanking.
Not every team has a system in place to be successful. I sort-of eluded to this earlier by saying “tanking” is a blueprint for consistently bad teams. Big market teams and other already well-performing teams have no reason to tank like the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers among others, but they may have a few slightly down years. Due to their payroll, they never cease to have terrible seasons.
The “tanking” or restructuring, which is the word I prefer to use, is not a model where teams are losing to gain draft picks as we see in the NBA or NFL for example.
The draft of the MLB has been and still is a shot-in-the-dark process. Look at the numbers and see for yourself how few of top draft choices make it to MLB, as well as find their way to having spectacular careers.
One example is Mike Trout. He got passed by 21 teams falling to the 24th overall pick. He will eventually be a no-doubt Hall of Fame player. Bryce Harper, on the other hand, is an anomaly with his success being the number one overall pick. Sure, I will concede higher picks yield a greater probability of making it to the Major Leagues, but by no means is it a guarantee. Let alone becoming great.
Chipper Jones just recently became the second number one overall pick to make it to the Hall of Fame following Ken Griffey Jr.
The Miami Marlins come to mind because they are restructuring themselves. As we have seen with the so-called “fire sale.” Not because they want to, but because their team is in severe financial trouble. They had terrible contracts alongside a very low-quality farm system to develop players.
They key here is not “draft players,” but “develop players.” Drafting is important, but not as important as squeezing every ounce out of each player as well as trading for known talent in the minor leagues. Precisely the point of trading their key players away.