The Wincentive System - Always Playing for Something
The stated goal of the Wincentive System is to give everyone a reason to “play to win the game”. The secondary goal, and the goal more meaningful to me as a fan, is to provide something to root for at all times. I’m a fan of the Blue Jays and the Dolphins. For years, I’ve rooted for teams in divisions where the opposition was so dominant that I felt like I was checked out of my season and asking myself “When does football start?” I hate that type of fandom. I want all fanbases to have something to root for at all times. I recognize that rooting for late-season wins when your team is out of the playoff race isn’t the sexiest form of fandom. I believe that a league isn’t doing its job if it allows fans to give up all hope and interest in following a game. To be clear, I’m not suggesting you need to watch your bad team play bad games but be engaged enough to follow the score while running errands or checking the standings more than once every two weeks. I’ve been there, in all the bad team scenarios and it’s demoralizing when the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays have stacked the deck so high against your team.
I thought it was great when MLB and NHL expanded their playoffs. They game more teams hope to make it to the playoffs where anything can happen. The Wincentive System provides a different version of hope to all fans of all teams all the time, and here is how.
Included in the spreadsheet is a column for Games Back (GB) or, for the NHL Points behind Next Position (PBNP). I think each league tells a compelling story. We’re going to look at two stories in the MLB Wincentive Draft because they are the easiest to tell and the number of games in a season makes the difference from team to team seem small, which is good. The first story we will dissect is the overall picture and how teams can approach a full season. The second story difference between the 8th overall pick and the 16th overall pick.
Everybody Squeeze Together
Overall, there are 48 games that separate the first-overall pick Orioles and the last pick of the first-round Athletics. Both of those teams break the system. The Orioles deserve credit for what they’ve done with their roster and how well their young players are performing. The A’s deserve a new owner. Removing the outliers, we see that the difference between the second-overall and the second-to-last pick is 24 games. If your team was behind by 24 games in the division, you’d write off the season. However, in the Wincentive System, there is no gap larger than three games from 2nd to 29th. There is always a team chasing you and there is always a team to chase.
Even if your team isn’t close to the top 5 picks, there is a group of teams that fans will have interest in on a game-to-game basis. When you’re sick of watching and hoping your division rival will chill out with their win streak, you can turn your attention to the teams close to you in the draft order. Looking at the MLB Sheet, the Padres sit in the 13th pick and a run of 3-4 wins could move them into the top ten. With so many games over the course of the season, and the gaps being so small from one spot to another, the movement on the draft order would be a fascinating story to cover over the course of a season.
Block Party
I may have spoiled the plot a little for this one with the Padres’ example. The second story I want to look at is the block party from the Reds to the Rays. There are 9 teams separated by mostly rounding differences and one jump of 3 games. How much fun would it be to follow one of these blocks within the Wincentive Draft. Your team goes on a winning streak and you graduate out of a middle-of-the-pack block to the top-ten block? The Reds have played better this season and have one of the hottest young player on their team. Their winning ways have them in the top ten. The Rays, who started hotter than any other team have fallen down the list and risk falling into the bottom half of the draft order. In between, there are the Padres who are trying to figure out how to win games consistently with the exceptional talent assembled on their roster and there are the Angels who are trying to do something, anything with two of the best players we will see in our lifetimes. yes, they are injured, but you get my point.
A story like the Rays hot start and recent fall in the standings is its own story. With the Wincentive System, there is another story to tell. A team like the Diamondbacks who have been left behind in their division by the Dodgers, have an interest in how far the Rays could fall. Ironically, the Diamondbacks are also fighting off the Dodgers for their current spot in the draft order.
Fun & Involved
I want fans to feel like they are involved in something at all points during the season. It’s difficult watching your team underperform. It’s easy to write off a season and check in at the end to see how bad it got. When the Wincentive System is in use, there is something to check on a regular basis. Maybe there will be a series that has more meaning because this particular interleague game is made of two teams next to each other in the draft order when neither is fighting for their division lead. Baseball, sports, is about story and the Wincentive System adds sustainability and depth to an already fascinating human struggle.
CHR;)
