What Would You Do?

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Here are a bunch of hypothetical situations that a GM/Coach/Manager may find themselves in. What choice would you make?

1. You're the GM of the Pittsburgh Steelers and you have the 25th pick in the NFL draft. This draft is considered fairly shallow, and there is player available to you that you think is worth first-round money. You have tried to trade down, with no luck. At the last minute, a team outside your conference (thus, a team that you do not directly compete with...we'll say the Dallas Cowboys for this example) offers you the following: Every single 7th-round pick the Cowboys get in the future for the 25th overall pick in this year's draft. Do you make the trade?

2. You're the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Your ace pitcher, who won 21 and 23 games the last two years, has 19 wins going into the last game of the season, and has a clause in his contract that gives him a $5 million bonus if he reaches 20 wins in three consecutive seasons. He pitched three days ago, and left the game complaining of pain in his shoulder. He asks if he can take the mound on two days rest to try to get a win and his $5 million bonus. He says his arm is fine, but you don't know for sure. Your team has no shot of making the playoffs, so you do not need a win in this game, or to save the ace pitcher for a playoff series. Do you let him start?

I'll try to think of some more to add later. It's off to lunch for me now...

Suntan Superman

WC's Resident Samoan

I'd give it thought, but the trade needs to be fathomable, I mean you won't get the same value out of umpteen 7th round picks as you will the 25th pick. And since when did Ditka coach/GM the Cowboys? Lol
IF I'm in the playoff series he gets Game 1 plain and simple, if we're so far out of the race it's not funny, then i'd give him the ball, he'd have the entire off-season to rest >.<

Jayman

Super Moderator

1. I'm assuming you are talking about as the Steelers are right now this season, thus we would be talking about the 2007 draft. I see them as a wild-card team at best currently, so I don't know how important a 25th overall pick is to them at the moment. Although, trading away this pick means you don't have a first round pick. I would pass up this trade. I know there have been players picked in the late rounds that have turned out to be gems, and we would be possibly talking about possible multiple 7th round picks in some drafts...but this seems a bit much. By the 7th round, how much talent is really still available? I would hold onto my 25th round pick, and take the best available talent this year. If the trade was for maybe all the 5th round picks, that would be considerable.

2. If I was the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates (a horrible team), I would do whatever I could to make sure my top talent, especially a 20+ game winning pitcher, is very happy by the end of the season. Who knows, he might be a free agent soon. Since we won't be making the playoffs, I also think it might give the players something to play for in the late September game by helping a teammate obtain a bonus. I'm sure the other players would back this decision. My hope would be that the pitcher wouldn't blow out his arm during the game and hurt his chances of starting next season.

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Blitzkrieg

Administrator

What the.. well, I'm fairly sure the 1st scenerio would never happen but if it did I guess I'd have to take that offer. That's a lot of freakin picks and you know how some 7th rounders can turn into diamonds in the rough..

The second one.. I'd let him start the game after an MRI proved he was healthy going into it. This guy is someone I want to keep happy and you know how hard it is for the Pirates to keep their players. They need to do something like that to show they aren't complete jackoffs that will never compete.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Good answers guys...I enjoyed reading the thought process you guys had when considering these situations (as unlikely as they are to truly occur)

Here are a few more I thought of:

3. You are both the head coach and the GM of the Philadelphia 76ers. Throughout the season, there has been bad blood between your team and the New Jersey Nets. In fact, the last time you played the Nets, there was a bench-clearing brawl.

You play the Nets in the last game of the regular season, with your team tied for the #4 seed and the Nets tied for the #8 spot. The tiebreakers are such that a Nets win guarantees them a spot in the playoffs, and if you beat the Nets, they finish out of the playoffs. Also, a win guarantees you home-court in the first round, and a loss guarantees you the 5 seed.

Last year (before all the bad blood), you made a trade with the Nets that included a conditional pick. Namely, you receive the Nets first-round pick, so long as it is not a lottery pick (basically, you would get the 15th overall pick in the draft if the Nets beat you). The draft is considered deep, with a great deal of talent available.

Would you intentionally lose the final game of the regular season, costing yourself home-court advantage in the first round, in order to get the draft pick from the Nets?

4. You are the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. As time expires in regulation, you have just scored a TD, and you trail the opposing team by one point, pending the PAT.

Earlier in the game, your kicker was injured while making a tackle on a kickoff return. Your punter tried handling the field goal/PAT responsibilities, but missed badly on two PAT attempts and a chip-shot field goal. However, he did make his last PAT attempt and says he thinks he's got the hang of it. You asked your team if anybody else has any experience kicking, and nobody said a word. Your punter is your only option at kicker.

Your offense is a league-average offense, playing a league-average defense.

So, do you send your punter out to attempt the PAT and try to win it in OT, or do you go for two and decide the game right then and there?

5. You are the owner of the Kansas City Royals. Your team has struggled financially for several years, even after revenue-sharing is taken into account. Because of your recent lack of success, no free agents want to sign with you. Your GM has attempted to reach contract extensions with some of your good young players, but they usually leave as soon as they become free agents.

An extremely wealthy Latino businessman approaches you and offers you the following deal: For each of the next 10 years, if you field an all-Latino team, he will give you $50 million a year at the end of the season, to use toward salaries for talented players (as long as they are Latino).

Your 25-man roster is currently composed of 15 Latinos and 10 non-Latinos, and your 10 non-Latinos are all tradable players (i.e. no bad contracts, no injury problems, no bad attitudes, etc.). In the most recent season, Latinos made up 60% of all MLB players, so there is a wealth of talented Latino players out there.

Do you make the deal with the businessman?

Jayman

Super Moderator

3. I would definitely not lose the game on purpose. As a GM/Coach, I would believe in winning "now", not "later". As long as my team is right there in the hunt, I would do everything in my power to make sure my team wins the game, and gains home court advantage. The draft pick could end up being for a player that is the future of the game...however it could also be a bust pick, so I wouldn't be willing to take that gamble.

4. As tough as it is to say, I would go for the win. Even if your shaky kicker scores the PAT, you still need to go into overtime, where it might come down to kicking a field goal with your punter. I would bypass that altogether and probably give the ball to A-Train, and have him plow in for 2 points. From what you said above, he is 33% with his kicks currently. This would scare me. Putting him in a do-or-die situation might be too much pressure for a punter, and cause him to miss the XP.

5. I know this is a pretty tough decision to just quickly make, but for the sake of discussion I will say "yes" to the deal. The Royals have been a horrid team for years now, and nothing short of a "kick in the rear" would turn the team around. Mixing up close to half your roster, while scary, might just give the team the boost it needs.

Looking at it from the "big picture", having an All-Latino team would get some buzz going for MLB in general. Fans would be interested in seeing how the team does, and could generate new fans for the sport. It's like back in the 90's when the Red Wings had "The Russian 5", a line of all Soviet players. They were fun to watch together.

Although, the other side of this argument is you could possibly be passing up on some major possible players, assuming they were non-Latino. Granted, the Tigers turned their team around in 1 year, as did the White Sox...but I think with the Royals it might take quite some time to turn them into a playoff team. 10 years of Latino players might hurt them by year 7 or 8, but I would think I'd take that gamble.

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Simon

Founder/Admin

1. Take the 7th round picks. Easily. Stockpile as much as you can. You could always use those as chips for trading for some veterans down the line or finding that rare stud in the 7th round. Plus its only giving up 1 pick.

2. HELL NO. Only reason I say no is because he just left the prior game with arm pain. I would also tell him he needs to wait his turn just like everyone else. Especially when it could cost him millions more down the line. In the long run its thinking of the pitchers health. A pitcher will never tell you he is tired or sore.

3. Take Home Court advantage. Anyone that constantly looks to the future never benefits in the now. Not to mention even in a deep NBA draft the talent always drops off after 7 or 8.

4. I go for the PAT. The law of averages tell you that its better odds. Also, its snowing in my scenario. =)

5. No, because its discrimination. Plus it would be hard to field all Latinos for 10 straight years.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

3. The NBA is about matchups.. If you get homecourt in the 1st round, there's a solid opportunity that you could have a winable series in the second round. I'd rather take my chances on the year that I already have in the bag then to tank the final game for a hit/miss draft pick.

If I'm getting an Oden, my answer may be different.

4. I've seen this exact thing happen numerous times. I don't like OT in the NFL to begin with. If it was college and I'm assured a possession, I kick the PAT which is still percentage wise going to be around the same or even better then making the two. However, you've dealt with this problem all game, you might not even get the ball in OT, so I go for the win now. If you can't gain 3 yards then you don't deserve to win the game.

5. I don't make the deal. I'm not going to pass up possibly the next Chipper Jones or Derek Jeter just because I need Latino players. If I'm the Royals, I have to start spending money somewhere. Start in the farm system and sign players you consider "locks" to be solid or all-star caliber to long contract extensions. Maybe in a few years you can get something going. If not, move the team to Vegas.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

OK, here are my answers:

1. Yes, I would make the trade. Sure, the vast majority of 7th-round picks don't become stars, but you may pick up an occasional special teamer/fringe starter, not to mention the occasional diamond-in-the-rough like Marques Colston, TJ Houshmandzadeh, and Donald Driver. Plus there's probably like a 25-30% chance that the guy you pick at #25 is a bust, and an expensive one at that.

2. No way I let the kid pitch. I'd be putting his career in jeopardy, and pitching on short rest for a bad team means there's a pretty good chance he wouldn't even get the $5 million. As good as he is, he'll have plenty of time to make millions of dollars in the future. No sense risking his career

3. This is tough. But, when it all comes down to it, I'd probably play straight-up and consider it a win-win. If I give it my all and my team wins, then I get home-court advantage in the first round. If I give it my all and I lose, I get a somewhat decent draft pick. So, I play to win. If my playoff position was guaranteed (like, if I had the 4 seed no matter what) I'd definitely tank the game

4. I'd go for 2. Even if you trust the punter to kick a PAT, I wouldn;t trust him to kick anything more than an absolute chip shot field goal, so if I get the ball in OT, I have to hope to score a TD, because I can't rely on a FG. So, when you add up the odds of the punter missing the PAT, the odds of losing the coin toss in OT and the other team scoring without me touching the ball, and the odds of not being able to get the ball in the end zone and having to rely on an awful kicker, I go for 2 in regulation and settle the game right then and there.

5. No, I would not take the deal, mainly because of the bad PR that would come from discriminating against other races. I would explore other financing options. Plus, what if you sign a bunch of Latin players that end up being busts, and you passed up on white, black, or Asian players that turn out to be better? Plus, if the player's no you're forced to sign only Latin players, they can drive up their salary requests, since they know your options are limited.