i just spent another few minutes looking over the TL, and certain realities are dawning on me:
1) the prices are making the enormous cost of training players much more competitive. up till the last season or two, i always thought that taking an 18 year old and spending the better part of 8 seasons bringing that fellow up to a high level (through an appropriately capable trainer) was, in addition to the time, a very expensive process -- to buy such a player for $2 or $3 million, that was not a tough decision. now those same players are double, sometimes triple that, and training your star(s) is much more plausible.
2) especially if you draft and keep such a player. i look with envy at Dunkface's job with Glass, and realize that is the way a player should be developed, and the benefits with merchandise probably cut his salary by i figure a third, maybe more.
3) this means the rhythm of running a franchise has build - peak - rebuild pattern built into the cake, and that such a process is 8 - 10 seasons.
i am in despair because i realize how i have been playing this game can not be sustained. right now, i am looking at the Yankees model, buying aging stars and pay them hefty salaries to watch them decline. i see Yuck and hrudey doing exciting things, and even A-Dubs cheerfully look forward to a rebuild, and realize at some point i just gotta get in line and learn this new version of BB.
