In RT you can end up with 8 of the top 75 players.

In each RT monthly draft there were at least 5 good prospects that helped losing teams. Thus the bottom 5 teams could have gained 5 good prospects during the year.

In the upcoming rookie draft another 3 players can be picked up in the first three rounds, meaning you end up with 8 players from the top 75 rookies.

So lets compare RT to Traditional. Drafting in the top 5 of the traditional draft will give you 4 of the top 75 guys from the previous year.

I will agree that if you have just under .500 its going to be more difficult to rebuild since you will draft around 7-12 which will usually only get you marginal prospects.

This means if you know you won't make the playoffs, trade away aging veterans for prospects and picks, dump high PB value guys, and keep trading to insure that you are a bottom feeder.

I kept peddling Eckstein last year because he was killing my PB value and I didn't believe he was going to be around 3-5 years from know. Dumping him insured my bottom feeder status. At no times did I ever throw any games, and actually spoiled a couple playoff team's chances towards the later part of the year.

I've noticed that you don't need to throw games to finish poorly(and wish other teams wouldn't do this). Just trade a couple top, older guys for prospects or picks, thus you can put out your best team and its still going to be worse than any teams you face(much like the Royals or Pirates).