One change that would more allow bad teams to more quickly rebuild is to set the draft order by standings for the monthly free agent drafts. This year, several top prospects became elegible during the year. Sure, Beckett went to a lottery team at the start, but in many leagues, Prior, Myers, and other promising rookies went to top teams because of the random picking order.

Regarding contraction, it is unfortunate. It does detract from the realism because it creates such supper teams. With a decent team in a 20-team league, a manager can custom design their team for every opponent and have their super platoons ready for LH starting pitchers. 24 Team leagues are much prefered. More owners would of course be the optimal solution.