I agree with everything Ken G said. But to go into more detail....


Your veteran middle of the road (league average) guys are no longer commodities so its very hard to move them. And since a guy that is league average in MLB is now a replacement level guy in a 20 team PB league it means that instead of striving to obtain good players you have to strive to obtain superstars.... which makes it even harder for the bad teams to rebuild. You can get lucky and get some useful players in a free agent draft... but you don't find superstars there.

Examples

A guy like Millar goes from being useful to being marginally above replacement level.

Tino Martinez goes from being marginally acceptable (in MLB) to being a liability in 20 team PB.

I remember 3 years ago I was in a 20 team league and I couldn't give Kenny Lofton away. Now granted Lofton hasn't been a star for quite some time. But 3 years ago he was a useful player in MLB... but in PB noone wanted him.

I participate in a non-PB 20 team league that is based on the APBA game. 2 weeks ago I offered Tim Salmon up for trade and I got NO offers (unless you count the guy that would only take Salmon if I also traded him Kearns).