you had the choice between Eck's third season and his third reliever season (and, technically, his third best starter season)...
Logically, why would all three be allowed?You really thought it was cool to do whatever just because a guy spent time as both a reliever and a starter? You really needed the word "could" to have been replaced with "must" to have known better?
The only reason no one ever posted "must" is that discussion on this topic occured on the fly. The "could" phrase was part of what was then a proposal. Well, that proposal was later adopted by
non-referential assent. Non-referential assent means an "OK, all agreed" from the gallery rather than the specific proposal being repeated back as a rule:
Non-referential assent:
A: Maybe for guys like Eck, we could use either third season as a SP, or third as a RP? That would be fair.
B, C, D, E: OK, that sounds fair, good idea, let's do it.
Referential assent:
A: Maybe for guys like Eck, we could use either third season as a SP, or third as a RP? That would be fair.
B: OK, then, here's the rule: for guys like Eck, one
must use either third season as a SP,
or third as a RP.
A, C, D, E: We are all in favor of adopting that rule.
...
Now then. For the purposes of this draft, isn't non-referential assent sufficient? Isn't it enough to get a widespread "OK" from the members in discussion (aka a
quorum)? Did we really have to consult Robert's Rules of Order every time a question came up?
It's not life or death here -- it's a message-board draft. There was an unspoken assumption early on that as rule ambiguities arose, we could kinda just figure out a fair way to deal with them on the fly with little muss or fuss.
Did
Capella really need to write a manifesto on how this draft would be conducted? Did every "i" need to be dotted? Couldn't we count on a sense of fair play and plain old common sense among the participants?
.