Just reading through all of this, I wanted to add the point that I don't think teams tank
to get a better draft pick. This isn't the NBA where obtaining the top college star can turn your frachise around almost immediately. There is very little correlation between where a team picks in the draft, and how good those draft picks end up being (there IS some, just not a lot, and it takes several years for them to develop). (
This somewhat dated article measures this - it shows top 5 picks get an average of 9 WAR before becoming FAs, mid round picks get 4 WAR. A difference of 5 WAR from a player over several seasons isn't going to be franchise changing). Anecdotally, I recall how excited we all were when we had four 1st round picks in 2011. And we ended up with Matt Barnes, Blake Swihart, Henry Owens, and JBJ. Not a bad haul, but not exactly franchise-changing moves even though there were a couple of all-stars there. However, in the 5th round, on the 172nd overall pick, we drafted a small second baseman out of high school - Markus Lynn something. And for every Bryce Harper picked #1 overall, there is a Brady Aiken or Mark Appel, or even Kumar Rocker who everyone was salivating about for the past two years.
Anyhow... I think teams do tank, but it's inadvertent. They're not TRYING to lose more games. But once they are out of playoff contention they will (1) trade stars on expiring contracts for some prospects and/or (2) call up minor leaguers to see what they have and take away playing time from starters. Both of these things affect how many games a team is going to win, and that is why teams that are in the lower half of the standings end up doing even worse towards the end of the season. So I don't think all the talk about changing the draft system would change this at all.