[Solonor]

Originally Posted by dougaiton

Finances in the roster set are shot to the heavens. For example, many teams have over $20million in player expenses, and are predicted a -$16million balance on the end of the year, so they can't resign any players or hold onto arb eligible guys.

Then, when the cash balance wears off one season in, they all have millions of dollars floating around, which they use to sign Jose Molina to 15mil per, 4 year contract. With these new ludicrously unbalanced payrolls, some teams can't afford to sign any FAs the nest season, and a ton of reasonable players retire. While some teams have payroll deficits of $30mil, others have $50mil to spend. It's boom-and-bust to a whole new level.

Maybe there's an underlying bug here, or maybe its just another reason why releasing a 'realistic' roster set is such a can of worms. Without offence to anyone, I find it difficult to believe the roster set was really properly checked for the financial side of things going forward - completely understandable, considering the work needed to go into the ratings alone - but right now, the roster set is not where it should be in terms of financial 'stability'.

And before people chip in with the ol' 'OOTP doesn't know names' stuff, I know that. Problem is, it doesn't seem to know ratings either, when it comes to the finances in the roster set. Perhaps it might be best to click 'generate player contracts', then 'generate finances', before starting? I'd rather have stable than perfect.

I think this is absolutely the main reason for this scenario...except that I think there's another, underlying issue in FA decisions...

Do you really think a still viable baseball player is going to quit the game just because he doesn't get paid enough? Hell, it's hard to get rid of NON-viable players (*cough* Schilling *cough*).

To be sure, a player like A-Rod demands a high salary. But the only reason he gets it is because it's available. If no team offered him that much, he'd take the highest offer and play. He might grumble and charge collusion. He might even sit out a few weeks or even an entire season, but I doubt that he'll retire forever. And even if he did, would that happen to EVERY player? Not likely.

So, I think that the real problem here is that the player AI is too quick to retire and too unwilling to accept the high bid. A player that wants to play and that is desired by even the worst team in the league should be playing...even if he takes a pay cut.