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Ran the sim discussed above for an additional six years (11 total). At the end of the span, 19 teams were in the red at the start of the season--this balanced out at about year 9 and actually decreased a bit by year 11. No team was deeply in the red and no team had hoarded cash. Only three teams in year 11 had budgets projected in the red -- all by small amounts. No teams would be shut out from signing free agents or extensions in any of the 11 years. All good free agents had signed before the season, except in two instances about year 8 and 9, and both of those had signed by May 2 of the season.
Median total salaries balanced out at about 119 million by year 7 and didn't move after that. Top salaries didn't get out of whack, either. In year 11, no player had a contract bigger than ARod right now. A few years in there was one wacky contract (Lincecum) and he renewed later at a more normal rate.
Just one sim, but I think a high cash max helps the AI balance out the highs and lows of contract cycles without free agents going unsigned--and I saw no instances of cash hoarding and only one marginally wacky free agent contract in 11 years. You could argue real baseball has one wacky contract per decade, too.
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