[Ts-Rock]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

I beg to differ on this one. I don't have any hard evidence, merely anecdotal, but from everything I've seen, the AI doesn't care if you have 2 outfielders or 7. There is currently no way to tell a player that you're giving them the starting job during contract negotiations, so if a guy expects a spot in the starting lineup, as indicated on his profile page, he's going to assume that's the job you're offering him. Even if you have 6 other outfielders who all expect to start. You'll quickly have a morale issue on your hands, but I do not believe it affects a player signing - something that really should be added to the game for realism purposes.

I'm just going off my personal experience in the game. In my online lg (BSA) one of the best teams would constantly offer good FA (mid season) contracts and kept losing them to other teams who were a little to a lot worst and for less money. One of the things that stood out was the really good team was loaded up at 1B (3 Deep, 4 Stars) and several FA kept NOT signing with him and choose lesser teams for lesser money but instantly become starters.

so while I don't have anecdotal evidence, (much like does protection in a lineup actually help hitters) I do believe it is a factor, not a HUGE factor, but a factor none the less