[AlpineSK]

How is it that we are on OOTP 23 and the trade logic in this game is so maddingly bad?

I'm playing a historical sim. I started with the 1989 Phillies and I'm in 1991. Difficulty and preference are both 1 click right of center, and my eval settings are 15/50/25/10.

So as you'd expect I'm pretty low in the majors. Its the trade deadline so I thought I'd look around and see who I could sell.

I've got Mark Gubicza in the last year of his contract with a team option for 1992. He admittedly had a good year last year: 10-4 in 26 starts with a league best 2.61 ERA after missing the entirety of the 1989 season with an injury. This year though he's 4-11 with a 4.29 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, 2.3 WAR. So I decided to shop him. Here are some of the players I've been offered 1-for-1 in return:

Jack McDowell (BOS) - The Sox are in first place. McDowell leads the AL in wins and has a 12-4 record with 97 K's. He was signed to a one year deal before this season and recently signed a 5 year $6.6M extension.

Don Robinson (KC) - Free agent after this year. The Royals are in first place as well. Robinson has a 10-5 record with 69 K's. his win total is second best on the team.

Harold Baines (MIL) - .274/12/50. .322 OBP. The Brewers are 7.5 games out of first place.

Andres Galarraga (OAK) - Signed to a FA contract in JANUARY of this year. .309/15/62 with a .343 OBP. Their positional status is the same as Milwaukee's pretty much. Oh, and they traded me McGwire last season.

Scott Sanderson (SEA) - Signed as a free agent in March of this year. 12-4. Tied for the league lead in wins. 3.27 ERA. Seattle is 2 games out of first place.

Rafael Palmeiro (TEX) - Extension signed prior to 1990 season. .248/10/47. He's 26 with marginal stats, but just signed last season to a longer term deal.

Mark Grace (CHC) - .318/9HR/52 RBI. .368 OBP. Arbitration eligible after this year. Chicago is near the bottom of the NL East with me.

Bob Welch (CIN) - 11-7, 2.96 ERA. 3.4 WAR. Signed a 4 year $12M deal prior to this season.

Danny Jackson (NYM) - Signed through 1992. He's currently 8-1 with 12 saves, a 1.80 ERA, and 59 K's in 85 IP. The Mets are in first place.

That's just a sample of the offers that I've gotten for mediocre players and the theme that seems to usually rein supreme is the AI is very quick to unload bigger contracts regardless of when they were signed. Like recently signed players from teams at the top of their division are available.

How is it that we are in the 24th version of this game and "Contract" is not something that we can add to the AI evaluation weight???

Year after year this has been a problem and year after year we read how the "Trade AI was improved" but I have seen very little difference over the last five or six years. I police my own trades, but why do I have to? And why do I have to sit and watch the AI make ho-hum boring trades with each other?

/rant