[Anthropoid]

Ah thanks Peregrine.

Strange thing is that, in this 1902 era sim, all my players have (free agent) listed.

Anyway, it seems that players who are on your roster have their contract renewed the day after the end of the playoffs (immediately before the championship I guess). So if one really wanted to intervene, I suppose you could be certain to stop the game on the day before, fire them and then try to rehire them. Using Commissioner mode it might even work out okay.

A related aspect of the game that I find slightly limiting: I cannot poach other GM's much better coaching staff.

Seems to me that money talks, and if I were to offer to buy out your existing contract, and up your pay by 50% _and_ I am GM of the team that just won the pennant . . . I think most coaches would move in the direction of the dollars when they heard that tune!

So it would be neat if there were an option or two in the interface, which would exist across all times at which it legitimately did or could have existed, which allows a GM to buy out, i.e., poach, other coaches, or at least to say "I want you when your contract expires . . ." With players I can see it being a different story, and a player sticking to his/her contract might be more of an honor-bound thing.

With this in mind, I have just made some strategic use of the Commissioner mode. I played as the coach of five teams with the coaches I wanted, fired them, logged in as myself, offered them a five year contract making 150% what they were making before, and then after they all agreed, I deducted $8,000 from my annual budget (about what it would've cost to buy out all of their contracts with about two years remaining). I feel like my team is pretty bad ass now. Best coaches in the league, the two best pitchers (Cy Young and Addie Joss, who also won rookie of the year, and whom I traded from Philly!), the hitter of the year (Nap Lajoie) and several other star players (Jimmy Barnett, Honus Wagner, John J. Andersen, etc.). With the first year drafts done, I have a nice crop of promising rookies, all of my positions have at least one utility (and I actually have two or three multi-role players) and I have 5 pitchers with 100 stamina plus another 3 who are half-decent relievers.

I decided to give my rookies a chance to get experience so I logged into commissioner mode again and setup a grueling 4-game away series with every other team in the Major Leages (about 15 of them I think). That will take them from early November to about late February, when they can get some rest before spring training. I've got so many relievers and utilities I cannot imagine anyone will get too exhausted.

Not sure how the development algorithms work, but I'm hoping that playing keeps their skills fresh and growing.