Fire that GM immediately!

[Cobby]

This is really a bug report - but it's also a somewhat entertaining baseball story, so I thought I'd post it here.
(sorry, it's a bit long - but I'm having fun writing it)

Here's the situation:

It's July 22, 1898 - about a week before the trading deadline. I'm GM/managing the AL Buffalo Hoggees. We're a powerhouse team and leading the league in pitching, but are having trouble scoring runs. Six of our opening day position players have spent time on the DL and currently our entire starting outfield, plus the fourth outfielder, are on the DL.

Starting left-fielder, Ulysses Adams, is out with a sprained ankle and due back in a couple weeks. Right-fielder Pete Hinshaw is down with a strained hamstring - due back in a week or so. Center-fielder Crusher Shook (love that name!) is recovering from a bad concussion and won't be back for a month or possibly two. Our fourth outfielder, Billy Fennell, is also out with a strained hamstring and not due back for another month.

But despite the devastated outfield, we have good depth and some talented youngsters and are hanging in there in third place, just a game and a half behind Philadelphia.

At this point I get a trade offer from Providence. Providence is currently tied with Chicago atop the NL. They're leading the league in hitting but have mediocre pitching. They've offered their star CF, 27-year-old Brian Huff, for our hall-of-fame bound, but aging pitcher, 33-year-old Pete Sherman plus a top prospect.

Now, most of the time I just dismiss the AI trade offers out of hand, but this one actually makes sense. It would be an exciting blockbuster deal near the deadline that addresses the needs of both teams and stirs up controversy (and possibly pain) amongst the fans. Delicious. It's less painful for me - we're desperate for outfield help and Brian Huff is one of the best. He's clearly the best defensive center-fielder out there and no slouch at the plate either, a former MVP. He's also a fan favorite with the scout's personality blurb saying "Huff is one of the game's most beloved players".

Sherman is also no slouch. This is 19th century baseball where pitchers almost always pitch complete games, and lots of them. It's not uncommon for the best pitchers to accumulate 15 WAR in a season. Sherman, at just 33 years old and and after 12 years has already accumulated 87 WAR and is almost certainly hall-of-fame bound. He's had four 10+ WAR seasons, lead the league in ERA twice, has a lifetime ERA+ of 133 and won one "Best Pitcher" award. He's 33, but my scout hasn't detected any ratings decline yet. He'd be the ace on most clubs, including Providence, but he's just the 4th or 5th best pitcher on our team. It would be nice to keep him around for depth and sentimentality, but we can afford to lose him.

So, it's a good deal for both of us. This is the year that the standard starting rotation went from three to four, so many teams - including Providence - really need pitching. I negotiate with the Providence GM, reach a deal that substitutes a mid-to-low level prospect for the top prospect they originally asked for, and the deal is done.

Huff energizes our offense, we get some of our injured outfielders back and start scoring runs in bunches. We end up winning the AL by 7 games. Providence comes in second in the NL, 3 games behind Chicago.

So, on to the World Series. Imagine my surprise when we face (and lose to) none other than Pete Sherman in game 1 of the World Series. Wait a minute. How'd he end up with Chicago?

(and now here's the bug report)

I check his history and find:

07/22/1898: Was traded by the Buffalo Hoggees to the Providence Grays, along with 3B Harry Bryant, in exchange for CF Brian Huff, $2,000 ... Released by the Providence Grays

08/10/1898: Signed a 1-year contract worth a total of $1,017 with the Chicago Beagles organization

So. Providence makes this beautiful but painful and necessary deadline deal, getting much needed pitching help, but giving up their "beloved" center-fielder. Then they release their new pitcher the same day???? Then he signs with their league rival and helps the rival win the pennant? Oddly enough, they kept the low-level prospect that was part of the deal. Also, a quick check of their reserve roster shows any one of several scrubs they could have released instead. No one on their pitching staff is anywhere close to the quality of Pete Sherman. Any of them could have been released instead also.

I've heard about the bug where teams keep releasing and re-signing players over and over, and that this has something to do with the reserve roster limit. I suspect someone has already reported a bug similar to this one, and this is probably also related to having a reserve roster limit, but I haven't checked through the bug-reports, so I don't know for sure.

I do like having a reserve roster limit since it imposes some constraint in the era when teams are rolling in cash and could easily afford to hoard everyone on their reserve rosters if the rosters were unlimited. But. Maybe I'll have to re-think this until the bug is fixed. (I should say that I'm waiting for 18 and haven't got the absolute latest version of 17 installed - I'm on 17.8 build 54, so maybe this has already been addressed...)

If not though, does anyone know of good work-around that preserves the constraints of having roster limits but prevents the AI from messing up?...

[bwburke94]

Originally Posted by Cobby

(I should say that I'm waiting for 18 and haven't got the absolute latest version of 17 installed - I'm on 17.8 build 54, so maybe this has already been addressed...)

Has been addressed.

[Reggie]

I enjoyed reading your story. I love the realism some people add to the game with reports like this ( minus the bug part )