What's the largest contract you've offered a free agent in the offseason?

[Blackmissiongoggles]

I'm the GM of the rockies and I just locked Yu Darvish down for $130m over six years and I'm already experiencing buyer's remorse.

[NoOne]

yeah, way too old and not good enough in ootp to warrant that contract.

no problem... keep for 1-2-3 years or so and trade as soon as you find a willing partner and worthwhile trade. day 1 of FA tends to give most budget space and most possible partners to choose from.

as long as you don't keep him until he starts to dip in ratings, you shouldn't be hurt by the contract. watching him have 2-3 good years elsewhere is bettern than 1-2 bad years with oyu @ 20+M/year.

in general, about 10% of my total payroll is the max i'll spend on 1 player -- assumes near default financial settings for quality of player / baseline salary settings.

lately i use a 250M hard cap, so i won't sign someone for more than 25-30M a year... an extreme situation might cause for an exemption from that rule.... it's not meant to be yes/no... more of a large maybe area depending on context.

but, a ~25-30M/yr player on my team better be a first ballot HoF type quality player for me to spend that much on 1 player. durability is a huge part too. heck, even a 20-25M/yr player better be a no doubter too.

[Blackmissiongoggles]

Originally Posted by NoOne

yeah, way too old and not good enough in ootp to warrant that contract.

no problem... keep for 1-2-3 years or so and trade as soon as you find a willing partner and worthwhile trade. day 1 of FA tends to give most budget space and most possible partners to choose from.

as long as you don't keep him until he starts to dip in ratings, you shouldn't be hurt by the contract. watching him have 2-3 good years elsewhere is bettern than 1-2 bad years with oyu @ 20+M/year.

in general, about 10% of my total payroll is the max i'll spend on 1 player -- assumes near default financial settings for quality of player / baseline salary settings.

lately i use a 250M hard cap, so i won't sign someone for more than 25-30M a year... an extreme situation might cause for an exemption from that rule.... it's not meant to be yes/no... more of a large maybe area depending on context.

but, a ~25-30M/yr player on my team better be a first ballot HoF type quality player for me to spend that much on 1 player. durability is a huge part too. heck, even a 20-25M/yr player better be a no doubter too.

Great advice. The contract was mostly triggered by the desperate want of a stable pitching presence in Colorado (Jon Grey's arm exploded, so there's a not insignificant amount of panic going on.) Darvish performed well the previous year, so hopefully his decline doesn't start for a few more years.

Still have another $19m left for free agents, but I'm reluctant to spend more than a couple of million on any single FA after Yu's massive contract. Should help ticket sales if nothing else.

[r0nster]

signed a international free agent $25 mil/ yr for 10 years he was 25 years old. was a gamble and it paid off

[joejccva71]

Originally Posted by NoOne

lately i use a 250M hard cap, so i won't sign someone for more than 25-30M a year... .

So if you had the chance to sign Kershaw to $33mil a year you wouldn't do it?

[pgjocki]

Originally Posted by joejccva71

So if you had the chance to sign Kershaw to $33mil a year you wouldn't do it?

Personally I wouldn't sign Kershaw (or any starting pitcher) to a $30+ million a year contract. If you had that much available you could most likely get a stud position player who will play 160 games verse a guy who will play somewhere between 30 and 35 depending upon how you use your starters and rest days.

Plus, you could get a stud for $20-$25 million and spend the remaining $10 million on the bullpen with guys who will pitch more frequently than a starter. If you sign Kershaw and he gets hurt then you have set back your team with almost no hope of competing until either he's healthy or you get out from under the contract.

[ThePretender]

305/7

For the majority of my time with this player my payroll would still be under 150M and I have a budget of 190M. Some of you might be like whoaaa that's so much money, but the thing is, my payroll would have been under 100-110M for the majority of the time I had that player otherwise. Might as well take advantage of the fact I'm making so much money and I've managed my payroll effectively. So I'm still at max cash and making a profit, and can add whatever pieces I need.

[Rosco Peabody]

I once signed a guy to a contract that gave him $50 million in the first year, but the reason was that I had tons of cap room. It was $50 million in the first year, $30 million in the second year and $15 million for three years after that instead of doing $25 million per year for 5 years.

The reason was I had tons of cap room in the first few years and I would have less in the last years as quality youngsters were reaching arbitration.

I also signed two young stars in their rookie seasons to 10 year, 14 million dollar a year deals, knowing that it was a waste for the first few years. Now in their seventh season where they are stars, they would be making $25-30 million in the open market, but I have them locked down for $14

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by joejccva71

So if you had the chance to sign Kershaw to $33mil a year you wouldn't do it?

if it was a 7-10 year contract i'd be looking to trade by 31,32,33 etc... the moment his ratings dip or ages too much you get 1/2 the return or possibly nothing... and 33m in costs for multiple years with ~no return.

extreme situations are desperate ones. Blackmissiongoggles's reply as to why makes perfect sense. he still has to trade him within 2-3 years. you can't ignore the very likely effects of age. (some defy it, but you cannot predict this)

starting a new game i see this, occasionally, but as time passes i will rarely be pigeon-holed into 1 choice for a top-5 SP for that season, and i have no concerns about trading a player in year 2 of a long-term contract if i do have to take the more expensive choice.

trading isn't all gravy... it doesn't gaurantee 1:1 replacement or better, but something is always better than nothing or 'much less.' this is somethign you ahve to be religious about and trade while still in the last glimmer of their prime and not too old.

if you get your ~conconsistent draft returns + IFA surprises + constant re-stocking of mil prospects from 2-3 trades per year of ~good players reaching age ~28-32, you can easily have a "top" prospect or multiple good choices in the pipeline already to replace them.

it's easy to have ~1/2 or more of your team on club control at all times... and, that allows for a lot of money to splurge when desperate. when you do splurge, it must be short-term and exit strategies for big contracts.

If i think a supplemental draft pick is better than the trade opportunities, then i let them leave via FA... for any good player this is unlikely. if contract is too lng or expensive, they must be traded before they are a problem.

it's okay to see a former player succeed for 2-3+ years somewhere else... just look back in the last few years of their terrible contract and see how that team does. they'll be so hamstrung it will take extreme luck to have a winning team - the AI that is.

Frontloading > backloading almost all the time. you should backload only when there is no other choice. i typically stick to same value each year, but could definitely squeeze a few extra dollars here and there if i jigsawed it a bit more in this context.

every market size/stadium size has a payroll cap you can't exceed -- not much different than a hard cap, but different for each team. few players are worth the "max" contracts you see (think top-few on payroll report). the AI often overpays. Don't be like the AI

harper, trout, kershaw these are guys you pay the most in the league and not feel too bad about it (ootp ratings, not RL neccessarily). a power hitter that strikes out 250 times a year probably isn't going to maintain those MVP numbers for lng. it just takes a little common sense. these guys better be ~consistent performers for 10years or more during their career. it easy to "see" who these players are with accurate ratings.