Draft Pick Negotiations

[subtle]

Unless someone has more relevant information, what I understand about real MLB draft negotiations is that the drafting club generally makes an opening offer pretty quickly and it's either below slot or slot but that's just where negotiations start. Both sides want to draw the other side out a little in order to push them closer to the deadline to put heat on them to compromise.

What's upsetting me about draft negotiations in OOTP is that I'll offer a player with an unknown demand slot during the draft and then I get cut out of negotiations immediately. I haven't had draft negotiations turned on for a long time, so I didn't realize this is how the video game version works.

This just isn't how it works in real life...

[Arobbins]

Um not quite sure what you're trying to say here but.. Unknown usually means they won't sign unless you offer a ridiculous bonus amount. They will decline slot if they're "impossible" to draft. Basically they think they are day one starters for a ML club and if you don't pay them like such they will re-enter the next year regardless. They will not negotiate.

[Drstrangelove]

Originally Posted by Arobbins

Um not quite sure what you're trying to say here but.. Unknown usually means they won't sign unless you offer a ridiculous bonus amount. They will decline slot if they're "impossible" to draft. Basically they think they are day one starters for a ML club and if you don't pay them like such they will re-enter the next year regardless. They will not negotiate.

Agreed. I've signed lots of impossible players, even impossible slot players, except one who was impossible, in a slot, and had an "unknown" for his demand. Negotiations also ended instantly. Iirc, it looked like when I tried to meet his demand, it determined that negotiations should end.

[r0nster]

I no longer even attempt to sign impossible players. Thus I do the drafting myself for at least half the draft because I don't want the AI drafting impossible ones as they want 7 figures for little talent

[subtle]

Originally Posted by Arobbins

Um not quite sure what you're trying to say here but.. Unknown usually means they won't sign unless you offer a ridiculous bonus amount. They will decline slot if they're "impossible" to draft. Basically they think they are day one starters for a ML club and if you don't pay them like such they will re-enter the next year regardless. They will not negotiate.

That's not the point of the post. The point is the draft in OOTP doesn't resemble how MLB draft negotiations work. If they want to improve Challenge Mode, in which you can't turn off draft negotiations, then they should work on it.

[Juggernt]

DrStrangeglove

What's your strategy for signing impossible players? Does it involve throwing lots of money at them?

[dbqs]

When you go to the draft pick signing screen it has the player's expected amount at the bottom, it should say something like "would need a bonus of significantly more than [X] to consider signing."

Most impossible players it seems you have to make a sky-high offer. But some I've drafted have a message saying like, they only need a bonus of more than $500,000 or so to consider signing. So a working offer may be within the recommended slot bonus. But there's not too many of those, most demand in the 2-4 million range I find.

[Drstrangelove]

Originally Posted by Juggernt

DrStrangeglove

What's your strategy for signing impossible players? Does it involve throwing lots of money at them?

I've found that offering 50% over their demand amount works well. So, a $4mm demand leads to a $6mm offer; an $800k demand leads to $1.2mm. So far, out of 4 or 5 offers, I've been successful every time. That's obviously a small sample, so, some players might need 75% or more, but it's logical to me that if a person is offered 50% over their demand, then it should go a long way to meet the game's suggestion that the offer is overwhelming.

By inference, I assume I'll get just one shot at an offer, so while offering the same amount they demanded might work, the extra dollars has never been that important to risk it. After all, the ones I'm drafting are typically more talented players than the ones currently available because the other GMs are passing due to the "impossible" designation. My experience is that a player isn't really impossible to sign unless he doesn't actually have a $ demand.

[r0nster]

I am finding more and more impossible signees are found in lower drafts but then I don't draft impossible players as that would only payoff for first rounders and I do not wish to effectively waste a pick