Free agent problem

[Markmeister]

I thought I saw something similar to this before, but didn't find it posted in the technical support forum.

This is with Version 1.0.2.12262

I am working on a league with 3 majors and came across a problem.

10/4/1905 Became a free agent.
10/5/1905 Signed a 1-year contract worth a total of $9,470,000 with the Saint Loius Browns organization.
11/10/1905 Became a free agent.
11/20/1905 Signed a 3-year contract worth $56,190,000 with the Fort Worth Panthers organization.

I believe I know what caused the problem. The player became a free agent in the Dixie League, signed with MLB before free agancy started, them became a free agent again.

[Carplos]

Thought they had gotten a handle on this in the last patch since I didn't see it happening... bah.

Are you seeing it often?

[Markmeister]

Not too often.

Only happens when a free agent changes from one league to another league that hasn't hit free agency yet and only signs a 1-year contract. Most of the contracts I've seen are longer than 1 year.

[Markmeister]

Okay, I think I have the work around for this problem - quite simple really.

I adjusted the start date for all of the major leagues so that the regular seasons end on roughly the same date. That way the player is considered to be a free agent in every league.

[battists]

Hi Markmeister,

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to respond to this thread.

Carplos, Mark, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about how we could resolve this issue. I'm also not 100% sure of the scenario from your information.

Are you saying that the player is signing a contract with one league, and then becoming a free agent before he finishes playing out that contract, because he would have reached free agency in the other league?

Thanks,

Steve

[Markmeister]

Babtists,

The problem is that all 1-year contracts expire at the end of the season. A player that signs a 1-year contract with a league that has not reached free agency can become a free agent again without the team playing a single game.

Going back to my example, the player should have stayed on the Saint Louis Browns roster through 11/10/06.

Mark

[koohead]

Originally Posted by Markmeister

Babtists,

The problem is that all 1-year contracts expire at the end of the season. A player that signs a 1-year contract with a league that has not reached free agency can become a free agent again without the team playing a single game.

Going back to my example, the player should have stayed on the Saint Louis Browns roster through 11/10/06.

Mark

yup..seen this myself a few times. As Mark has said, the issue is with players changing leagues. For example, a player from the Mexican league (who's season ends in say Aug) will sign with a team from the MLB for 1 year in Aug. But when the MLB season ends, he becomes a FA. Only way I see getting around this is to make sure the contracts are actually date driven, not calendar driven. Probably pretty difficult to code at this point (for 2006 I mean). Mark, have you run some tests after adjusting the start dates? I'm curious what happens if a league (say an indy league) ends before the MLB. This has to still be a problem even with your suggestion since not all leagues have the same schedule length. Would be cool if you could set number of games PLUS an end date (such as all minors should end by Sept 1, but currently the game goes well into September).

[Zeyes]

I keep seeing that in my 7-league indy setup...the lesser 6 leagues all finish around the first week of September, while the Atlantic League runs to the end of the month. FA players from the first 6 leagues frequently sign on with Atlantic League teams only to become FAs again a few weeks later.

I'm honestly not sure what to do about it...it could be rationalized that those teams are just stocking up on available talent for the home stretch and really don't want them around beyond that one month, but it's a little too prevalent for that. Basically, the problem seems to be that the period of time when AI teams will offer extensions has already passed, so these late-added players never get an additional contract offer even if they're useful to their new team.

[battists]

Well, I'm not quite sure what to do about this, but I logged it anyway, as TT # 2517.

We'll see what the man comes up with. But, still interested in suggestions.

Thanks!

Steve

[Markmeister]

I usually scan the league files at the season end. Haven't seen it happen after I adjusted the start dates though.

Pretty simple - league with 100 games and a league with 154 games. Make sure both schedules end on the same date. Both leagues should have free agency start on the same day, so players will be treated as free agents in every league.

What I see as a potential problem is League A's season ends on 7/1, League B ends on 9/15 and League C ends on 10/1. Free agency starts a month after the end of the respective league's seasons.

A player from League A signs a 1-year contract with League C on 8/4 and plays the rest of the season. IMO, he should become a free agent. A player from League B signs a 1-year contract with League C on 10/19. He should not become a free agent as he has not played any games in League C.

[Carplos]

Originally Posted by Zeyes

I keep seeing that in my 7-league indy setup...the lesser 6 leagues all finish around the first week of September, while the Atlantic League runs to the end of the month. FA players from the first 6 leagues frequently sign on with Atlantic League teams only to become FAs again a few weeks later.

I'm honestly not sure what to do about it...it could be rationalized that those teams are just stocking up on available talent for the home stretch and really don't want them around beyond that one month, but it's a little too prevalent for that. Basically, the problem seems to be that the period of time when AI teams will offer extensions has already passed, so these late-added players never get an additional contract offer even if they're useful to their new team.

The AI does extensions in this version up until free agents file, though.

You could always turn off allowing FAs from other leagues during this period, at least until it's fixed/tweaked.

[Zeyes]

Originally Posted by Carplos

The AI does extensions in this version up until free agents file, though.

Though, do you actually see this happening with players who were signed late in the season? I haven't, but I can't say I've specifically looked for it either, of course.

Maybe the AI is just loath to offer extensions based on so little data (less than a month of playing time in all cases for my leagues)...if so, that's probably working as intended, and I'd be hard-pressed to come up with good arguments for changing it.

Originally Posted by Carplos

You could always turn off allowing FAs from other leagues during this period, at least until it's fixed/tweaked.

Personally, it's not a huge problem. With 7 leagues and very lax FA rules, there's so much FA movement in my universe anyway that the number of suspect cases doesn't seem to warrant much of my attention. And besides, ultimately it doesn't matter that much to me which players end up on which AI teams, it's just something that looks strange in the player histories. I did just come across a guy who became a minor-league FA three times in 5 weeks.