Understanding Type A/B/No compensation free agents

Darviathar · 05-11-2014, 03:15 PM

I started replaying historical seasons with an inaugural draft in 1980. I have yet to figure out how the computer decides compensation for free agents. Young stars that complete their 6 years of service time and hit free agency are almost invariably "no compensation", despite their production. This includes guys like Pedro Guerrero, Alan Trammell and Kirk Gibson, all major contributors to their teams. Veteran players, even those coming off a bad season, seem to get type A. I have reached 1984 and have Steve Carlton on my team. He was absolutely brilliant from 1980-1983, but has missed most of 1984 with injury, and I plan to let him walk (knowing that he historically produced virtually nothing from 1985 onward is an obvious advantage). He is listed as a Type A compensation free agent. I also have Carney Lansford at third base who just reached six years of service time, but is a special case. I noticed after 1980 that he had suffered a career-ending injury, and decided to restore him. He was made a free agent, and I won a bidding war for his services. Most of the year it listed his as a Type B compensation free agent, and I have planned to let him walk, since I have 4 star prospect Terry Pendleton ready in triple A for 1985, but now he has become "no compensation" for some reason, despite that he's hitting .328 and on pace to drive in 93 runs. Does anyone understand this system? Is it simply based on service time, or does performance have effect in any cases?

Edit: I just finished 1984 and noticed the Lansford is now a Type A free agent, making me really wonder if there is any sense to this system.

hefalumps · 07-11-2014, 10:50 AM

Resurrecting a thread that is two months old today... but I saw the blurb about the new patch improving free agent compensation/arbitration, etc., and assume this is for the "new CBA" type FA compensation method. I was curious, has anything changed with regards to the "old" way with Type A/B? I still use Type A/B in my historical league in 14, so I'm curious about how it's functioning if I move it to 15.

As for the OP's comments, I actually asked Markus about the ranking system and how players were determined to be Type A/B/no compensation. He said it wasn't the way it was done in real life (i.e. Elias formula) - it was based on some internal OOTP rankings. That said, it wasn't clear as to what time of year the players were "re-calculated". I too have noticed a pending free agent that was one Type for most of the season, but then when the offseason hit (which is obviously when the Types matter most), he was something else.

I've also noticed weirdness in the rankings. For example, a 41 year-old Ted Williams who missed most of last year with an injury, had his ratings decline during the injury, and hit just .136 with 1 homer and 4 RBIs in the 20 games he did play, was still rated as a Type A FA, presumably because he hit .288/32/119 the year prior. But then Al Rosen, who hit .271/23/73 last year and .285/40/108 the year prior, was "No compensation". That I don't get. He missed some time and his numbers were down, but not as bad as Williams. And Rosen is only 36 and still ranked as a 4.5 star player. Maybe there are just that many 1B/3B players that are better than him - I dunno. But that one didn't make sense to me.

It would be nice if, for future versions, we could get more visibility into the "list" that OOTP uses to rank the players and determine their Type A/Type B compensation. I know that MLB has moved on to the new system, but for historical players who want to keep using it, it would be nice to see.

Le Grande Orange · 07-12-2014, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hefalumps

It would be nice if, for future versions, we could get more visibility into the "list" that OOTP uses to rank the players and determine their Type A/Type B compensation. I know that MLB has moved on to the new system, but for historical players who want to keep using it, it would be nice to see.

It'd be nice to have the entire spectrum of historical free agency recreated. The system was rather different in the late 1970s compared to what it was later on.

05-11-2014, 03:15 PM	#1
Darviathar Minors (Single A) Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 84	Understanding Type A/B/No compensation free agents I started replaying historical seasons with an inaugural draft in 1980. I have yet to figure out how the computer decides compensation for free agents. Young stars that complete their 6 years of service time and hit free agency are almost invariably "no compensation", despite their production. This includes guys like Pedro Guerrero, Alan Trammell and Kirk Gibson, all major contributors to their teams. Veteran players, even those coming off a bad season, seem to get type A. I have reached 1984 and have Steve Carlton on my team. He was absolutely brilliant from 1980-1983, but has missed most of 1984 with injury, and I plan to let him walk (knowing that he historically produced virtually nothing from 1985 onward is an obvious advantage). He is listed as a Type A compensation free agent. I also have Carney Lansford at third base who just reached six years of service time, but is a special case. I noticed after 1980 that he had suffered a career-ending injury, and decided to restore him. He was made a free agent, and I won a bidding war for his services. Most of the year it listed his as a Type B compensation free agent, and I have planned to let him walk, since I have 4 star prospect Terry Pendleton ready in triple A for 1985, but now he has become "no compensation" for some reason, despite that he's hitting .328 and on pace to drive in 93 runs. Does anyone understand this system? Is it simply based on service time, or does performance have effect in any cases? Edit: I just finished 1984 and noticed the Lansford is now a Type A free agent, making me really wonder if there is any sense to this system. Last edited by Darviathar; 05-11-2014 at 03:27 PM.

07-11-2014, 10:50 AM	#2
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,371	Resurrecting a thread that is two months old today... but I saw the blurb about the new patch improving free agent compensation/arbitration, etc., and assume this is for the "new CBA" type FA compensation method. I was curious, has anything changed with regards to the "old" way with Type A/B? I still use Type A/B in my historical league in 14, so I'm curious about how it's functioning if I move it to 15. As for the OP's comments, I actually asked Markus about the ranking system and how players were determined to be Type A/B/no compensation. He said it wasn't the way it was done in real life (i.e. Elias formula) - it was based on some internal OOTP rankings. That said, it wasn't clear as to what time of year the players were "re-calculated". I too have noticed a pending free agent that was one Type for most of the season, but then when the offseason hit (which is obviously when the Types matter most), he was something else. I've also noticed weirdness in the rankings. For example, a 41 year-old Ted Williams who missed most of last year with an injury, had his ratings decline during the injury, and hit just .136 with 1 homer and 4 RBIs in the 20 games he did play, was still rated as a Type A FA, presumably because he hit .288/32/119 the year prior. But then Al Rosen, who hit .271/23/73 last year and .285/40/108 the year prior, was "No compensation". That I don't get. He missed some time and his numbers were down, but not as bad as Williams. And Rosen is only 36 and still ranked as a 4.5 star player. Maybe there are just that many 1B/3B players that are better than him - I dunno. But that one didn't make sense to me. It would be nice if, for future versions, we could get more visibility into the "list" that OOTP uses to rank the players and determine their Type A/Type B compensation. I know that MLB has moved on to the new system, but for historical players who want to keep using it, it would be nice to see.