How Do I Fix This International FA Signing Problem?

[Charlie Hough]

Okay, so I think I misunderstood what the "international free agent signing cap" was in my league settings. It was set at $400,000, but I thought this was a limit on the value of individual signing bonuses. Instead, it is obviously something very different.

In the fifth off-season of my fictional league, I attempted to negotiate with a new international free agent. He asks for a $500,000 bonus, but no matter how small of a bonus I offer, the game tells me, "You may not offer such a high signing bonus because your spending on international FA last year exceeded the limit!"

I found an old thread that discussed this and recommended changing the international free agent signing cap, but that does not fix the problem. Instead, I raised the cap from $500,000 to $1,000,000 and the free agent is suddenly asking for $1.4 million and I still can't sign him.

What I need is a way to eliminate any kind of cap on individual teams signing international free agents. I want all teams in my league to have the ability to sign free agents as long as they have the budget. I don't want an artificial, arbitrary limit, and I don't want to raise a limit only to have it cause the players to suddenly ask for more than double their original asking price.

What can I do to fix this? I have no intention of proceeding while having some kind of unintended restriction in place.

[byzeil]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Okay, so I think I misunderstood what the "international free agent signing cap" was in my league settings. It was set at $400,000, but I thought this was a limit on the value of individual signing bonuses. Instead, it is obviously something very different.

In the fifth off-season of my fictional league, I attempted to negotiate with a new international free agent. He asks for a $500,000 bonus, but no matter how small of a bonus I offer, the game tells me, "You may not offer such a high signing bonus because your spending on international FA last year exceeded the limit!"

I found an old thread that discussed this and recommended changing the international free agent signing cap, but that does not fix the problem. Instead, I raised the cap from $500,000 to $1,000,000 and the free agent is suddenly asking for $1.4 million and I still can't sign him.

What I need is a way to eliminate any kind of cap on individual teams signing international free agents. I want all teams in my league to have the ability to sign free agents as long as they have the budget. I don't want an artificial, arbitrary limit, and I don't want to raise a limit only to have it cause the players to suddenly ask for more than double their original asking price.

What can I do to fix this? I have no intention of proceeding while having some kind of unintended restriction in place.

How much total did you spend on International amateur free Agents in the previous year? It sounds like you went over the $400k limit which would limit what you could spend in the current season. This is working as intended and is modeled after the MLB rule. when you go to the IAFA page where it states the limit it also lists what the limits are and what happens if you exceed this limit. The limits apply only to the year after you exceed the cap.

I'm not 100% sure that this behavior can be turned off. Maybe setting the cap to $0?

[Charlie Hough]

This is a fictional league and not the MLB, so I should not be subjected to MLB rules.

If this can't be turned off, then that is absolutely silly because we can turn off virtually anything else that we don't want applied to our fictional league.

I don't know how much I spent on international free agents last season. I can't seem to find a report that indicates this, although I suppose that I could find it in individual transactions.

Setting the cap to $0 causes the player not to ask for any kind of signing bonus. So I could make an offer to him, but it's still impossible for me to offer a signing bonus. So, if any AI team offers a signing bonus, it will automatically win the player.

I need a way to turn this off and have it go into effect immediately. Otherwise I'll need to upload the league file to OOTP Developments and ask for this to be fixed.

This, like any other feature, should be purely optional, and we shouldn't be forced to have a cap based on the previous season's spending.

Besides, this feature is obviously broken because the free agent was asking for a signing bonus that is above the cap! That shouldn't be happening.

[byzeil]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

This is a fictional league and not the MLB, so I should not be subjected to MLB rules.

If this can't be turned off, then that is absolutely silly because we can turn off virtually anything else that we don't want applied to our fictional league.

I don't know how much I spent on international free agents last season. I can't seem to find a report that indicates this, although I suppose that I could find it in individual transactions.

Setting the cap to $0 causes the player not to ask for any kind of signing bonus. So I could make an offer to him, but it's still impossible for me to offer a signing bonus. So, if any AI team offers a signing bonus, it will automatically win the player.

I need a way to turn this off and have it go into effect immediately. Otherwise I'll need to upload the league file to OOTP Developments and ask for this to be fixed.

This, like any other feature, should be purely optional, and we shouldn't be forced to have a cap based on the previous season's spending.

Besides, this feature is obviously broken because the free agent was asking for a signing bonus that is above the cap! That shouldn't be happening.

On the IAFA page it states what you spent last year and what you are limited to doing this year.



This image was from the 1st year of IAFA. In future years it lists what you spent last season and what restrictions you have.

I'm guessing your choices are to use IAFA and the cap or turning it off, it seems there isn't the ability to have half the IAFA process.

[byzeil]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Besides, this feature is obviously broken because the free agent was asking for a signing bonus that is above the cap! That shouldn't be happening.

It is not broken. Just as IRL players can ask for more than the cap and teams can exceed the cap, it is a soft cap. They can exceed the cap in any season but will face restrictions in the next season. This is the RL model. For example I know the Yankees have exceeded the IAFA cap this year but can still sign players but they will not be able to offer contracts to any IAFA that becomes available July 1. Until July 1 the Yankees actually have an advantage in signing any more IAFA because they are a;ready under the penalty where other teams are not yet under the penalty and have to decide if they want too go over the cap or not and thus not be able to sign players next season.

so it isn't working the way you wish it worked but it isn't broken.

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Besides, this feature is obviously broken because the free agent was asking for a signing bonus that is above the cap! That shouldn't be happening.

Yes, it should, if real life is any guide. It happens regularly irl. Yoan Moncada is expected to get somewhere around $40 mil, with a $3 mil+ cap. Roberto Baldoquin just got $8 mil with the same $3 mil ish cap.

[Charlie Hough]

Okay, well, if that's how it works in real life, that is fine for real life. But, to me, though, it makes no sense to have a cap that can be exceeded so dramatically. It defeats the purpose.

Also, I still say it's broken because, if you set your cap to zero, players stop asking for signing bonuses completely. That makes no sense. Saying that you don't want a cap on team spending has nothing to do with the amount in signing bonuses that the players should demand.

Regardless, I don't want this in my league, but I want international amateur free agents, and I don't want them asking for signing bonuses that are triple of what the best players in my league are making as an annual salary. But I also don't want them asking for nothing, which is what happens when you set the cap to zero.

There also appears to be no setting that controls the signing bonus demands of these players, which have become pretty excessive relative to player salaries.

And I'm left with no option to turn this off for my fictional league, and now I am stuck. There needs to be a way to clear this, especially if I set the cap to zero. But the game is still enforcing the cap retroactively.

I've raised the cap just enough so that it won't be in effect for any team for this signing period. However, the top free agent is asking for way too much money. The others are asking for amounts that are much more reasonable. So I'll see how this goes, but then I'm still stuck with this problem of the signing bonus demands being too high, there being no way to control them, and the demands still become zero if you eliminate the cap.

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Yes, it should, if real life is any guide. It happens regularly irl. Yoan Moncada is expected to get somewhere around $40 mil, with a $3 mil+ cap. Roberto Baldoquin just got $8 mil with the same $3 mil ish cap.

yeah but they are not coming in as amateurs, right?

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

yeah but they are not coming in as amateurs, right?

Well, yeah they are amateurs. Cuba's league is an amateur league.

But irl amateur status doesn't really have anything to do with it. Guys 23 or under with less than 5 years in their home league get lumped into the bonus pool restriction group, even those from Japan or Korea.

Those over 23, or with 5 or more years in their nation's top league are not subject to the signing caps.

[jpeters1734]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Well, yeah they are amateurs. Cuba's league is an amateur league.

But irl amateur status doesn't really have anything to do with it. Guys 23 or under with less than 5 years in their home league get lumped into the bonus pool restriction group, even those from Japan or Korea.

Those over 23, or with 5 or more years in their nation's top league are not subject to the signing caps.

Right. But what I meant was in ootp they would be considered established international players. Charlie was talking about the amateur cap

[Lukas Berger]

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

Right. But what I meant was in ootp they would be considered established international players. Charlie was talking about the amateur cap

Well, not really. I think they should come in as the amateur guys Charlie is talking about.

[Markus Heinsohn]

I have fixed this in OOTP 16. Setting the cap to zero essentially removes the cap while keeping player demands realistic.

[jpeters1734]

Sweet!