Question about renewed contracts

[old fat bald guy]

Finishing my first season in a fictional league with regular major-league roster rules. Small-market club, every dollar counts.

How soon do I have to release players on automatically renewable contracts, and players eligible for arbitration, to avoid being stuck with paying them for another year? Do they have to be gone before the playoffs end? I've got a whole bunch of one-star wonders who were either already on major-league contracts at the start of the save game, or got promoted to the big club during the season because of injuries or other depth issues. Some of them I know I don't want, and others I think I can replace but I'd hold on to them for part of the winter, to be sure, if I can do that without committing myself.

[Orcin]

Release the auto-renews on the final day of the season, i.e. after the playoffs end but before you begin the offseason. Arbitration players can be held until just before the arbitration hearings to see if you can trade them. You will release them automatically by not tendering an offer, and you will not owe them anything.

[old fat bald guy]

Thanks, Orcin.

[old fat bald guy]

So, just to update this because I think it's amusing -- I just went through the bulk of the postseason Purging of the Stiffs, and not counting the free agents who will leave and the guys I won't offer arbitration, I have 28 pitchers in the entire Sacramento Royales system. There are four on the AAA roster, two at AA, three at A, four at short-season A and two on the rookie-league team.

[NoOne]

you probably want to keep some filler in the MiL to avoid major efforts later on restocking it.

[old fat bald guy]

Yeah. Need about 50 guys, got the whole off-season, and my minor-league managers are allowed to sign guys.

[old fat bald guy]

Eh. Took no time at all for a new batch of stiffs to show up.

[Bumstead]

Thanks for letting me play in your minor league system. I hope to help at the big league level soon!

[old fat bald guy]

I never heard of you, Dagwood. My new rookie-league manager signed you, and I only signed him because he was willing to work cheap.


Entire minor-league staff now composed of "inexperienced" and "unproven." Last year had a rookie-league manager who was "fair," but he wanted a lot of money. Tried to make my "good" bench coach the AAA manager and he refused the "demotion" ... OK, OK, it was just a conversation to see if you'd like to run your own team. Fine.


Traded my 36-year-old $10.6 million reliever to the the team that just lost the finals in my league, the Brooklyn Oil Kings. (Yeah, I didn't know there was oil in Brooklyn, either.) Got a middling prospect in return, and had to throw in my No. 4 starter to get them to take the contract.


Coming off a season that prompted the owner to say he was glad we played .500 ball even if we just "barely" did it. We were 90-72. We also made about a $7.5 million profit on a $90 million budget and his response was to raid the vault for about $13.5 million. He must have a lot of boat payments.


Small-market baseball is fun!

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by old fat bald guy

Eh. Took no time at all for a new batch of stiffs to show up.

i've always hesitated using htat settings...

i have a questiosn:

does it avoid MiL that will cost $$$? or does it stick to MiL Only contracts?

does it stick to 25-man limit or does it try to have backups for each position etc etc...?

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by old fat bald guy

I never heard of you, Dagwood. My new rookie-league manager signed you, and I only signed him because he was willing to work cheap.


Entire minor-league staff now composed of "inexperienced" and "unproven." Last year had a rookie-league manager who was "fair," but he wanted a lot of money. Tried to make my "good" bench coach the AAA manager and he refused the "demotion" ... OK, OK, it was just a conversation to see if you'd like to run your own team. Fine.


Traded my 36-year-old $10.6 million reliever to the the team that just lost the finals in my league, the Brooklyn Oil Kings. (Yeah, I didn't know there was oil in Brooklyn, either.) Got a middling prospect in return, and had to throw in my No. 4 starter to get them to take the contract.


Coming off a season that prompted the owner to say he was glad we played .500 ball even if we just "barely" did it. We were 90-72. We also made about a $7.5 million profit on a $90 million budget and his response was to raid the vault for about $13.5 million. He must have a lot of boat payments.


Small-market baseball is fun!

just want to say reputation has a very very weak correlation to good ratings. so, don't worry too much about it. it's really a crapshoot. why: the chances of a poor rated manager getting a good reputation is nearly the same as a well-rated one.

when i've tried running a season with 200's ratings coaches, then re-running that exact same season with 0's ratings caoches, there wasn't much difference in resutls... more testing necessary, i admit. but it's got to be mere percentages of influence.

the strategy they use is significantly more important to pay attention to than any other bit of feedback the game offers on coaches (except peaking at the ratings in the editor).

***********

maybe you like it this way, but you can change it so that the budget will be fully available, based on income predictions... ie the owner won't deduct large amounts from that prediction because he is cheap.

it shouldn't cause inflation to any noticeable degree. budgets still ebb and flow based on income predictions. just tossing it out there, no need to reply abou tit.

[old fat bald guy]

Originally Posted by NoOne

does it avoid MiL that will cost $$$? or does it stick to MiL Only contracts?

It was all minor-league contracts, and my short-season A manager signed a guy who might actually make some major-league appearances eventually. My scout is giving him two stars; his ratings suggest he's AAA level.

The fun thing is that I know who gets the credit, because his history page says he signed with "the Bluffton Fog Devils organization." Here's to you, short-season A manager Mike Coleman.

[old fat bald guy]

Originally Posted by NoOne

just want to say reputation has a very very weak correlation to good ratings.

The coaches' actual ratings can only be seen in commissioner mode, right? My Football Manager background makes me think of that as a cheat. But my assumption going into the off-season on a very tight budget was that reputation ratings for minor-league staff were not the place to splurge.

Originally Posted by NoOne

maybe you like it this way, but you can change it so that the budget will be fully available, based on income predictions... ie the owner won't deduct large amounts from that prediction because he is cheap.

I do like it this way! I think it's hilarious that the guy is a robber-baron owner who is using the team as a piggy bank. I think I can keep the Royales respectable enough that my reputation will increase and I'll get a better job.

[NoOne]

yeah, only with comish mode on and in the coach profile editor. as long as they have a good strategy, i wouldn't worry much about the ratings -- beyond the basic info they allude to in the main profile.