Free Agents Not Finding a Team

[ryanivr]

31 years old going into 1919, consistently putting up 3+ WAR seasons. Good personality. And I have another five guys like this that are rated at 55. And I'm only in a 14-team league.

Also for reference - don't mind year. Not playing with real life stat totals. Everything's based on 2008ish stats.

[thklein]

Do the computer controlled teams have money to sign additional free agents?

[ryanivr]

Simmed a year ahead to the next off-season, and this guy is still a FA. 34, but productive, durable, and still can provide on defense.

[ryanivr]

Originally Posted by thklein

Do the computer controlled teams have money to sign additional free agents?

Yea, plenty. Still doing some digging in a test league to see if there's anything I can figure out.

[ryanivr]

Here's something interesting. Still in this 14-team league. This guy below, as well as another specific guy, for three offseasons in a row have been free agents on opening day. This guy usually signs later, the other guy is a 2B who doesn't sign. But it's odd for sure.

[ryanivr]

I've got another guy who's gone three straight offseasons of not signing and then signing at the end of April.

[ryanivr]

Here's another one. Asking for $17M. I have 5 of 14 teams who can afford him. Needless to say, something is up. Not sure what exactly but...would love to have Matt chime in here.

Edit: Next off-season, this guys is still a free agent. 28 and then 29, coming off a 6-WAR season.

[jimmysthebestcop]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-%F0%9F%98%9E/

Its a trend in modern mlb at least.

[ryanivr]

Originally Posted by jimmysthebestcop

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-%F0%9F%98%9E/

Its a trend in modern mlb at least.

It's not the mid-30's guys I'm worried about. I agree that it's probably a good thing that teams are not valuing those guys as highly in the game. But this last example, a 28 year old who is VERY good, just makes me think something is working a little differently than expected.

[jimmysthebestcop]

Even 28 if they want multi year Deals it can cripple an ai team.

Modern day sim jt realmuto who is 28 wants an extension at 9 years over 25 million a year. Phillies have plenty of money. And he is top 5 catcher. But that contract is nuts. I'm going to have to move him at the deadline and probably pay the rest of current year salary to score a good prospect.

If I sign that contract I'm screwed after 4 years won't be able to move him or eat a huge portion of that massive contract. No way. Can't do it.

All these 27 and 28 year olds want 7 to 9/10 years deals. It was fine during roid era not now. Mlb players have a huge decline around 30/32.

I can't speak on non modern day close to default settings though. Cause that's only where I play.

I but also looks who the AI put up on trading block it's always older players with huge contracts no matter if they are great or not and no matter if the team has the money.

So there might be some financial reasons teams aren't signing older free agents to long term multi million contracts.

But any of us would just be guessing

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by jimmysthebestcop

Even 28 if they want multi year Deals it can cripple an ai team.

Modern day sim jt realmuto who is 28 wants an extension at 9 years over 25 million a year. Phillies have plenty of money. And he is top 5 catcher. But that contract is nuts. I'm going to have to move him at the deadline and probably pay the rest of current year salary to score a good prospect.

If I sign that contract I'm screwed after 4 years won't be able to move him or eat a huge portion of that massive contract. No way. Can't do it.

All these 27 and 28 year olds want 7 to 9/10 years deals. It was fine during roid era not now. Mlb players have a huge decline around 30/32.

I can't speak on non modern day close to default settings though. Cause that's only where I play.

I but also looks who the AI put up on trading block it's always older players with huge contracts no matter if they are great or not and no matter if the team has the money.

So there might be some financial reasons teams aren't signing older free agents to long term multi million contracts.

But any of us would just be guessing

Problem with adding this type of trend to the game full force is it starts bleeding into the historical game. I'm not a huge fan of seeing a guy like Steve Garvey or even a Pete Rose play the entire second half of their careers minus the month of April and or even half of May. Nor do I want to see a Willie McGee reach the age of 30, go unsigned till August, get signed by a contender and instantly take over the starting role. This stuff happened all the time playing OOTP20. The second issue I have with this is, once a player becomes a free agent and goes unsigned to start a season, it's a pretty good bet he will do so for the remainder of his career, no matter how well he performs on the field. It's simply becomes a wash and repeat type deal.

Trends are cool, but if all of them have to be in the game, I guess a guy like Tony Gwynn should strikeout 190 times a season. Rickey Henderson should never steal more than 45 bases in a season.

Maybe a better option for this trend would be for OOTP to make it so players are more open to short term contracts as opening day approaches. That way a guy like Garvey ends up on a team to start the season instead of missing out on a months worth of stats. It would also be cool to see the AI teams be willing to renegotiate as the season plays out if the player is having a stellar year on the field.

I don't manage or gm, but I do have to wonder if something like this trend isn't a major advantage to the human gm. Here are all these guys sitting there for the taking. Seems like you could make a killing in April each year.

[thklein]

Did you say it was a 14 team league? That could explain a lot. Fewer teams means fewer spots for players to land.

[jfb8300]

Originally Posted by jimmysthebestcop

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-%F0%9F%98%9E/

Its a trend in modern mlb at least.

I play fictional starting in 2020, so I want the new trends. In order to get younger players playing as in that graph, I've been forced to make Player Dev and Playing aging all 2.000. Also adjusted the draft so 65% of draftees are college aged. Playing time is closer to real life results of the past 4 years with those, but still can't get it dialed in.

HOWEVER, the AI was still giving those massive 9 and 10 year contracts to players aged 32+. I changed the setting that only allows contracts to only be 6 years in length, but that doesn't really help the AI, they still end up with teams full of quickly deteriorating veterans. Additionally the AI can't handle minors with those settings, players sit in R ball for 2 years, then a half season at A, then right to MLB.

So I don't know what to do. Can't keep the settings at default because the league is filled with grandfathers. Can't adjust them because the AI can't cope.

Many oldschoolers still don't realize that, on average, over the past 4 MLB seasons, only 44 out of 752 players with 200PA or 40IP were over the age of 35 (that's just 6%). OOTP defaults are closer to 13%, and the payer pool of ages 23-27 (not enough vs real life) are basically inverted with ages 28-32 (way more than real life).

So more setting options are needed, or hard coded changes need looked at. But like someone already said, depending on the users style of play, any changes would alienate 50% of the user base.

[ryanivr]

Originally Posted by thklein

Did you say it was a 14 team league? That could explain a lot. Fewer teams means fewer spots for players to land.

Yea, but there's a proportionate amount of players, and when I did another test with more teams, there was just more good FA available.

[Vegas Vic]

What are your Player Evaluation AI Settings?

[dward1]

the financial system desperately needs a total re-boot. it's confusing, unclear, and not laid out well.

[ryanivr]

Originally Posted by Vegas Vic

What are your Player Evaluation AI Settings?

I realize I'm doing a lot of answering here and it's not my thread...but - to answer your question, I've tried a bunch of different ones. I have been trying stats only, so I had Ratings set at 0 and then 5, but I actually thought that may have been the issue. So set it back to defaults and still had the issue.

[jimmysthebestcop]

Originally Posted by dward1

the financial system desperately needs a total re-boot. it's confusing, unclear, and not laid out well.

It is really dated. Just the entire TV/Media contracts bother me. MLB splits the national deal evenly while the local cable contracts are up for grabs usually depending on how big the team is or how big the local cable is. In OOTP these settings are reversed.

Most reports have every MLB team making more from local contracts then the split on the national contract.

OOTP also does this weird thing where each team has its overall budget and that is used for everything from payroll too development to operational costs. Which honestly doesn't make sense.

The national media MLB deal the individual teams don't actually have to use that money on payroll it is used for organizational needs. So some difference between small and larger markets is how much money is getting released for just for payroll.

While the small market teams in OOTP still have to use their budget to pay personnel, dev, scouting etc which has is separate from payroll.

There needs to be a baseline budget for all organizational costs. And a baseline for payroll. Then individual market sizes and local tv contracts can effect this payroll budget. Also influence from the owner can lower or raise this part of the budget as well as the organizational budget.

I mean it is silly that the small market teams have to pay their entire minor league coaches from the same budget payroll is coming for. It's just a real simplistic approach while MLB budget is much more complex.

Each team should have an overall budget that has 2 sub-classes a payroll and organizational budget needs. These set on factors as market size, national tv, local tv, attendance, tshirts, owner etc. And if you have excess in one sublcass you can't dump it in the other subclass.

There shouldn't be this huge difference in development and scouting and personnel from team to team.

Yes payroll should vary from like 50 million to 250 million. But other costs should have far less difference, maybe baseline +/- 20/30 million