To avoid exploits, free agents only get minor-league offers... then THIS HAPPENS

[uruguru]

BINGO.

This is the first bona-fide star to actually accept a straight minor-league contract into my farm system. I feel like I just won the lottery.

A special thanks to the OOTP devs for fixing my broken save!

[uruguru]

Same offseason... Nolan Ryan also agrees to a straight minor-league deal.

I told my wife that I just signed Bench and Ryan and her first response was, "Oh no! Is this save over?"

This is how you know you married well.

[Ty Cobb]

You did indeed marry well.

[uruguru]

Originally Posted by Ty Cobb

You did indeed marry well.

Unfortunately, the save is over.

This is a weird problem to resolve.

To ensure that I don't overspend and get the plum rookies each off-season, I only offer base minor-league contracts. This meant that the minor-leaguers who want money (i.e the ones ready to play in at least AAA) are already completely off the table for my team. No chance for guys like Morgan, Sutton, etc.

However, the acceptance rate for even the base minor-league contracts is really good. For example, Bench and Ryan had no competing offers even though they are top prospects.

So my next idea was, "ok, I'll limit myself to a one contract offer per day. Maybe that will slow things down and give the AI a better chance of signing these guys."

But instead what happened is that all of the AIs signed like 3-4 prospects EACH on the first day! I had forgotten that the AI doesn't go through the negotiation delay that players deal with when signing minor-league contracts. This meant that even delaying my offers by one day elminated almost all of the prospects from consideration. lol. Apparently, it was my offers on the first day that even gave me a chance in the first place.

I think maybe what I'll do now is just let the AI sign minor-leaguers, hope for the best, and spend my GM time building the active roster via the Rule V and trades.

Back to the drawing board!