How Does OOTP Determine Type A and Type B FAs?

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

I think it was Alex Anthopoulos trading for Miguel Olivo right at the arbitration deadline (not the trading deadline - but in the offseason), and offering arb to him, because he was a Type B player, despite the fact he had no intention of keeping him. I think that's when the other teams said "Alright that's enough, the system's broken, let's fix it."

...And there it is Nov 4, 2010 the Jays traded for Olivo from Colorado as part of a conditional deal and immediately granted him free agency after offering him arbitration. Thank you Baseball-Reference. So blame that AA kid for the new rules.

The players union wouldn't be against reducing compensation either, since anything that makes it a potential burden for a club to sign a free agent can be seen as negatively affecting the free agent market. After a long period of stability, the trend in recent years has been for less compensation for losing a free agent.

Here's how the free agent system has worked since its inception in 1976.


1976

Ranking
Number of teams selecting player in re-entry draft

Compensation
Draft pick from the signing team


1981

Ranking
Type A: 1-20%
Type B: 21-30%
Unranked: 31% and under

Compensation
Type A: professional player from compensation pool and draft pick from signing team (professional player compensation only applied to the top 8 or 9 Type A free agents)
Type B: draft pick from the signing team and special draft pick between the first and second rounds
Unranked: if selected by four or more teams in re-entry draft, an amateur draft choice (not exactly sure of specifics); if selected by three or fewer teams in re-entry draft, none


1985

Ranking
Type A: 1-30%
Type B: 31-50%
Type C: 51-60%
Unranked: 61% and under

Compensation
Type A: draft pick from the signing team and special draft pick between the first and second rounds
Type B: draft pick from the signing team
Type C: special draft pick between the second and third rounds
Unranked: none


2007

Ranking
Type A: 1-20%
Type B: 21-40%
Unranked: 41% and under

Compensation
Type A: draft pick from the signing team and special draft pick between the first and second rounds
Type B: special draft pick between the first and second rounds
Unranked: none


2012

Ranking
None (free agents eligible for compensation only if with club for entire season and was offered a one-year contract worth a salary equal to the average of the 125 highest salaries as of August 31st of the just concluded season ("qualifying offer")

Compensation
Special draft pick at end of first round; signing club forfeits highest available selection in draft (excluding picks in the top 10 of the first round)



Repeat free agency: From 1976 through 1996 there was a limit on how often players could declare free agency. A player could elect free agency only once every five years. If a contract expired prior to the player's right to elect free agency again, in order to retain the player the club had to proceed to arbitration. (In other words, arbitration controlled the player's salary for however many years remained until the player could elect free agency again.) If the club decided not to proceed to arbitration, then the player became a free agent immediately, able to sign with any club.

Arbitration required for compensation: In order to qualify for compensation, a club had to offer a free agent arbitration, starting in 1990 (it may have actually started with the 1985 basic agreement, but I haven't been able to confirm that)

[farmkidD2]

Excellent history lesson, I was just about to have to enter my game to the window in the settings that describes the 2012 rules, but it is also nice to know how it used to work.

I'm curious if anybody who allows draft pick compensation also use draft pick trading? Was this ever allowed in the MLB? Le Grande Orange, you now have another history lesson opportunity.

[le receveur]

Draft pick trading was introduced with the latest CBA, but only for competitive balance picks, not regular and FA comp picks.

OOTP doesn't have those picks.


edit: i did add draft pick trading for a while, but AI has a problem valuing them correctly, so lost interest in using the trading in Solo

[hefalumps]

OK folks - I've done some more research on this and gotten a PM from Markus so I've got some updates.

1) Markus didn't go into specifics (for obvious reasons), but he said that OOTP uses its own formulas for ranking players as Type A/B based on stats and rankings. I would assume it uses a similar process to what Elias used to do, but it's not exact.

2) Markus said that player rankings for draft pick compensation get done on the first day of the offseason. I can confirm this as I saw one of my potential free agents change from no type to Type A when I advanced from postseason to offseason.

3) As for the bug I encountered with everyone's draft pick compensation status disappearing, I ran into it again in my next offseason, and I think I might know what causes it. In my league, the draft is set for November 1st (the default) and free agents filed on 10/31. In most modern leagues, the playoffs extend long enough that free agency doesn't hit until AFTER November 1st. Well, as soon as I advanced to November 1st, I watched my Free Agents screen and saw everyone's "Type" disappear. Hadn't even drafted yet - just advancing to draft day wiped out everyone's compensation status. Again, I had a backup so I manually put everyone's status back, but I have to assume that the problem is being caused because the draft happened after FAs had already filed. Next year I will check to see when FAs are filing and be sure to schedule the draft BEFORE that date to see if the problem goes away.

On a separate note, does anyone know if moving up the draft date (say to 10/25) after the draft pool has already been released 30 days prior (on 10/1) will cause an issue?