Relief pitchers not getting signed - Page 2

sprague · 04-09-2018, 06:52 AM

Here is a screenshot from my fictional 16 team league
April 4, season is 3 days in.
Look at all the unsigned relief pitchers...all good and while closing in on 30 all should have a few good seasons left.
As of now I am switching over to a reserve clause league until this gets looked at, sort of changes the entire structure of the league with none of these guys getting signed.
Not complaining or anything, it is early in this release and it takes a while to catch everything

highandoutside · 04-09-2018, 08:57 AM

This is concerning. My fictional league is about to head into the off season and now I'm not sure what to do. The AI teams already have pretty bad bullpens, so they need to sign competent and eligible free agents.

While most of the free agents in Sprague's example are older, their demands seem very reasonable. I wonder: has the AI run out of money? Did they not have a lot of money to begin with? If you give the AI a few extra million, do they bid on relievers? Are the relievers asking for too many years?

jaguar8311 · 04-09-2018, 09:30 AM

Doesen't look like this was fixed in the patch unfortunately

Sigh. Guess I'll have to wait to start my new game

Lukas Berger · 04-09-2018, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaguar8311

Doesn't look like this was fixed in the patch unfortunately

This would be something for Matt and he's on vacation atm. I'm sure he will take a look once he gets back and make some tweaks for the next patch.

jaguar8311 · 04-09-2018, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

This would be something for Matt and he's on vacation atm. I'm sure he will take a look once he gets back and make some tweaks for the next patch.

You guys are top-notch!

sprague · 04-09-2018, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

This would be something for Matt and he's on vacation atm. I'm sure he will take a look once he gets back and make some tweaks for the next patch.

Lukas I haven\t listed this in the bug reports forum, just here. Should i log a thread there as well, or is this enough for Matt to have seen?
Cheers

Lukas Berger · 04-09-2018, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprague

Lukas I haven\t listed this in the bug reports forum, just here. Should i log a thread there as well, or is this enough for Matt to have seen?
Cheers

He's seen this and it's logged in our tracking system, it's all good

LegalEagle80 · 04-10-2018, 10:30 AM

Adding another weird wrinkle to this. I'm consistently seeing the RP's who don't sign contracts until April getting 1 year deals for outrageous amounts of money. So in addition to superstars dropping their demands by 50% or so and signing for cheap, I saw both Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman get $25+ million for one year, after the seasons already started in April. Maybe once the season started the AI treated their budget differently?

Calvert98 · 04-10-2018, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LegalEagle80

Adding another weird wrinkle to this. I'm consistently seeing the RP's who don't sign contracts until April getting 1 year deals for outrageous amounts of money. So in addition to superstars dropping their demands by 50% or so and signing for cheap, I saw both Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman get $25+ million for one year, after the seasons already started in April. Maybe once the season started the AI treated their budget differently?

I think Chapman got big money too in my league; something like that, but may have been a late pick-up.

Hey, in real life both Cobb and Jake were signed Late. Alex was signed so late that he could not start with the club and is having to be stretched-out in the minors. I think he might have a MLB start this weekend
.

highandoutside · 04-10-2018, 04:36 PM

As long as the game tries to mimic all the financial complexities of running a MLB front office, we're almost assuredly going to have an AI that does strange things. I believe that realism could be better achieved by making the game, in a sense, less realistic.

1. We want the AI to make logical roster decisions.
2. We want big market teams to have more flexibility than small.
3. We want players seeking and signing contracts that are proportionate to their skills.

If those conditions were met, I think most people would be happy. I for one argue that the development team should concentrate more on meeting these conditions more than trying to mimic every last nuance of MLB front office. Every layer of complexity, every new decision that given to the AI, inevitably leads to weakening the AI. As it stands, the AI is pretty good, but it simply doesn't know how to build a very strong team, and it leads to really weird contracts and decisions once you get a few years into a simulation. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

sprague · 04-16-2018, 12:32 PM

For Matt I guess,
Just wondering how the look goes at finding the possible bug in the lack of free agent relief signings. I have sort of put my games played with financials on, on hold until I hear how things are going.
Thanks

Lukas Berger · 04-16-2018, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprague

For Matt I guess,
Just wondering how the look goes at finding the possible bug in the lack of free agent relief signings. I have sort of put my games played with financials on, on hold until I hear how things are going.
Thanks

Matt's just back today. So he's easing back in a bit. We have a list of priorities we're working on though and looking into this is pretty high on it

Matt Arnold · 04-16-2018, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lukas Berger

Matt's just back today. So he's easing back in a bit. We have a list of priorities we're working on though and looking int this is pretty high on it

I've already fixed a few issues. Haven't look at this yet. For some strange reason on day 1 coming back from a holiday, AI free agent logic isn't exactly how I want to "ease" back into work

We'll get to it in the next few days. Fear not!

Critical Mass · 04-18-2018, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LegalEagle80

Adding another weird wrinkle to this. I'm consistently seeing the RP's who don't sign contracts until April getting 1 year deals for outrageous amounts of money. So in addition to superstars dropping their demands by 50% or so and signing for cheap, I saw both Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman get $25+ million for one year, after the seasons already started in April. Maybe once the season started the AI treated their budget differently?

Just wanted to agree with this. While I haven't noticed superstars signing for bargain prices, I see every year in my fictional league between 4-8 pitchers, rated 4-5 stars, still sitting there on Opening Day telling me, "I already have a good offer from Baltimore. If you want to pay me $19,120,000 per year, I will consider you." They will sit there and wait until mid to late April before they sign.

OzzieFan · 04-19-2018, 09:12 AM

I think they must have fixed this. It was really bad at release, but now I am not seeing people with 70+ overall numbers available on one year deals at the start of spring training. The initial release there would be a ton.

Matt Arnold · 04-19-2018, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OzzieFan

I think they must have fixed this. It was really bad at release, but now I am not seeing people with 70+ overall numbers available on one year deals at the start of spring training. The initial release there would be a ton.

It depends a lot on how much money is out there, who else is a free agent, which teams need relievers, etc...

The next patch will tweak things more, but some years will always be better than others.

HoustonGM · 10-13-2018, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

It depends a lot on how much money is out there, who else is a free agent, which teams need relievers, etc...

The next patch will tweak things more, but some years will always be better than others.

I know this is an old thread that I'm bumping, but I've noticed all of the problems mentioned in this thread and just never bothered to try and search about it. I've been playing since release and just let things be, but I did always find it strange the relievers would sign very late usually for one year deals. It results in almost every good reliever following the same career pattern of 6 years with his first team and then 6+ years of being on a new team every year. It looks like this was supposedly adjusted in a patch at some point, but I never noticed any changes throughout all these months of playing.

Attached is a screenshot I just took from March 25 - still various very good relievers available and looking for short cheap deals.

The other thing of note related to this is that relievers have always seemed to be rated inordinately high. I assume this is because the ratings are in relation to other relievers? It's just jarring to open up free agency at the start of the offseason and see 40+ relievers rated 60+ and only a handful of starters and position players. Any idea how to adjust this?

Silfir · 10-15-2018, 11:01 AM

That's almost certainly just a natural result of the phenomenon of good relievers signing 1-year-deals every year - that means they hit the free agent market every year, while the top starters and hitters only hit the market every once in a while.

It's also just more difficult to be a starting pitcher; pretty much any starter who isn't drawing from four equally powerful pitches or more will pick up rating points when converted to a reliever.

04-09-2018, 06:52 AM	#21
sprague All Star Starter Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,921	Here is a screenshot from my fictional 16 team league April 4, season is 3 days in. Look at all the unsigned relief pitchers...all good and while closing in on 30 all should have a few good seasons left. As of now I am switching over to a reserve clause league until this gets looked at, sort of changes the entire structure of the league with none of these guys getting signed. Not complaining or anything, it is early in this release and it takes a while to catch everything Attached Images

04-09-2018, 08:57 AM	#22
highandoutside All Star Reserve Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 632	This is concerning. My fictional league is about to head into the off season and now I'm not sure what to do. The AI teams already have pretty bad bullpens, so they need to sign competent and eligible free agents. While most of the free agents in Sprague's example are older, their demands seem very reasonable. I wonder: has the AI run out of money? Did they not have a lot of money to begin with? If you give the AI a few extra million, do they bid on relievers? Are the relievers asking for too many years? Last edited by highandoutside; 04-09-2018 at 09:40 AM.

04-09-2018, 09:30 AM	#23
jaguar8311 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 213 Blog Entries: 1	Doesen't look like this was fixed in the patch unfortunately Sigh. Guess I'll have to wait to start my new game

04-10-2018, 10:30 AM	#28
LegalEagle80 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 113	Adding another weird wrinkle to this. I'm consistently seeing the RP's who don't sign contracts until April getting 1 year deals for outrageous amounts of money. So in addition to superstars dropping their demands by 50% or so and signing for cheap, I saw both Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman get $25+ million for one year, after the seasons already started in April. Maybe once the season started the AI treated their budget differently?

04-10-2018, 04:36 PM	#30
highandoutside All Star Reserve Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 632	As long as the game tries to mimic all the financial complexities of running a MLB front office, we're almost assuredly going to have an AI that does strange things. I believe that realism could be better achieved by making the game, in a sense, less realistic. 1. We want the AI to make logical roster decisions. 2. We want big market teams to have more flexibility than small. 3. We want players seeking and signing contracts that are proportionate to their skills. If those conditions were met, I think most people would be happy. I for one argue that the development team should concentrate more on meeting these conditions more than trying to mimic every last nuance of MLB front office. Every layer of complexity, every new decision that given to the AI, inevitably leads to weakening the AI. As it stands, the AI is pretty good, but it simply doesn't know how to build a very strong team, and it leads to really weird contracts and decisions once you get a few years into a simulation. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

04-16-2018, 12:32 PM	#31
sprague All Star Starter Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,921	For Matt I guess, Just wondering how the look goes at finding the possible bug in the lack of free agent relief signings. I have sort of put my games played with financials on, on hold until I hear how things are going. Thanks

04-19-2018, 09:12 AM	#35
OzzieFan Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Exton, PA Posts: 234	I think they must have fixed this. It was really bad at release, but now I am not seeing people with 70+ overall numbers available on one year deals at the start of spring training. The initial release there would be a ton.

10-15-2018, 11:01 AM	#38
Silfir Minors (Double A) Join Date: May 2016 Posts: 138	That's almost certainly just a natural result of the phenomenon of good relievers signing 1-year-deals every year - that means they hit the free agent market every year, while the top starters and hitters only hit the market every once in a while. It's also just more difficult to be a starting pitcher; pretty much any starter who isn't drawing from four equally powerful pitches or more will pick up rating points when converted to a reliever.