OOTP10 Suggestions: Player and Staff Contracts

[battists]

This suggestion thread is designed to collect suggestions for the next version of OOTP, on the following topic:

Player and Staff Contracts and Free Agency

Includes
- Things related to player contracts, incentives, clauses, and so forth.
- The same, for team personnel.
- Includes salary arbitration and free agency, and screens/reports related to these.

Excludes
- If it's "big picture" financial stuff, that should probably go in the front office finances thread.

Instructions
We will use this thread to collect suggestions on the above topic. Later on, we hope to present this information back to the community in a way that would allow you to vote and prioritize certain features.

If you would like to participate, here are the rules!

1. Only 1 suggestion per post.
2. Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread.
3. Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only.
4. No comments on others' suggestions are necessary. That means, we don't need 15 posts in the thread saying "Great idea!" or "I agree!"
5. Please don't link to other forum threads as your way of making suggestions. ("My suggestion can be found HERE.") If it's important enough to you that you want it in this thread, then it should be important enough to put it in the format I've asked for here!
6. You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions.
7. Mockups are welcomed, they really help Markus see what you're interested in accomplishing.

Format for Suggestions

Suggestion
What is your suggestion? Be as specific as possible; include the screen you're talking about, if applicable.

Reason
Why do you think this is important? If this is to correct what you perceive as a problem in OOTP 2007, what is that problem? Be as specific as possible.

Priority
In your opinion, how important is this suggestion?
High (MUST have), Medium (should have), Low (nice to have))


Handy Cut-and-Paste Suggestion Form:

Suggestion


Reason


Priority


Thanks for participating!

Steve

[Hrbek14]

Suggestion
If I am trying to sign a player to an extension who will be arbitration eligible, the amount he is estimated to get from his arbitration hearing should not be included when deciding whether I have enough money available to offer the extension.

Reason
If the player accepts my offer, his new salary will replace the arbitration estimate as a charge against the payroll, so I should have that extra money available to make my offer.

Priority
Low. This makes a lot of sense, but I don't think it is a make-or-break issue.

[southsidefan]

Suggestion
Offer " make coach after contract" incentive to veteran players close to retirement

Reason
It gives alittle realism to offers.


Priority
low

[markprior22]

Send an email at some point during the season letting the user know what personnel are in the last year of their contract. I know I sometimes forget to look at this when focused on the MLB club and end up losing minor league personnel because I didn't realize they were entering their last year.

[jmknpk2]

Suggestion
On the day that a free-agent signs a contract, do not send conflicting negotiation update emails. (Actually, is there any reason to send a negotiation update email on the same day as the signing email?)

Reason
Realism.

Currently, there are often messages like, "You better up your offer" in the mail box, right below the "I signed somewhere else" email, giving no time to react. Or, sometimes even "You're going to have to do better" on the same day a player signs for me ...and other variations...

Priority
Low - would be nice

[Nutlaw]

Suggestion
Add player agents to the game. Allow the potential for each player to sign one. Give them ratings for their tendency to high ball demands, sign extensions versus going to free agency, and ask for short versus long contracts. Give each agent a relationship with each team that improves with each accepted offer and decreases with each declined offer. Improve the likelihood of signing for offers made to agents with positive relations.

Reason
It would add depth to the game without making it any more difficult to play.

Priority
Low.

[koohead]

Suggestion

Regardless of how much money a team has, the AI should strictly follow the average salary parameters as defined by the League Setup options. If I set the avg superstar salary to be $10, I really shouldn't see FA's signing for 18-20 million a year just because the league has alot of money.

Reason
This goes hand in hand with Front Office finance fixes/suggestions. I want to disable cash max and let teams stock pile cash for use on managers, scouting, and whatever (promotion days maybe???) but don't want all that extra cash to affect player salaries.

Priority

Moderate

[bailey]

Suggestion deleted -- already in the game.

[injury log]

Suggestion

Attach buyouts to team options. For simplicity, these could be fixed at 10% (say) of the salary value of the option.

Reason

In real life, teams always need to pay a buyout if they decline a team option. As team options are modeled in OOTP right now, no player should ever agree to them. Adding a buyout clause makes team options more realistic and would make gameplay more interesting -- offering a team option would no longer automatically be a good idea.

Priority

Low to medium, but should be easy to implement.

[injury log]

Suggestion

Fix draft pick compensation for free agents.

Reason

It's time this gets done right. FA compensation is a crucially important part of real life baseball transactions - it dramatically changes how, for example, a GM acquiring an impending free agent evaluates a deadline trade, or how a rebuilding team deals with its upcoming free agents.

There are a few things that need doing:

-the user needs to be asked whether he wants to offer arbitration to FAs. This could be done at the beginning of the offseason;
-player then needs to decide whether to accept arbitration. This should be easy to implement- the player is really choosing between a one-year contract at arbitration salary versus what he might get as a free agent;
-those free agents who decline arbitration then yield compensation for their old team if they sign elsewhere;
-the game needs to add sandwich rounds to the draft to accommodate compensation picks. Further, when FA compensation is enabled, the game needs to be sure to generate a large enough draft pool to accommodate compensation picks.

Priority

High.

[BostonRS14]

Suggestion:

Add a report to the offseason that lists all the Type A and B FA's.

Reason:

Allow GMs to see who is Compensation eligible all at once rather than being forced to go player by player.

Priority

Medium

[Overkill]

This is in response to the last suggestion...

Suggestion:
Allow free agents to be sorted by free agent type. For example, instead of a simple report, add a 5th drop-down menu to the free agents screen that allows me to see Type-A free agents vs Type-B free agents vs free agents who require no compensation.

If not a fifth drop-down menu, then at least make it an optional filter.

ex. Free agent type --- is/is not --- Type A

Reason:
As said above, this would allow a GM to see what type of compensation is required for a certain player all at once. Doing it on the main free agents screen would make it much easier to navigate. I often find it annoying that I am required to look through the profiles of many different players just to check what free agent type they are.

This can also help to affect expansion drafts as well. I often like to start as the expansion Blue Jays in 1977 and have full free agency rules such as compensation enabled, so why not allow me to sort through players who are Type-A free agents when I am filling up my team for the first time? This would allow me to stockpile first round picks for the next draft, and would save me from looking at the profiles of hundreds of different players just to see who I can possibly gain a draft pick from.

Priority:
Medium-High because of how much easier and less time-consuming it would make free agency.

[Bagpipes5]

Suggestion

Keep track of all staff records from previous seasons.

Reason

It will effect who I will hire. If I'm hiring a hitting coach I want to know if the last team he coached hit .240 or .290 as a team. If I'm hiring a bench coach, where was he a bench coach previously? I see a lot of prospective managers with 0 managerial experience but 10 years of overall experience later on in my games. Coach records and managerial records should be kept seperately.

Priority

Medium

[Tullius]

Suggestion

Coaches from a smaller level should be available for positions in higher leagues despite their current contract. In this case the signing team should pay a compensation.

Reason

Adds realism to the game and enhances the expierence. In RL most minor league managers seems to have only contracts of year and they all want finally a job in the majors. In such positions buy-out-clausels are common.

In my fictional leagues (without financials) some very successful minor league mangers are caught on the low level because they get not fired and so are not available for other teams and the game does not know an in-game promotion.

Priority

Medium

[Wolfbane]

Suggestion: Creation option for adding monetary values to minor league contracts so that minor leaguers do not cost zero in game. Also, could have a salaryand bonus negotiation added to drafting players. This could be an option in league setup for those that want to avoid these details.

Reason: In real life, minor league contracts scale as you go up levels in most instances in real life(ex 40,000 A ball, 60,000 AA, 75,000AAA), this would help realism greatly. There are two exceptions to this rule that I know of that could help solve other issues.

First of all, some minor league free agents sign contracts worth considerable money in real life with a clause for a major league contract if promoted. For example, lets say Dallas MacPherson signs a minor league contract worth $300,000 with an increase to $750,000 if promoted to the MLB team. This prevents the player from taking up a 40man roster spot until promoted and reflects his monetary demands while in OOTP the player would demand league minimum or close to and take up a roster spot while playing in AAA. Also, as stated above, a clause for a new contract upon promotion could be created.

The second exception is drafted players, especially players from the top rounds or ones that dropped due to signability, negotiate contracts and bonuses when signing. Most players would get just the average amount but some of the top round picks would get higher salaries on a yearly basis as a part of negotiations(see example of Pedro Alvarez's contract). This method of contract negotiation with drafted players could allow for the inclusion of signing bonuses.

Priority:Medium

[drowtfs]

Suggestion
Multiple option years and conditional options.

Reason
Because it is a big factor in today's MLB contracts.

Priority
Medium-high

[drowtfs]

Suggestion
Players need to consider their years of major league service when making contract decisions.

Reason
I like to start trying to sign my players to multi-year when they first become eligible for arbitration. They don't seem to understand that they will only get so much money through arbitration until they have completed 6 years of service, and will still be under control anyway. I often offer contracts that will pay them more than they are estimated to receive through arbitration, to cover their 3 arbitration years or more, they still demand millions and millions more, apparently not understanding that they will not be able to sign anywhere else, and if I want it they will just get what arbitration gives them. Likewise, I have seen a player accept a contract that would pay, over its 3 year duration, less than he was estimated to be given in his first arbitration year alone (Craig Hansen somehow expected his market value to warrant 2.1m over 3 years when he was estimated for more than 3m in his first year of arbitration, I didn't know Craig had low self esteem problems). As well, players with a player option year in their contract, but still not eligible for free agency at the time of opting can go and opt out of a contract, still remaining under control anyway and making less money through arbitration or automatic renewal than they would, had they not opted out of the contract. So, because of this single problem, I think the players' contract negotiation AI is way behind when compared to the general advancement of the rest of OOTP.

Priority
High

[injury log]

Suggestion

Add an 'offer extension to all staff' button, like the one on the free agent page for minor league free agents.

Reason

Playing with coaches can be pretty tedious if you have a deep minor league system. Hiring coaches, and offering them contracts, is dull. I don't know about other players, but I'm happy to meet the contract demands of my coaches -- the negotiations are over such small sums of money that they aren't worth spending time on. If there was a button that automatically offered every coach with an expiring contract the precise salary they were demanding, playing with coaches on would be more palatable.

Priority

Medium.

[Corsairs]

Suggestion
Add an option to send email notification whenever a draft pick changes hands via FA compensation in a Human League if the player is playing in Commissioner Mode.

Reason
Right now there's no way to receive warning when a team in your league gains/loses a draft pick via compensation. This is particularly troublesome for online leagues where getting this information out to the owners in a timely fashion is important. The emails would help greatly, especially if they specified the player that triggered the compensation and the exact pick changing hands. It would also be good for them to explain why no compensation is received in cases where the pick is protected (i.e. top half of the 1st round of the draft).

Priority
Medium

[Dr. P.R. Park III]

Suggestion
Ability to purchase contracts from independent leagues or foreign leagues, or just the ability to "purchase contracts."

Reason
This happens all the time in real baseball. This is practically the only way for obscure indie league players to join a MLB organization, for the most part.

Priority
High