Realistic Financials

[thatguychap]

Does anyone have any suggestions on realistic financial settings that will help mirror real life MLB? I am trying to get a pretty realistic Luxury Tax that will make teams be smarter in free agency. Anything will help, Thanks!

[MisterTidster]

Does smarter mean an upgrade from “dumb as a sack of bricks” to “dumb as a block of wood”?

I think the fundamental flaw in the AI is that the AI GMs have a set of values and just make a series of short term decisions based on their values. I wish AIs could be coded to have an overarching vision as far as their longer term plans and then factored that plan into their string of value judgments.

[marc5477]

Originally Posted by thatguychap

Does anyone have any suggestions on realistic financial settings that will help mirror real life MLB? I am trying to get a pretty realistic Luxury Tax that will make teams be smarter in free agency. Anything will help, Thanks!

Unfortunately there is no in game way of making the AI good at managing finances. You basically need to play with self imposed rules.

One main pointer about the AI.

You need to give them tons of extra cash because they are terrible at negotiating contracts. They always pay top dollar for practically everyone even if they have not played all that great. They are also notorious for overpay old and declining players. I mean... if I can see rating taking a nose dive, why cant the AI? Pitcher losing throwing speed is basically the end yet after I release said players the AI picks them up for huge multiyear contracts as well as giving up their 1st round pick... Also who in their right mind gives a 35+ year old player a 5+ year near max salary contract? The AI has at least 1 player like this on practically every team.

Personally I play with some house rules.

1 - My overall expenses are to remain about 1/2 that of the league average. For years I played with 1/4 but since ootp 2018 it became harder since relievers were no longer cheap. Though in 2019 i did find a loophole for general bullpen fillers though I still pay for closers and at least 1 quality setup guy.

Turns out, you can pick up slightly below average starters for extremely cheap in the off-season and turn into star caliber relievers and most will accept very low salary multiyear deals with team options. Borderline starters who have been starting for a while are great for this purpose because their stats will look pretty bad compared to what they would be if they were relievers.

2 - I set the soft cap to 100% and luxury tax to 50% to give smaller teams a little more oomph.

[nymetsfan5]

Originally Posted by marc5477

Unfortunately there is no in game way of making the AI good at managing finances. You basically need to play with self imposed rules.

One main pointer about the AI.

You need to give them tons of extra cash because they are terrible at negotiating contracts. They always pay top dollar for practically everyone even if they have not played all that great. They are also notorious for overpay old and declining players. I mean... if I can see rating taking a nose dive, why cant the AI? Pitcher losing throwing speed is basically the end yet after I release said players the AI picks them up for huge multiyear contracts as well as giving up their 1st round pick... Also who in their right mind gives a 35+ year old player a 5+ year near max salary contract? The AI has at least 1 player like this on practically every team.

Personally I play with some house rules.

1 - My overall expenses are to remain about 1/2 that of the league average. For years I played with 1/4 but since ootp 2018 it became harder since relievers were no longer cheap. Though in 2019 i did find a loophole for general bullpen fillers though I still pay for closers and at least 1 quality setup guy.

Turns out, you can pick up slightly below average starters for extremely cheap in the off-season and turn into star caliber relievers and most will accept very low salary multiyear deals with team options. Borderline starters who have been starting for a while are great for this purpose because their stats will look pretty bad compared to what they would be if they were relievers.

2 - I set the soft cap to 100% and luxury tax to 50% to give smaller teams a little more oomph.

To be fair, with the exception of this past offseason, teams were giving huge contracts to players on the decline. That being said, the financials do need some work.

[dbqs]

Originally Posted by nymetsfan5

To be fair, with the exception of this past offseason, teams were giving huge contracts to players on the decline. That being said, the financials do need some work.

Yeah, sim ahead to like 2040 to where it's all OOTP AI and you'll see a lot fewer Chris Davises out there.

Certainly the AI does plenty of stuff I wouldn't do and I would like to see a couple smarter small-market teams out there, but if you're starting a standard game, the worst veteran contracts you'll ever see by and large are the pre-existing current ones made by humans in the real world.

[kehowey]

I limit contracts to 5 years to lessen the burden of poor AI decisions.

[james17]

I use a hard cap of $155 million and it works decently enough though there are mind blowing exceptions of dollars the A/I hands out on a handful of contracts. I also won’t pay for a player in free agency at all. That’s the crazy season to me.

I’d like the AI to follow the default baselines that are a part of the league settings.

[The Yurpman]

I don't know how much a difference this makes, but I set the inflation from 0% to 1%-3%. I read in a post from last years game that this can help financials down the road.

[WIUPIKE]

Originally Posted by The Yurpman

I don't know how much a difference this makes, but I set the inflation from 0% to 1%-3%. I read in a post from last years game that this can help financials down the road.

This

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by The Yurpman

I don't know how much a difference this makes, but I set the inflation from 0% to 1%-3%.

The only issue with this, from a realism perspective, is that real-life baseball inflation is a lot higher than that. (Both in terms of revenue and player salaries, baseball has far outpaced the general consumer price index measure of inflation for several decades now.)

[jimmysthebestcop]

Originally Posted by The Yurpman

I don't know how much a difference this makes, but I set the inflation from 0% to 1%-3%. I read in a post from last years game that this can help financials down the road.

Do you have the link? Or could you explain this further. I haven't heard anything about this setting.

[The Yurpman]

Originally Posted by jimmysthebestcop

Do you have the link? Or could you explain this further. I haven't heard anything about this setting.

It was from a detailed post from last years game. I can't find it, I've tried. Maybe you can have luck finding it. It basically explained that increasing the inflation just a little bit, like I do, realistically makes contracts increase over the course of a number of years. I apologize that I can't explain it very well. I just know that a bunch of people did some research and found that putting the inflation rate between 1% and 3% helps down the line.

[ohiodevil]

Is this the thread you are referring to?

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ight=inflation

[dkgo]

I also set inflation to 1-2% just to keep the minimum contracts steadily going up, financials seem to be working out as I move through the 2020s. AI gives out contracts I would never consider but nothing much worse than the cubs gave darvish this offseason for example.