Open Market vs. Team Consistency

[Neags23]

I thought I liked the idea of a very short service term before a player is awarded FA. After all, most other professions allow you to go work for whatever company you choose, why should ballplayers be restricted to a particular employer? So, I set my fictional league at 2 years service time for FA and went on my way.

However, now I see 28 year olds that have played for 6 different teams, and superstars who have no team identity, and it kind of makes me sad. Not to mention that it makes it tough to keep up with who is playing where.

I started to wonder what people generally did, and figured most probably leave service time until FA at the default. But then decided I should never assume.

What say ye?

[darkcloud4579]

I'm a fan of the free market too. But think about it from the perspective of the team that invests a lot of money to develop that player. They should get a return on their investment before the player gets to hit the open market.

[ctorg]

After much playing around, I now usually leave it at the default. It makes for a pretty good mix of consistency and free agency.

[Honolulu Blue]

I usually turn off arbitration and set free agency to 4 years. I think this is what the major league owners should have done back in the 70s instead of clinging to the reserve clause until its death.

I like the results it gives me... more star/superstar FAs are in their prime rather than past it. And the turnover's not too bad; the journeymen will move about from team to team because that's what journeymen do. But a fair number will lock into long-term contracts and stick around awhile.

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by Honolulu Blue

I usually turn off arbitration and set free agency to 4 years. I think this is what the major league owners should have done back in the 70s instead of clinging to the reserve clause until its death.

I like the results it gives me... more star/superstar FAs are in their prime rather than past it. And the turnover's not too bad; the journeymen will move about from team to team because that's what journeymen do. But a fair number will lock into long-term contracts and stick around awhile.

Not a bad idea. I might employ this.

[Neags23]

Originally Posted by Honolulu Blue

I usually turn off arbitration and set free agency to 4 years. I think this is what the major league owners should have done back in the 70s instead of clinging to the reserve clause until its death.

I like the results it gives me... more star/superstar FAs are in their prime rather than past it. And the turnover's not too bad; the journeymen will move about from team to team because that's what journeymen do. But a fair number will lock into long-term contracts and stick around awhile.

Curious.. what advantage do you see in turning off arbitration?

[SetonHallPirate]

I would prefer to have restricted free agency after three years (rather than arbitration). Alas, unfortunately, there is no restricted free agency option, so I'm stuck with arbitration.

[Honolulu Blue]

Originally Posted by Neags23

Curious.. what advantage do you see in turning off arbitration?

Arbitration essentially commits me (the GM) to the player for three more years after his three cheap years. Doing away with it allow him to be completely free.

I wish there were ascending minimum salaries based on experience, but it looks to be impossible to implement and might be tough to code. And I would also take a look at RFA. It would give me an additional look at the other GM's offers (in this version, sometimes they tell and sometimes they don't; in the previous version, you never knew until you saw the article).

[Neags23]

I almost wish there was an option for a player's tendency to test FA.

I guess that's the loyalty characteristic, but I don't really get the feeling that loyalty really corresponds to a player deciding whether to jump into the FA boat when they're eligible.

I think what would bother me the most with long service time requirements before FA is that there wouldn't be enough competitive balance. Bad teams wouldn't have access to enough free agents who could turn a team around, and really good teams would be able to hoard their best players for too long.

On the flip side, short service time for FA causes too many team jumpers.

I just need to find a good balance...