Contract/Roster Management Problem

[WrightWing]

Historical League currently in the off-season of 1901 with the following settings;

Free Agency - Off
Arbitration - Off
40 Man/Waivers - Off
Minor League FA - Off
Roster Size - 16 players
Triple A affiliate only for each team

After being released by the Dodgers, the Cardinals sign Duke Farrell to a minor league contract and bring him up as a reserve catcher for the balance of the season. He is released in mid-October after going 5-31 in Sep/Oct. A month later he is re-signed by the Cardinals to a 3-year contract that makes him the 8th highest paid player in baseball .

Farrell will be 36 in August, he hasn't played in more than 100 games in 7 years and OOTP only ranks him as the 7th best catcher (16 teams). All the Cardinals had to do was renew his contract for the league minimum if they needed a catcher (which they did).

While the AI roster management logic is clearly faulty here, I am equally as concerned with the contract amount. Now, every team did make an obscene amount of money in 1901, but why would the AI completely ignore the salary structure and offer this kind of money (and a 3-year deal!) to an older, part-time player who is only average at his position?

[Solack]

There are a couple reasons that they offered him that amount of money.

First, you said there is a lot of money in the league. The more money there is, the higher salaries are going to be, even for just average players. Since I don't know how much money we're talking about here, it can make a difference.

Second, what did St. Louis' catching situation look like at the time of the signing? Did they have a decent catcher? Was he a good upgrade for them? That can come into play as well. I know you said that a month earlier that he was signed as a backup, but did they still have the original catcher?

With that said, I'm willing to bet it has more to do with the amount of money in the league then anything.

[WrightWing]

Originally Posted by Solack

There are a couple reasons that they offered him that amount of money.

First, you said there is a lot of money in the league. The more money there is, the higher salaries are going to be, even for just average players. Since I don't know how much money we're talking about here, it can make a difference.

Second, what did St. Louis' catching situation look like at the time of the signing? Did they have a decent catcher? Was he a good upgrade for them? That can come into play as well. I know you said that a month earlier that he was signed as a backup, but did they still have the original catcher?

With that said, I'm willing to bet it has more to do with the amount of money in the league then anything.

The reasons you give may appear to explain this away (which I do appreciate your response BTW), but both actually show major flaws in the AI, IMO.

Regardless of how much extra money a team may have, that shouldn't give it any reason to ignore the defined salary structure. Otherwise, what's the point in having a defined salary range at all?

Secondly, the Cardinals only had a need for a catcher because they released this very player a month earlier. With the team holding all the player movement cards in this league, why release a marginal player only to make him one of the highest-paid players in the league a month later? That is just plain D-U-M-B.

Here's the actual flaws I see;

1) The game flat-out ignored the salary structure that was defined in the league set-up.

2) The game didn't recognize the player movement freedoms/restrictions that were in the league set-up in making the decisions it did.

3) The AI didn't look at what a roster move would do the team it was making the move on.

4) The AI then compounded problem #3 by signing the very same player it had released to an outrageous contract.

I think any of the 4 flaws should be a reason for this to be looked at closer, but all 4 taken together should have caused there to be more discussion on this IMO.

Truth be told, the fact that there hasn't been actually gives me more cause for concern than the actual flaws themselves...

[battists]

WrightWing,

I'm very sorry for the delay in responding to this issue. While I think Solack's explanations go part of the way, I do think this is worth Markus taking a look at it. I have logged this as TT #3482. Hopefully "the man" can take care of this one.

Thanks,

Steve

[Markus Heinsohn]

I see no problem. When there is a huge amount of money floating around, bidding wars can get you stuff like this. After all, he is above league average, so he should earn at least $5200 per year. $7900 is not much more considering the $$ available.