Deadlines and Ultimatums

[DiMaggio5CF]

What I would really like is the ability to set a deadline on a player.

Basically, there will be a box that we can check and a date that we can set; if we select a date and check the box, that's a request for they player to respond by that date.

The player won't necessarily respond, but it would be a good way to make a final offer (which a player might be more likely to accept because you'll be out of the bidding war), and to play hardball with the player so to speak.

This is like what the Yankees did with Johnny Damon. They made their final offer; he had a certain amount of time to accept, and if he didn't, they would move on. If the Yanks didn't make it clear that it was their final offer, Damon probably would have tried to get more. But since he knew he wasn't getting another offer, he accepted it.

It would also be a decent negotiationg tactic. Perhaps I throw in a no-trade clause and demand an immediate response. Basically, this is like saying "Okay, I'll give you the fourth year, but you have to sign now." Now usually a player would balk at receiving an offer lower than what you had proposed earlier, but by setting the ultimatum, the player would know that the terms come off the table after a certain date. You're conceding something that you normally wouldn't but only if the player is willing to sign immediately. If he rejects the offer or doesn't answer by the deadline, the special bonus comes off the table, and everyone is cool with it.

Of course, if you give a player too many ultimatums and deadlines, he might grow tired of this tactic and choose to cut off negotiations entirely -- if he has enough other interested teams, of course.

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I posted this in another thread, but it's related to this too, so I'm just going
to paste it here as well.

I also think that players should request proper salaries. In the game, players often sign for ridiculous numbers despite asking for modest sums.

Realistically, even in a bidding war, how many players ask for less than they get.

Even in bidding wars, how many teams offer a player more than he wants?

Look at Johnny Damon. He wanted a 7 year contract and wound up signing for four.

Perhaps the best way to handle free agent signings would be to have some players ask for very high "wishlist" sums, while most have the "please make me an offer tag." The "make an offer" players stay like that for about a week while they gather all the opening offers. Then, based on those opening offers, they determine their real market value, and only then do they set a concrete asking price.

At the very least, the player's request should change based on the offers. If a player asks for a certain figure and gets it, then the next time I inquire it should be higher. It's kind of silly to have a player asking for $7 million, rejecting $11 million, and then signing for $15 million all at the same time.

For example, if a player starts out demanding $5 million per for 3 years and gets an offer of $4 mil for 3, then the next time I click on him, he should ask for $6 mil for 3 years -- so that I still have $2 mil worth of negotiating room, and anything I offer over $4 per becomes his new favorite offer.

So let's say I offer him $5 million for 3, and he considers it. Then another team offers him $6 million for 4 and he declines my offer. When I click back on him, he should then request something like $8 million for 4 or $9 million for 3. In the current game, although it might progress like this, by this point the player will still be asking for $5 million for 3 years, and if I offer that he'll give me the "you have to be kidding" email.

The bottom line is that what the player asks for when I click on him should be what it will take to sign him, plus a little more.

[Dark Horse]

Great idea Dimaggio, i was thinking something along the same lines.. or in addition to the ultimatum.

i don’t know if i have ever seen a player in OOTP accept less than what he initially asked for. during contract extension negotiations. Of course, i don’t think i have tried more than a handful of times. Usually, i’ll sign them for what they ask for if i think it’s reasonable. If not, i’ll wait and see if they lower their demand; they’ll do this at the end of the season sometimes.

i would like to be able to check “final offer” during contract negotiations, too. The way the game is now, when the player rejects my offer, it always feel like he’s expecting me to keep going up. And often time, these guys will get significantly less in free agency than i was offering. (i must admit i will overpay for guys i like. But i have my limits.) i keep wanting to say, “Do you really want to turn down $10 million because you want $11 million?” or “Do you really want to walk away from $8 million for 3 years, when you want a four year contract?”

Of course, this would have to be done judiciously. You can’t make a final offer and then say, “Okay, i take it back, how about…”

If the player rejects the final offer, contract negotiations should be cut off.

[rocknfire7]

This is going to be very interesting and very cool.

Also what about no-trade clauses where a player will pick about 4 teams or so that he will allow himself to be traded to? The 10 and 5 rule??

[BruceM]

Originally Posted by rocknfire7

Also what about no-trade clauses where a player will pick about 4 teams or so that he will allow himself to be traded to? The 10 and 5 rule??

Taken from BLOG #6 - The financial system:

Player Contracts
When player filed for free agency, you can start negotiating a contract with them. Contracts are more complex in the new version, as they may include incentives (for example a bonus for reaching X number of plate appearances, or hitting X homeruns etc.) and a no-trade clause. Thirteen different categories for incentives are supported. Also, you can set the salary for each year of the contract. It’s very common in real life today to make the players earn less in early years of the contract, while the salary increases towards the end of the contract, and OOTP can handle this now.

The BLOGS contain some really good information on the new game.

[rocknfire7]

[quote=BruceM]Taken from BLOG #6 - The financial system:

Ya I read that. It's not very specific about the no-trade clause and I was hinting that I hope it is set up as close to the MLB as possible.

What options will we have concerning this issue as far as foreign leagues are concerned? My guess is that it WILL be set up like the MLB AND we will be able to tweak it so it will work with the foreign leagues.

Sorry if I don't answer fast enough, I don't always have a chance to check this forum like I would want to.