Trading on hard

[Mister_G]

Was wondering if anyone could help me out here. I usually set the trading difficulty to average, but when I could get four 4-5 star prospects for someone like Chase Headley (who I believe I lowered his ratings, and wasn't having a great season) I decided to up the difficulty.

However, now I'm having major trouble completing any trade. I can't seem to get rid of any vets who aren't superstars. And right now I'm trying to trade 1 or 2 AAA guys on Major League minimum contracts to make some room on my AAA roster. Any tips? I can't seem to trade them straight up for like $10,000, I can't seem to trade them for crappy single-A guys. I just don't want to eat the $500K, I'm cheap.

Any tips for trading on hard?

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Mister_G

Any tips for trading on hard?

You will find that some players, mostly 1-2 WAR guys with contracts > minimum, just have no value to the AI. There is nothing you can do to move these guys.

The more players that are involved in the trade on both sides, the more likely the AI is to accept the trade. This may seem weird, but sometimes the AI wants to move certain players, even though they are not on the trading block. You can only find them by trial and error.

The AI assigns value to 40-man roster spots. If you try to trade players with major league contracts and no options, it becomes much harder. Try trading minor league players, even experienced ones, as thrown-ins for the guy you want to move. Take back a player from their 40-man roster (see above) to give them an extra spot for your more desirable guy.

If I am having difficulty completing a deal, I put my guy in a deal with a minor league non-prospect on their side, and push "make this work now". From there, I get a list of players that the AI assigns some value. Now, try to include one or two of those players in your deal. If you get "no way to make this work", you can just give up trying to trade your guy to that team.

Of course, there are all of the usual money constraints, but it sounds like you know how to work around those. Just remember that sometimes "I need more" means money from you and not another player that adds to the AI's payroll.

[EvilGenius]

Isn't that the point of raising the trading difficulty? To make it harder?

Chase Headley had a good year in 2012 (6 WAR). Other than that, nothing about his stats blow me away (WAR about 3, give or take). Now he's a nice player to be sure, but NOT worth a 5 star prospect. So the AI is behaving exactly as desired.

There are ways to game the system. You need to find the player the AI over-values. And that is rarely veterans. If you can offer him enough of those players, he might be willing to take that veteran off your hands just to make the deal happen.

But finding those over-valued players is the tricky part. If you enable Draft Pick Trading, it becomes a lot easier. But IMO makes the game way too easy.

[Mister_G]

Originally Posted by EvilGenius

Isn't that the point of raising the trading difficulty? To make it harder?

Chase Headley had a good year in 2012 (6 WAR). Other than that, nothing about his stats blow me away (WAR about 3, give or take). Now he's a nice player to be sure, but NOT worth a 5 star prospect. So the AI is behaving exactly as desired.

There are ways to game the system. You need to find the player the AI over-values. And that is rarely veterans. If you can offer him enough of those players, he might be willing to take that veteran off your hands just to make the deal happen.

But finding those over-valued players is the tricky part. If you enable Draft Pick Trading, it becomes a lot easier. But IMO makes the game way too easy.

The Chase Headley example showed that the AI was NOT behaving properly (I was able to deal him for multiple blue-chip prospects), but that was on average difficulty.

The problem now is, for example, I just shopped Anthony Rizzo, and did not receive a single one-for-one offer.

I guess I'm just asking for some examples of deals you were able to get done where you weren't just dealing every prospect you have for a decent player or dealing a superstar for maybe one decent prospect.

[The Game]

I have mine on hard, always have. How much $$ do you have available? I have seen when you have very little to no $$ available you will not get offers. Also how is the rest of the league financially? If there are many teams in the red they will not bite. You may have to go to Financial Report then to Trade screen and pick a team that has $4 and see what they are willing to give you for Rizzo.

[EvilGenius]

Originally Posted by Mister_G

The Chase Headley example showed that the AI was NOT behaving properly (I was able to deal him for multiple blue-chip prospects), but that was on average difficulty.

The problem now is, for example, I just shopped Anthony Rizzo, and did not receive a single one-for-one offer.

I guess I'm just asking for some examples of deals you were able to get done where you weren't just dealing every prospect you have for a decent player or dealing a superstar for maybe one decent prospect.

One of the things you could try is to go into Commissioner mode and change his salary to a minor league contract. Then shop him around and see if anyone bites.

I'm not suggesting doing this for playing purposes, but rather to isolate the problem. Does the AI have a problem with the player? or his salary? See if we can narrow the problem down.

I doubt that it is a problem with the other teams' financials, as they have the money to spend when the trading difficulty is Average. His good year in 2012 put his arbitration value through the roof. If your game has his salary anywhere near his real life salary, I could see that being a problem. I would speculate that as the AI algorithm is calculating his value it is whacking you over his salary, not ability.

If you can do this, please post the results. This will also be relevant to the thread started by PSU Colonel here: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...-settings.html

[le receveur]

as for getting rid of salary, I have been able to do it by tagging on prospects that OSA likes and I don't . I go through the list of overrated prospects, and have them as bait...