Online Leagues: Free Agency - Players Accepting MLCs Over Pro Contracts

[enuttage]

Dunno why this would be happening, but we're currently in off-season FA for our online league and we've now had at least two instances of players accepting minor-league contracts over pro contracts.

Example number one was a MLC over a 1-year, $300K deal.

Example number two was a MLC over a 1-year, $1.7M deal with a $500K performance bonus for PAs.

Notes of possible interest: We're running three in-game days for each real day of simming. We waited till February 1st to begin FA.

Please pass this along to Markus (or whomever).

Thank you.

[Kaitiaki]

Originally Posted by enuttage

We waited till February 1st to begin FA.

I'm wondering if that's the issue. Are you using a standard MLB-type schedule, where the players filed for free agency in November and the Offseason ends/Preseason begins in early February? If so, the fact that the players have gone "months" without getting any offers is probably affecting what they're willing to sign for. Particularly, I believe player demands change sharply if they go unsigned past the official conclusion of the Offseason.

That doesn't really defend the notion of a player signing a lower-value deal when they have a better one on the table at the same time, but given the lack of future patches for OOTP2007, it might present a possible way to avoid this problem until OOTP9 comes out (i.e., starting your FA process when it's "supposed" to start).

- Kai

[enuttage]

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll look into that next season, and I'll report back (if my old brain remembers). It begs the question of whether it'll bring the opposite effect, too, which is players 'holding out' during our FA period in December/January (we do three-day increments for 30 game days) and make it a cluster of bizarre signings when we go back to week-long (or longer) sims during the offseason.

This game needs a lot of smoothing out for online leagues.

[Kaitiaki]

Originally Posted by enuttage

It begs the question of whether it'll bring the opposite effect, too, which is players 'holding out' during our FA period in December/January (we do three-day increments for 30 game days) and make it a cluster of bizarre signings when we go back to week-long (or longer) sims during the offseason.

Umm...probably. Free Agency since OOTP2006 isn't designed to fit in the same 30-day mold that it did in OOTP6 and earlier. It's essentially supposed to last for most to all of the Offseason now, which means about 2-3 months of game time.

For my online league, I've found the most functional schedule is one that ramps up: three day sims from late November to about mid- or late-December, then a couple week-long sims and finally a couple two-week sims to fly through January. I've found that provides the best balance between letting people haggle/make counteroffers and covering the full span of time in an efficient fashion.

This game needs a lot of smoothing out for online leagues.

This is certainly an area where I'd agree with you about that. OOTP6's more structured approach to free agency - a hard-set period of 30 days with players always responding within one day of receiving an offer - was much more viable for the multiplayer environment.

I know a few people have made suggestions for various ways to bring some of that back for OOTP9 - limiting the length of the FA period, controlling how long players wait before responding to offers, forcing players to only sign contracts on certain days of the week, etc. - but obviously we'll have to wait and see what if anything gets implemented next year.

- Kai

[Nutlaw]

Is there anything that you feel needs to be logged here or any further assistance that we can provide?

[enuttage]

At this moment, no.

Let's see what the future brings.

[Nutlaw]

Okay. Closing for now. If you want to discuss this further at a later date, of course feel free to post in Tech Support.