Avoiding great players

[shercot]

At the age of 25, a second baseman in my year-by-year league won his first Outstanding Hitter award. At age 27, he won his second, then filed for free agency. Nobody signed him, and he sat all year. Then comes January 1, and OOTP has retired him -- despite no injury history whatsoever. So I unretired him. No takers. So right before Opening day I briefly took the reins of his old club, then signed him to a one-year deal. (He's a 14/14/17 and an excellent player.) And then:

* 4/3: Club Number One put him on their Short-A roster
* 5/4: Club Number One released him.
* 5/4: Club Number Two signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 5/15: Club Number Two released him.
* 5/15: Club Number Three signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 5/26: Club Number Three released him.
* 5/26: Club Number One signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 6/6: Club Number One released him.
* 6/6: Club Number Four signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 6/17: Club Number Four released him.
* 6/24: Club Number Five signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 7/5: Club Number Five released him.
* 7/5: Club Number Six signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 7/16: Club Number Six released him.
* 7/16: Club Number Four signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 7/23: Club Number Four released him.
* 7/23: Club Number Three signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 8/7: Club Number Three released him.
* 8/7: Club Number Six signed him and assigned him to Short-A.
* 8/30: Club Number Six released him.

At no time did he actually <i>play</i> for any of these clubs. I assume he has a foot-odor problem or something.

He's now a free agent again, and I assume nobody's going to sign him, and he'll retire after another year.

Anybody else running into that kind of thing?

Oh, also, this other guy won the Outstanding Hitter Award nine straight years -- I don't chemically alter these players at all, then filed for free agency. No takers. Sat out a year. Then another team picked him up. He won the award again. And then again -- while hitting .249; I'm well aware that batting average doesn't tell you all that much, but how many MVPs have you seen who've hit below .250? Then he <i>didn't</i> win it for a change. Then he filed for free agency. No takers. Then he retired at 34 and went straight to the Hall of Fame.

I'm running this league by sitting back and watching stuff happen. Is it possible that the teams' financial situations have become so chaotic that <i>nobody</i> can afford to sign them? Some teams could easily have afforded both of these guys, but passed. All very weird.

[NCBeachBum]

In my leagues, when the owner controls budget option was selected, no one ever had enough money to sign anyone. I finally gave up on that option entirely and began selecting entire revenue available, and the problem went away.

[Nukester]

I see the sign and release thing all of the time in my historical league. Ive yet to pinpoint why a team would sign a guy and release him th esame day, then do it again the next day, etc.....Most times a guy will sit on a roster until the 1st of the next month, then get released, signed by another team, released, signed , released, etc. Its driving me crazy

Ive never seen it with high priced players though. It always a bunch of scrubs that it happens too. Here is a link to a thread I started about players being picked up and dumped alot. If you look at the pictures youll understand whats going on in my league and why its driving me crazy:

Sign and Release Still Happening

[shercot]

Originally Posted by Nukester

I see the sign and release thing all of the time in my historical league. Ive yet to pinpoint why a team would sign a guy and release him th esame day, then do it again the next day, etc.....Most times a guy will sit on a roster until the 1st of the next month, then get released, signed by another team, released, signed , released, etc. Its driving me crazy

Ive never seen it with high priced players though. It always a bunch of scrubs that it happens too. Here is a link to a thread I started about players being picked up and dumped alot. If you look at the pictures youll understand whats going on in my league and why its driving me crazy:

Sign and Release Still Happening

In my setup, the guy would get released, then signed by another club the same day (except once), then released a couple of weeks later.
However, maybe what you describe is part of the same problem. But you're right about this guy being expensive: three years, $35 million. He's great all three years... and then done. In fact, apparently the game took umbrage at my decision to unretire him, because not only did it retire him again, it also changed his ratings from 14/14/17 to 6/2/1, as if to say, "You gonna let him go now, or what?"

[shercot]

Originally Posted by NCBeachBum

In my leagues, when the owner controls budget option was selected, no one ever had enough money to sign anyone. I finally gave up on that option entirely and began selecting entire revenue available, and the problem went away.

I just made that change, so I'll see if this issue comes up again. Thanks.

[Left-handed Badger]

I will say, in real life, a player would lower his price tag if there were no takers.

[mikev]

Originally Posted by Left-handed Badger

I will say, in real life, a player would lower his price tag if there were no takers.

Bonds?

[shercot]

Originally Posted by Left-handed Badger

I will say, in real life, a player would lower his price tag if there were no takers.

That's what I was thinking, too. But these were two players whose teams couldn't afford <i>not</i> to sign them. Still... makes one wonder what they were asking for.

[Long_Long_Name]

I've seen multiple times players being too expensive and retiring after staying in the FA pool for a year. It's a bit sad, really. In my online league, we've done away with OOTP's FA system and use our own system, because no one would offer the contracts good players were asking for.

[shercot]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

I've seen multiple times players being too expensive and retiring after staying in the FA pool for a year. It's a bit sad, really. In my online league, we've done away with OOTP's FA system and use our own system, because no one would offer the contracts good players were asking for.

How does your system work, and what do you do to override OOTP's system?

[Long_Long_Name]

Originally Posted by shercot

How does your system work, and what do you do to override OOTP's system?

We hold a bidding war - basically an auction. I offer, say, 1mil for 3 years to a player, and another owner can come and trump my bid with a 2mil for 3 years offer.

Overriding it is simple. There are two ways. The way that I prefer is to sign the player to whatever he wants, and then I go in the editor and give him the contract he was awarded during the bidding war. The other way is to edit a player's ratings temporarily so as to lower his demands. That doesn't work all the time, though, and it cancels any rating changes during the period in which he looks like a little leaguer.

If you're not in commish mode, or you run a solo league, that's not very practical though.

[shercot]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

We hold a bidding war - basically an auction. I offer, say, 1mil for 3 years to a player, and another owner can come and trump my bid with a 2mil for 3 years offer.

Overriding it is simple. There are two ways. The way that I prefer is to sign the player to whatever he wants, and then I go in the editor and give him the contract he was awarded during the bidding war. The other way is to edit a player's ratings temporarily so as to lower his demands. That doesn't work all the time, though, and it cancels any rating changes during the period in which he looks like a little leaguer.

If you're not in commish mode, or you run a solo league, that's not very practical though.

Yeah -- this is a solo league. I guess I could get rid of financials altogether, but I don't really want to.

I have to say, though, that when I checked up on the guy every few weeks to see if he'd played at all, he always showed up in a different uniform.

I also noticed: Club Number One kept him for 32 days; then everybody else kept him for 12 days until late in the season, when one team canned him after a week, and he stayed with his last team for 24 days. Odd.

[CobaltJays]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

I've seen multiple times players being too expensive and retiring after staying in the FA pool for a year. It's a bit sad, really. In my online league, we've done away with OOTP's FA system and use our own system, because no one would offer the contracts good players were asking for.

I saw this as well in my solo league in OOTP2007. I thought it might be partially due to the size of my league (just 8 MLB teams). When good players would retire after spending a year in the free agent pool, I'd always unretire them. They'd usually (possibly always) get signed by someone the following season.

[shercot]

Originally Posted by CobaltJays

I saw this as well in my solo league in OOTP2007. I thought it might be partially due to the size of my league (just 8 MLB teams). When good players would retire after spending a year in the free agent pool, I'd always unretire them. They'd usually (possibly always) get signed by someone the following season.

When I tried that, the game seemed to get offended....

My league consists of 16 teams and their vast farm systems, so you'd think a guy like that could find a place *somewhere*, especially given that, in this case, once he'd taken a year off, his old team signed him for $720,000, as opposed to the $35 million he'd made during the three years in which he won two Outstanding Hitter awards, and the team one one pennant.

Perhaps he can't complain, though: I don't know how much minor league contracts are worth, but let's say $10,000; in this case, he would've made $810,000 (hardly chump change) without ever having to don cup or spikes, and he would get to stay in hotels -- well, motels -- all over the country.

[CobaltJays]

The league I was playing in 2007 got corrupted, so I can't easily go back and check on the histories of the players I did this with. I do remember one instance with a good second baseman that I had. I let him become a free agent and no one would sign him, resulting in his evenual retirement. After manually unretiring him, he signed a reasonable long-term deal with another team. I didn't find the amount he eventually signed for to be a bargain, although I can't recall the specifics.

[shercot]

Originally Posted by CobaltJays

The league I was playing in 2007 got corrupted, so I can't easily go back and check on the histories of the players I did this with. I do remember one instance with a good second baseman that I had. I let him become a free agent and no one would sign him, resulting in his evenual retirement. After manually unretiring him, he signed a reasonable long-term deal with another team. I didn't find the amount he eventually signed for to be a bargain, although I can't recall the specifics.

I would've been delighted with that. As it happens, his walk year was also the walk year for the Outstanding Hitter in the other league; they both walked; they both sat. The second guy, though, was picked up by another team afterwards. Go figure.

[Tony M]

Did the game save before you unretired him? If so, he'll have absolutely rock-bottom ratings...

[shercot]

Originally Posted by redsoxford

Did the game save before you unretired him? If so, he'll have absolutely rock-bottom ratings...

I don't remember, but I'm guessing so, based on what you said. I unretired him as soon as I saw that he was retired, but he may have been retired right before the game did its 12/31 stuff (almanac, etc.).

[Tony M]

Originally Posted by shercot

I don't remember, but I'm guessing so, based on what you said. I unretired him as soon as I saw that he was retired, but he may have been retired right before the game did its 12/31 stuff (almanac, etc.).

Yes, when a player gets marked as retired during the course of a season, he still has all his ratings intact. Once the game is saved, he gets put in retired.dat and the major difference between retired.dat and players.dat is that the batting/pitching/fielding ratings get removed, with the exception of BABIP - because this was a new field added at a later date and somehow missed the retired cull.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by Long_Long_Name

We hold a bidding war - basically an auction. I offer, say, 1mil for 3 years to a player, and another owner can come and trump my bid with a 2mil for 3 years offer.

Overriding it is simple. There are two ways. The way that I prefer is to sign the player to whatever he wants, and then I go in the editor and give him the contract he was awarded during the bidding war. The other way is to edit a player's ratings temporarily so as to lower his demands. That doesn't work all the time, though, and it cancels any rating changes during the period in which he looks like a little leaguer.

If you're not in commish mode, or you run a solo league, that's not very practical though.

Another way to override it would be to go into the player editor and manually assign the guy to a team, and then enter his contract info.