SIM COMPLETE - 93-94 - OFF-SEASON 2

[Carlos]

That is more of a payroll balance issue - you're not going to see your bigtime players hit FA because most of us are smart enough to trade them before they hit (barring unforseen things like injuries) for similar talent or several high prospects and multiple 1st round picks.


If those marquee players do hit FA, your best teams that are already established - not your rising teams with cost controlled stars (min contracts or arbitration) - won't have the money to bid with the lowest payroll teams. Those lowest payroll teams are smart enough to overpay a little (or a lot) knowing they can move those players at the deadline or (worst case) sit on them with no real payroll penalty since they are so so far under anyway.

To be fair we also have an advantage over the real world league where free agency is huge.

They can't trade draft picks. Imagine how differently things would be if we couldn't move draft picks. It'd be a very different league and possibly one more dependent on free agency or that AAA player that is ready for the majors.

[Clay]

I don't. That's our league and it makes things interesting.

I find it really astonishing when Andrew and Pat built through the draft, won and still found good pieces in the draft. That's a very difficult thing to accomplish.

But that's the early part of the league. I think for now you get credit for being the first mini-dynasty (still early) that used the formula of building through the draft by being bad. Can you stay up there and succeed like they did?

And that's ignoring the many other owners that were also bad, built through the draft and have maintained very good teams. Not every very well run team wins a championship.

Well, the biggest part of my story will be if the CAP kills us and forces us back to ZERO or if we can reload while dumping legit talent every off-season. I think we're the first to deal with this, but will not be the last.

[umd]

To be fair we also have an advantage over the real world league where free agency is huge.

They can't trade draft picks. Imagine how differently things would be if we couldn't move draft picks. It'd be a very different league and possibly one more dependent on free agency or that AAA player that is ready for the majors.

Actually, one of the big drawbacks of my other league is the inability to move draft picks. Couple that with the difficulty (in that league too) of seeing stars hit FA makes it a league where you can only really build through the draft.

It is a pretty boring league with very few trades. Everyone resigns their stars and the low to mid level players go in FA to fill out rosters. Since the only way to build is through drafting, owners are reluctant to trade their younger cost controlled players because they know they can't fill holes through FA. They draft for holes and hold onto those players seemingly forever until they are ML ready.

[Dave]

Agreed. Though, I think if someone can find that last piece then it'd help.

There are some good players out there that could be the last needed piece to a team built through the draft.

In other news, I find it sad that one of the best defensive shortstops of the 80s is now 40-years-old and because of injuries and age is no longer capable of playing his natural position.

Happy Trails to Jose Sanchez. You were a sight to pretend to watch.

My scout kept telling me that he couldn't hit. But strangely, he kept hitting. But like you said, the main knocks against him are that he just can't field anymore, or play a full season. But it was a bummer seeing him go because he gave a lot of good years to the franchise.

Fare thee well, Jose Sanchez.

[Delandis]

LA didn't win because of their FA's... LA won because they had nice piece and a #1 overall pick that found his groove.

No one is saying LA won solely based on FA acquisitions. LA had a great bunch of youngsters to come around at once: Caldwell, Sakuma, Dimmick, McDonald, and Dudley. But the fact remains that older FA vets like Gugz, LaRochelle (not in playoffs) and even Zegarra helped transform them from young playoff contender to well mixed BLB champion.

[umd]

The way we do our drafting makes a huge difference. In the two other leagues I am in it's in-game draft by list. It's very hard to get all the players you want/need to fill out your team since you have such limited control.

In BLB the draft matters because you can individually select every player if you want. This adds a lot of value to the draft and why it is the foundation for building winning teams here. You can micromanage your drafts (including trading) for need.

Throw in all the feeder leagues and there really are no "surprise" players (pre-draft) in a BLB draft. It makes building your teams easier, but the competition level of owners is higher.

[Carlos]

Actually, one of the big drawbacks of my other league is the inability to move draft picks. Couple that with the difficulty (in that league too) of seeing stars hit FA makes it a league where you can only really build through the draft.

It is a pretty boring league with very few trades. Everyone resigns their stars and the low to mid level players go in FA to fill out rosters. Since the only way to build is through drafting, owners are reluctant to trade their younger cost controlled players because they know they can't fill holes through FA. They draft for holes and hold onto those players seemingly forever until they are ML ready.

Then I'll have to say it's more just the nature of the owners.

Another league I was in (it's on hold for the moment) did not allow trading of draft picks but always had a very active free agent period. Actually because of that active period and out of control demands a new rule was made.

Free agency was turned into an auction. You place a starting bid on a player by posting his name in a thread and then another team would have 48 hours to bid at least 10% more the yearly value of the contract to auction up.

That kept contracts more controlled though it also created some very intense free agent auctions that saw some guys probably get overpaid. Most guys ended up getting paid less than they'd make on OOTP.

[Clay]

No one is saying LA won solely based on FA acquisitions. LA had a great bunch of youngsters to come around at once: Caldwell, Sakuma, Dimmick, McDonald, and Dudley. But the fact remains that older FA vets like Gugz, LaRochelle (not in playoffs) and even Zegarra helped transform them from young playoff contender to well mixed BLB champion.

Oh... I agree you can't be ALL young.

But... let's not lose sight of the fact that if my idiots could get a guy in from 3rd with no outs... it wouldn't even be a discussion.

[Jistic]

How do you guys view young players you have who all of a sudden are asking for a ton more money then they were asking for even a few weeks ago?

[Clay]

How do you guys view young players you have who all of a sudden are asking for a ton more money then they were asking for even a few weeks ago?

Rescouting talent bump

[Delandis]

Bill Rorison: Bulldogs Scout

He's such a good scout. He and his staff have made sure we've been solid drafters and making decent trades.

He turns 67 at the beginning of next season. He did renew for 3 more years starting in 1994, but I don't know how much longer he's got in him. Its going to suck from having someone so awesome to likely, some young know-it-all punk. Although, Washington's pitching coach is 71 and renewed for for 4 more years, so maybe there's still hope for a while longer.

[liquidcrash]

I'm very happy to have a 37 year old scout who is awesome.

As for the FA class, I think it's ok. Some top talent, but not a whole lot of depth. Anyone who's looking for pitching is just out of luck.

[Gyrodork]

Tesina was headed to Free Agency, but he bit on my desperate plea for arbitration. Kinda' pricey for his age ($8M at 36), but I'll take one more year of .250 AVG + .370 OBP if I can get it.

Anyone else seeing this error? About every other in-game update of the league file I get an error message (in-game) telling me the file may have been corrupted when it was saved; and I have to reload the previous saved game. But it actually loads the newly updated file when I do that (although I usually loose the new news).

[Jake]

We are finally financially stable. Just in time to overspend on FA's.

[Carlos]

Tesina was headed to Free Agency, but he bit on my desperate plea for arbitration. Kinda' pricey for his age ($8M at 36), but I'll take one more year of .250 AVG + .370 OBP if I can get it.

Anyone else seeing this error? About every other in-game update of the league file I get an error message (in-game) telling me the file may have been corrupted when it was saved; and I have to reload the previous saved game. But it actually loads the newly updated file when I do that (although I usually loose the new news).

Tesina made $10 MM in arbitration. I figured you offered it to him in hopes he'd either take it or be worth a pick. If he became a free agent, I would have tried to bring him back to Denver.

He turns 67 at the beginning of next season. He did renew for 3 more years starting in 1994, but I don't know how much longer he's got in him. Its going to suck from having someone so awesome to likely, some young know-it-all punk. Although, Washington's pitching coach is 71 and renewed for for 4 more years, so maybe there's still hope for a while longer.

When I lost the then 50-something-year-old Newton Tickner to retirement, I cried. He was a great scout. Found a lot of those late round guys that helped my team in the late 80s.