SIM COMPLETE - Offseason #2

[Andrew]

Sorry for the delay

[BradleyB]

Davenport Brawlers: Signed free agent SP W. Lacour to a 2-year contract worth a total of $46,520,000. :shock: wow.

[Dave]

Davenport Brawlers: Signed free agent SP B. Joyce to a 5-year contract worth a total of $71,400,000.

Clearly, Davenport has some money to spend....

[Whale]

Why do you say thatt....just because between that and the 23 mil they gave Lacour that they have 37 million locked up between just two pitchers....which is actually the payroll for my entire team.... wait...are they robbing banks or something?!

[Dave]

If they're not robbing banks, now might be a good time to start. They're $8M in the red.

Maybe it's me, but it seems odd that the team with the smallest budget in the league would make the two highest-priced FA killings this offseason.

[Sully]

Davenport...um, yeah. Wow.

[Andrew]

I'm guessing he didn't want both of them. Free Agency is tricky because you can't take away an offer after you sign a guy. In retrospect, I'm lucky the same thing didn't happen to me.

[Dave]

I'm guessing he didn't want both of them. Free Agency is tricky because you can't take away an offer after you sign a guy. In retrospect, I'm lucky the same thing didn't happen to me.

That's a fair point, but he way overshot what both players were demanding from those who tried to negotiate with them so he had to know he would get both players. This would be kind of ridiculous for anyone, but for the team with the smallest budget in the league to get away with it is a little irresponsible, imo.

[Andrew]

I'm guessing he didn't want both of them. Free Agency is tricky because you can't take away an offer after you sign a guy. In retrospect, I'm lucky the same thing didn't happen to me.

That's a fair point, but he way overshot what both players were demanding from those who tried to negotiate with them so he had to know he would get both players. This would be kind of ridiculous for anyone, but for the team with the smallest budget in the league to get away with it is a little irresponsible, imo.

Yah, I agree. He'll be dipping into his cash reserve for sure, unless he can trade one of them.

[Whale]

I'm guessing he didn't want both of them. Free Agency is tricky because you can't take away an offer after you sign a guy. In retrospect, I'm lucky the same thing didn't happen to me.

That's a fair point, but he way overshot what both players were demanding from those who tried to negotiate with them so he had to know he would get both players. This would be kind of ridiculous for anyone, but for the team with the smallest budget in the league to get away with it is a little irresponsible, imo.

Yah, I agree. He'll be dipping into his cash reserve for sure, unless he can trade one of them.

In fairness, it's also most of our first attempts at the offseason and big time free agent signings. I was a bit gunshy giving people more money than I wanted to, even though I had a lot more money to spend. Like Andrew said, he might not have realized what his team would look like if he did get both of them, or he could be setting them up for trades or other stuff. I wouldn't exactly bash him quite yet until you hear what he was doing. Personally I'm still trying to digest all of this and just hang on through the first try without jacking up my team too much.

On a side note, if he did that knowing he'd get both and go into the red, well then :-s

[Dave]

In fairness, it's also most of our first attempts at the offseason and big time free agent signings. I was a bit gunshy giving people more money than I wanted to, even though I had a lot more money to spend. Like Andrew said, he might not have realized what his team would look like if he did get both of them, or he could be setting them up for trades or other stuff. I wouldn't exactly bash him quite yet until you hear what he was doing. Personally I'm still trying to digest all of this and just hang on through the first try without jacking up my team too much.

On a side note, if he did that knowing he'd get both and go into the red, well then :-s

Yeah, I hear you. But first offseason or not, it's very easy to look at the screen that says "you have $x available for moves this year," subtract the salaries you're offering, and see if you wind up with a negative number.

Plus, like I said, he totally outbid the market for both players. He gave Joyce around $4M/year more than he was asking for, and he went way over the top on Lacour too. And that's fine - being aggressive and bidding to win is an acceptable strategy. Except when in doing so, as the owner with the smallest budget in the league, you create huge financial issues for your team.

[rubisco43]

Hmm... so I offered slightly above asking price for both pitchers.. no wonder they both probably laughed at my offer.

[Whale]

In fairness, it's also most of our first attempts at the offseason and big time free agent signings. I was a bit gunshy giving people more money than I wanted to, even though I had a lot more money to spend. Like Andrew said, he might not have realized what his team would look like if he did get both of them, or he could be setting them up for trades or other stuff. I wouldn't exactly bash him quite yet until you hear what he was doing. Personally I'm still trying to digest all of this and just hang on through the first try without jacking up my team too much.

On a side note, if he did that knowing he'd get both and go into the red, well then :-s

Yeah, I hear you. But first offseason or not, it's very easy to look at the screen that says "you have $x available for moves this year," subtract the salaries you're offering, and see if you wind up with a negative number.

Plus, like I said, he totally outbid the market for both players. He gave Joyce around $4M/year more than he was asking for, and he went way over the top on Lacour too. And that's fine - being aggressive and bidding to win is an acceptable strategy. Except when in doing so, as the owner with the smallest budget in the league, you create huge financial issues for your team.

Well, next season when he tries to sign anyone, the owner will say "No mas!" and he'll be stuck with who he has. He probably thought there would be agressive moves for those guys, and, he outdid them. Again, should probably see how this all plays out before burning him at the stake.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I hear you. But first offseason or not, it's very easy to look at the screen that says "you have $x available for moves this year," subtract the salaries you're offering, and see if you wind up with a negative number.

Plus, like I said, he totally outbid the market for both players. He gave Joyce around $4M/year more than he was asking for, and he went way over the top on Lacour too. And that's fine - being aggressive and bidding to win is an acceptable strategy. Except when in doing so, as the owner with the smallest budget in the league, you create huge financial issues for your team.

I'm surprised it even let him offer both contracts. When I made offers, my "available cash for signings" went down and I assumed when it hit 0, I wouldn't be able to make any more offers. Apparently this isn't the case.

[Riverman]

Here are my comments:

1) Yes, I did not expect to be able to sign both Lacour and Joyce but I am not sorry that I did. I examined the financial position of all of the teams very closely before making my offers and noted that there was a lot of money available and very few quality FAs. I am a little surprised that the bidding was not a little more spirited for these two; I know there were several teams that could easily have afforded these players.

2) I know what I did was risky but IMO not unsound. I had $20 million left over from the year just completed, which allowed me to afford what I did. I realize the owner likely will indicate "no mas" as far as next year's FAs are concerned but I have a young team and if things break right I may not need to sign anyone else to contend. Further, with a little maneuvering I will be able to avoid any of my important players being arbitration eligible next year (unless someone has an unexpectedly good year, in which case I will need to make a salary reducing trade of some sort). My key players who would have been free agents next year have already been signed to multi-year deals so their salaries are already known.

3) With a little luck I will have pitching to trade and with all of the money floating around the league I'd be surprised if a deal can't be arranged that will put me on a little firmer financial ground. In that regard I am in the market for a bat. My preference is to wait until the new season is about one month old before initiating any serious trade discussions but I am open to suggestions.

4) Finally, I noted that while I have several mid-level prospects in my minor league system I don't have any that are likely to be high impact players. It looked to me that my best chances to contend were in the near future if I could manage to sign a couple of top players.

That was more or less my thinking and we will see soon enough whether or not it was sound.