2023 Offseason SIM 4 Complete - Next SIM Offseason 6 (FA4) Tuesday 11/7

[Matt]

Next SIM Tues 11/7

Files due by 7 AM PCT/10 AM EST

League file is up. HTML and Utility in process

Stat of the Day!

Tues 11/7 - Free Agency 4 - Jan 1 to Jan 21
Wed 11/8 - Free Agency 5 - Jan 21 to Feb 16
Thur 11/9 - Free Agency 6 - Feb 16 to ST
Sat 11/11 - Spring Training 1
Sun 11/12 - Spring Training 2
Tues 11/14 - Opening Day

Reminder

14. CONTRACTS

• If Team Option is used the Buyout must be the difference between Option year and highest Guaranteed year.
• Only one Team Option may be used per contract, and it must be in the last year of the contract. This prevents people from stacking Player Options after the Team Option.
• Players cannot be signed to contract extensions until after they have received their second arbitration contract. Players become eligible for contract extensions once they have two "Received a 1-year contract worth a total of $xx through arbitration." in their player history.

[funclown]

Pawtucket taking another dive into the Intl free agency with 2B Huo-tu Hua . Scout , OSA have him rated fairly close and even debuted as the 93rd prospect. See how it all plays out.

We basically only have one other offer out there as we continue to monitor the major players in free agency. We feel confident out season ticket sales will out pace last seasons perhaps giving us a late budget bump near the end of the offseason??

[Pat]

Thanks Matt!

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Seattle signed a few minor leaguers that are long shots to make the farm system after all taking rating hits on January 1st. The only BLBer to sign was former Miller lefty specialist Bill Frausto. He's 38, fragile and starting to show decline but my scout still thinks he's one of the best in the business. One year, $1.15M. Not sure he got a lot of offers so I might have overpaid for a guy who might only give me 30 innings or so.

We did however get notice of an anticipated budget increase for 2025. Hovering in the $102M-$112M range the past four seasons hasn't been easy. Our new projected budget is $126M which would put Seattle T-9th (with Pitt) and only $4M away from the 4th highest budget (Hartford).

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Quite a few of the "under the radar" players signed. None of the Top 25 FAs signed and it looks like only a few have received offers.

I really liked what Pittsburgh did bringing in SPs Zhang and Coffman at $280k. I actually offered both of them FA Sim #1, BLB contracts in the $700K range and they told me they wanted more money. I responded by offering them minor league deals and it looks like Pitt was the only other team to make a BLB contract offer. Considering that Zhang was making $20M+ recently and Coffman was acquired for a 1st round pick, these guys have tremendous upsides.

I also liked the signings by DC. SP Dave Hall could be a "ratings darling" but my scout and OSA have had him 5-7-6 the past few years and if there is every a place for a 32-year-old to have a career year, it's DC. The other big move was gambling on the IFA OF Ruben Jimenez. He's only 23 and actually got a ratings bump from my scout on January 1st. OSA sees him as a corner OF but he has a chance to be a solid CF with plus speed. Those guys don't grow on trees.

Carolina brought in Wilkinson to combine with Vickers in the middle infield. Jim made his first FA splash signing 2B Zachary Compton to a $34M deal. Pawtucket brought in Huo-tu Hua to play 2B for about $6M/3yr. New Orleans signed the other "big" IFA in Tom Sotelo. He's a bit of a utility and I actually made a smaller offer on him with the chance he could be OK in CF.

[liquidcrash]

I also liked the signings by DC. SP Dave Hall could be a "ratings darling" but my scout and OSA have had him 5-7-6 the past few years and if there is every a place for a 32-year-old to have a career year, it's DC. The other big move was gambling on the IFA OF Ruben Jimenez. He's only 23 and actually got a ratings bump from my scout on January 1st. OSA sees him as a corner OF but he has a chance to be a solid CF with plus speed. Those guys don't grow on trees.

Thanks. I plan on using Hall as a bullpen arm, I think. Either way, I think he's got a chance to be pretty good here, whether it's in the bullpen or in the rotation (or a little bit of both). You don't have to go back far to see that he's been a useful player and that maybe his ERA spike last season might have been mainly due to bad luck.

I'm a bit surprised to get Jimenez. I figured someone would jump in with a bigger offer, given how difficult it can be to find CF. I'm happy to get him. I don't know that he can help me much this season and he'll start in the minors, but if he can get to the ratings that my scout or OSA has him at, he could be a good player for us at a valuable position. If it doesn't work, I'm out a little bit but it won't cripple us.

I've got a couple more offers out there, but pretty happy with the initial results.

As for Zhang, I offered him something like $600,000 in FA1 and he rejected it, saying he wanted more money. I didn't want to up my offer, so I'm a bit surprised he got signed for the minimum.

[funclown]

SP Zhang was a great signing, though lets face it he never lived up to his billing. Still 280K great signing. Coffman also. He is what he is a backend starter, but still has value in his role.

[funclown]

Looking at the top players list. Really seems hitting is a young mans sport right now. Pitchers continue the trend of needing experience before they really take off. Wonder how the engine drives that in game?

[Hank]

Apparently New Orleans and I are in a bidding war for a player.
Keep your hands off my man Dukes! Bottom Bear has a long memory!

[funclown]

Just realized we now have 20 million max cash so its actually ok to carry over money from one year to the next.