Free Agency Schedule Change

[Andrew]

I'm going to run tonight's sim as the expected 7 day sims. The proposal below is for the rest of the off-season and for future off-seasons. The big advantage I see is that it gives more teams a chance to negotiate towards the end of the off-season when players demands start to drop. This will help alleviate some of the ridiculous demands early on in FA.

I ran a quick test and found that only a few players signed during the first 14 day sim. Simming beyond that won't do much good for testing purposes, but I took that as a positive sign that 14 day sims aren't going to cause all the players to sign in the first few sims.

Here is the proposal:

Current schedule:
5 7 day sims
2 30 day sims

Proposed Schedule:
7 14 day sims

[Pat]

Well, since some players do sign during the first 14 day sim, why don't we make the first sim 10, then 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 18?

[Jake]

I like what Pat said.

[Ryan]

Well, since some players do sign during the first 14 day sim, why don't we make the first sim 10, then 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 18?

Yeah, but if you speed through that last sim, a lot of guys sign. I'd rather have that split up, but thats just my vote. I see your side as well.

[Andrew]

Well, since some players do sign during the first 14 day sim, why don't we make the first sim 10, then 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 18?

I really don't have a problem with players signing during the first sim. There were some that signed during the first sim when we were only doing 7 days as well. In my test none of the players that signed were top free agents.

[Pat]

Yeah, but if you speed through that last sim, a lot of guys sign. I'd rather have that split up, but thats just my vote. I see your side as well.

Well, we could do 10, 14, 14, 14, 18, 18, 10...

[Andrew]

Well, we could do 10, 14, 14, 14, 18, 18, 10...

I don't understand why that would be better than all 14 day sims.

[Ryan]

Well, we could do 10, 14, 14, 14, 18, 18, 10...

Yeah, either way is fine with me.

[Clay]

I always thought the players expectations didn't change/lower until Spring Training.

[mahoney2]

Don't forget they can go up as well.

[Carlos]

I'm fine with anything. Doesn't bother me either way. I'll work within the rules.

[Andrew]

I think I'm going to hold off on making a change to our schedule until next season. This was kind of last minute and I think it probably deserves some further testing and discussion before making a change from what was expected by GM's going into FA.

[Jake]

I haven't voted yet but my thought on this is that if we are simply trying to let owners negotiate more towards the end of the offseason, why don't we copy Spot's idea and sim from Pre-FA to Jan 1st? Then we can still do a combination of 7 day sims, 14 day sims, 30 day sims, whatever works.

I figure if guys don't get any offer at all before Jan 1st their demands won't go up, but maybe they would go down. It also accomplishes the main idea which is getting us closer to the end of the offseason and not having to give up at least a couple weekly sims where we can counter back and forth.

[Andrew]

I haven't voted yet but my thought on this is that if we are simply trying to let owners negotiate more towards the end of the offseason, why don't we copy Spot's idea and sim from Pre-FA to Jan 1st? Then we can still do a combination of 7 day sims, 14 day sims, 30 day sims, whatever works.

I figure if guys don't get any offer at all before Jan 1st their demands won't go up, but maybe they would go down. It also accomplishes the main idea which is getting us closer to the end of the offseason and not having to give up at least a couple weekly sims where we can counter back and forth.

I agree, and that's definitely what I'd like to try but I need to talk to spot about the logistics of the Rule 5 draft. Right now the draft occurs after FA starts and I need an export to run it. So just a question of how we run the Rule 5 draft but make sure nobody makes offers in that export.

Maybe we should just go back to people PM'ing their lists for the Rule 5. Or I could go through and manually withdraw any FA offers that were made. This would punish the teams who didn't follow the rules since it pisses players off when you withdraw offers.

[Ryan]

I agree, and that's definitely what I'd like to try but I need to talk to spot about the logistics of the Rule 5 draft. Right now the draft occurs after FA starts and I need an export to run it. So just a question of how we run the Rule 5 draft but make sure nobody makes offers in that export.

Maybe we should just go back to people PM'ing their lists for the Rule 5. Or I could go through and manually withdraw any FA offers that were made. This would punish the teams who didn't follow the rules since it pisses players off when you withdraw offers.

This sounds good. It makes extra work for you, but I think its stern enough to scare people away from doing it.