SIM COMPLETE - 1989 - Free Agency 2 (Off Season 5)

[Pat]

Linty, your deal is fine dude.

[Jim]

If it's really that big of a deal, you can drop Guardamagni off my roster and he can be fair game to everyone, again.

I think we're all talking in general...it just so happened your deal is what brought up the discussion. Your deal is fine.

I don't know if we need a committee or anything...maybe something under fair play rules with a rough guideline? Like the bonuses offered should be attainable and not over X% of the contract amount? By attainable, I mean offering a reliever a bonus for pitching 200 innings would obviously be impossible....or expecting a hitter to get 800 ABs. When I do bonuses based on ABs or IP, I look at their history and pick a number near their top season.

I don't think anyone's out to game the system or find exploits but from the other league I was in, apparently bonuses like those can really sway a player's decision.

[Clay]

My takes:

First (and most importantly) no issues with the Cali deal. Nothing else to be said on that topic.

Second, the issue with policing it is this... I agree with Brad that people probably do look at every deal, so it's easy to catch it after the fact, but let's say this rule is in place.... Joe Pitcher is signed "illegally" during FA2. So before FA 3 I kill his deal, now all the other teams can bid again, but he won't even see the deals till FA 4. I just think it becomes a nightmare to undo deals.

The only option I could see possibly opening a discussion on outside of the honor system, is to set a criteria like this:

- Team A gives Joe Pitcher a $2.0 Pale Ale Bonus
- Obviously if Joe Pitcher wins, it is effective immediately... but what we COULD look at would be saying if a person with an awards bonus finished Top 5 (or 4 or 3) in the voting, the award is kicked in on the next year's contract. So, for example... Joe Pitcher gets $10.0 in 90 and 91. In 90 he comes in 3rd in Pale Ale voting, we manually bump his '91 salary to $12.0.

Again... just "typing outloud"... but I trust this group of owners (besides Smear).

[Pat]

Again... just "typing outloud"... but I trust this group of owners (besides Smear).

You'd think by now he would have tried to take advantage of this.

[Lintyfresh85]

My take on bonuses...

I'd tend to stay away from any bonuses tied to IP/at-bats... those can be manipulated in the teams favor... see Maggs and the Tigers year in and year out.

As for end of the year award bonuses... I think 5 million is a solid cap.

Either way, I'm open to any changes the league decides to make.

[Jim]

My take on bonuses...

I'd tend to stay away from any bonuses tied to IP/at-bats... those can be manipulated in the teams favor... see Maggs and the Tigers year in and year out.

As for end of the year award bonuses... I think 5 million is a solid cap.

Either way, I'm open to any changes the league decides to make.

$5 million seems like a lot of money for a bonus, IMO. I think the most I've ever done is about $1.25-$1.50...maybe $2.0.

[Lintyfresh85]

Anyone got any offers out to the big bats like Elliott?

I imagine he'd best fit in the DL as a DH... but man, the guy can get on base.

[Pat]

I plan on making a run at Elliot come April.

[Matt]

Since I opened the can o' worms:

- I have no issue with Linty's signing and I'm making that known loud and clear!

- The BLB is the best run league and has some of the best owners I've seen in 15 years of online play (starting back on Compuserve with FbPro '95.) In the time I've been active I've never seen anything that can remotely be considered "cheesing".

but...

- The AI can be easily swayed by bonus money and it's come up before in other leagues I've been in. This was just me throwing around an idea to get a rule in before somewhere down the line it causes a problem. With the old guard of BLB owners slowly rotating out you never know what shenanigans might spring forth down the road.

so...

My suggestion would either by my idea (10% of the total contract) or Pat's idea of (10% of the highest year). Mine would allow bonuses to be higher and both are easy to keep track of.

[Pat]

I think it's something we should eventually vote on and add to the league rules.

[Clay]

Again... whoever is going to officially make the proposal for discussion, needs to factor in the logistics of what happens IF someone violates it. I'm not sure that's being considered with these suggestions.

[Pat]

Again... whoever is going to officially make the proposal for discussion, needs to factor in the logistics of what happens IF someone violates it. I'm not sure that's being considered with these suggestions.

Would it be easiest to remove the contract, make the player a free agent, and then create a new file with no days processed?

[Clay]

Would it be easiest to remove the contract, make the player a free agent, and then create a new file with no days processed?

That's the problem, it wouldn't be easy to reproduce league files for one person breaking a rule that I'm not convinced needs to be set. To me, it all falls under our generic "fair play" or honor system. Does anyone ever feel like they got screwed out of a FA because of a bonus offer? I know that rules aren't necessarily based only on an issue taking place in the past, but I seriously fear the ripple effect.

- We do a "no day resim" and someone misses it and then has a bad export... now someone else is penalized who had nothing to do with the issue.

- We undo a contract as part of SIM and the player falls from the FA period to the ST sims and now he lowers his price therefore screwing someone on a sandwich pick... now someone else is penalized.

Again, I fully 100% support everyone writing up a proposal in a thread... let's talk it out and come up with something to vote on. I'm just chiming in my two cents.

[Pat]

All very good points. And I think we are fine with just doing it by "honor code" but we should at least write something into the rules.

[BradZ]

All good points Clay. Then instead of undoing the contract which is logistically difficult, should the penalty be so punitive as to not be worth the signing? Loss of draft picks? Media contract/market size reduction?

And again, I'm fine with honor system, just thinking about the future generations of BLB owners yet unknown.