Guys I am in a bind. I freed up 95 million for free agency. 30 million is for one free agent pitcher rated 90 OVR. I have tried every contract option I know. First some background so you don't think i'm an idiot. i am prepared.

1- The players former team is not involved.
2- I have the best pitching coach and bullpen coach of all teams that have enough cash to bid.
3- I have the best pitcher's park of all the teams that have enough to bid.

Now here are just some of the contracts i have tried and every time i have been told i was not leading.

1- Pretty much all possible variations of the 110 million dollar deal (5 x 20 + 10 bonus). I tried no trade/player option first. No luck. Tried straight contract second. No luck. Now I am trying player option without the no trade.

2- I tried a straight 1 year 30 million dollar deal. My theory was that maybe he was looking at the dollar amount per season. That didn't work either.

I need help and pretty fast. I did everything i was supposed to do by signing the best pitching coach and bullpen coach. My ballpark is Burlington and the only more pitcher friendly parks are not involved. The player's former team is not involved either.

There has to be a secret contract that I don't know about, or the game is simply screwing up. If i don't get this guy i am going to be really upset. Unless i am missing something i am the one who did what i needed to do to sign him and now some other guy will get him. Please help.

He asked for 5 years at 9.5 million by the way.

If you tried 20m a year for 5 years plus a 10m signing bonus with a no trade and he refused then your outta luck. At least in my exp. Maybe he feels he can sign for the same with another team that has a better chance of winning??

Maybe so. We have two pitchers rated 90 OVR and I think I'm just gonna jump on the other one. He's a stud too but he's 31 and the other guy was 29. Big difference for me because i don't have a huge training budget. I will have to increase it I suppose.

I'm pretty sure it's 5/110 with a player option.  NTC is neutral if the guy doesn't ask for one.

I've seen bugs with this before- I believe it was something like instead of my current pitching coach being used for the tiebreaker, they used the mean average of every pitching coach in my franchise's history.  They said they fixed it, but I wouldn't be surprised if you're being victimized by a similar bug here.  I'd send a ticket ASAP and try to speak to somebody who knows what they're doing...odds are they don't fix it in time, but at least you'll get a $5 credit.

Thank you. You are the best deanod.

Have all competing teams signed their pitching coaches?  One thought,is perhaps another max contrac organization hasn't signed their pitching coach yet, so perhaps they're comparing overall staffs (minors included) on each team.  Once the other team signs their pitching coach (presumably worse) they'll compare pitching coach to pitching coach and you'll be back on top.

I have no idea if that holds water, but could explain some questions we had during a similar free agent bonanza in one of my worlds where 3 pitchers went for max deals (and worth it if you believe a max deal is ever worth it, they're all hall of famers) plus 2 bats that are also hall of famers but went for just less than the max deal.

Posted by deandg on 9/23/2010 3:38:00 AM (view original):
Thank you. You are the best deanod.

He may give solid advice now and then... but let's not get carried away...........

On FA's, do they always take the most money, assuming all other aspects, like the coaches, are equal?  I'm asking because I'm positive I had the best offer in terms of per year $ and overall $ for a FA, and he turned me down for another team.  My team was coming off a poor year, less than 70 wins.  I assumed that he signed with the other team because of a better shot at winning.

This season, I got my main FA target, but I had to pay through the nose to get him.  It just seemed to me like I had to pay more to get him than another team may have.  On his correspondence, he mentioned that my team "wasn't his first/primary choice," but that he'd keep us in mind.  In terms of $, we were leading the bidding.  Thoughts?  Thanks

I hired a lawyer back in 2007 named Max Contract

Posted by lesliechow on 9/23/2010 9:00:00 AM (view original):

Someone put a contract out on Max?

"Serious answers please!"

Posted by taz21 on 9/23/2010 8:36:00 AM (view original):
Have all competing teams signed their pitching coaches?  One thought,is perhaps another max contrac organization hasn't signed their pitching coach yet, so perhaps they're comparing overall staffs (minors included) on each team.  Once the other team signs their pitching coach (presumably worse) they'll compare pitching coach to pitching coach and you'll be back on top.

I have no idea if that holds water, but could explain some questions we had during a similar free agent bonanza in one of my worlds where 3 pitchers went for max deals (and worth it if you believe a max deal is ever worth it, they're all hall of famers) plus 2 bats that are also hall of famers but went for just less than the max deal.

If a team hasn't yet signed a coach, it will use last season's coach to compare ratings for FA tie-breaker purposes until a coach is hired.  This was directly from WIS in a ticket response to me some months back.

Posted by lesliechow on 9/23/2010 1:31:00 PM (view original):
I'm seriously concerned about Max.

The man asked for serious answers and yet some multi team new guy comes on here and tries to act funny.. This is why people are so mean to new owners....

now to help answer- 20mil x 5 plus 10mil bonus should get it done unless you didn't offer it first.