I am not crazy about this change.  I look for guys with ratings in the 50's and high patience because I can resign them as minor league filler until they retire.  The minor league FA period is annoying because you can't outbid people...you just offer a minor league deal with ST invite and hope they like your system.  This will just make the process more painful.

For the change to minor league free agents, if every 6 year minor league free agent now goes on the open market, including the <60 OVR guys who were always resignable to minor league deals, then you should have priority over other teams when offering another minor league contract. The only way those guys should jump to another team is if they are offered a ML deal. 
It does seem kind of stupid and an unnecessary time sink if it does apply to the sub 60 OVR guys who used to just resign minor league deals until they retired. The only possible ML talent from that pool could be a Setup B or Mop-up reliever or a defensive replacement catcher or utility player, so not exactly world changing players.

Posted by overeasy on 11/11/2010 5:33:00 PM (view original):
For the change to minor league free agents, if every 6 year minor league free agent now goes on the open market, including the <60 OVR guys who were always resignable to minor league deals, then you should have priority over other teams when offering another minor league contract. The only way those guys should jump to another team is if they are offered a ML deal.

Makes sense.

I have no problem with a few 6 year minor league free agents refusing to re-sign a minor league deal because they want to test free agency to see if they can get a big league offer. But I normally re-sign 10 or more minor league roster filler guys. If the point of this change is to avoid people hordeing minor leaguers, it wont work either. I place 15 positions players (12 active, 3 inactive) at each minor league level at the start of the season, other than Rookie. I will still do whatever I can to getthose 60 players on my rosters, WIS had just made it more annoying for me to do so as instead of nedding 3 or 4 players to fill rosters during regular free agency I now will need 13 or 14. 3 or 4 is only a minor annoyance - 13 or 14 is an outright pain in the ***.

If you sign your draft picks, it won't be a big deal.   All those short relievers with 50 control/splits just won't be on your AAA team for 14 seasons.   If they're not picked in the R5, why does anyone think they'll be signed?

Any six year MiLers on my roster will be on the 40 if I want to retain them, i.e. I think they may have some sort of usefulness at the ML level in a pinch or after roster expansion; or will be released if I don't want them.

It's not a matter of losing a potential major leaguer.  It's that filling your minors is going to be a total nightmare now.   I usually am able to sign 20-30 guys to fill out my minors by resigning 6 year guys.  Now it will be a total pain.  And yes, I do sign all my draft picks. 

"If they're not picked in the R5 why does anyone think they'll be signed"  - exactly - so let us keep them to be able to fill out our minor league rosters instead of having to go out to the pool and round up another set of scrubs.  

I'm just curious as to why the change is happening?  Were people having trouble filing their minors?  I would love to hear from someone who had an issue with their minors that needed this change.

Posted by csherwood on 11/11/2010 5:43:00 PM (view original):
I have no problem with a few 6 year minor league free agents refusing to re-sign a minor league deal because they want to test free agency to see if they can get a big league offer. But I normally re-sign 10 or more minor league roster filler guys. If the point of this change is to avoid people hordeing minor leaguers, it wont work either. I place 15 positions players (12 active, 3 inactive) at each minor league level at the start of the season, other than Rookie. I will still do whatever I can to getthose 60 players on my rosters, WIS had just made it more annoying for me to do so as instead of nedding 3 or 4 players to fill rosters during regular free agency I now will need 13 or 14. 3 or 4 is only a minor annoyance - 13 or 14 is an outright pain in the ***.

+1

Thats All well & Good Now If they can only find a way for ALL Managers to Have their minor league rosters FULL with 25 players in the first place!
Too many owners playing "short" on minor league teams so they can have that spending $$$ on the major league teams!

I like most components of this update very much. One thing I saw, though...

"When comparing max contracts to a free agent we are now incorporating loyalty with their previous franchise. If a player has been with a franchise for more than 5 seasons that franchise will have a significant advantage during the negotiation process."

I wonder... does this ONLY apply to max contracts? It seems like if two teams both bid $15 mil a year on a player, the player's loyalty rating should factor in there as well. What if two teams bid the maximum $110 million contract but leave off the player option? What if one team bids $110 million and the player's previous franchise bids $10,000 less? Does loyalty factor in there? I would like a much clearer explanation of when the increased loyalty rating actually kicks in. It would be disappointing if it were truly just max contracts.

Posted by jmarino2 on 11/11/2010 6:45:00 PM (view original):
Thats All well & Good Now If they can only find a way for ALL Managers to Have their minor league rosters FULL with 25 players in the first place!
Too many owners playing "short" on minor league teams so they can have that spending $$$ on the major league teams!

FYI this does happen in real life. The Twins played with 22 guys on the AAA team for most of the year. The affiliate was not thirlled with the idea along with the fact they won about 12 games all year.

Good question, prezuif.

I think the minor league FA thing will help teams be more fully stocked, because there may actually be minor league FA for irresponsible teams to sign later in the season. That's assuming they care enough to do that (or are prodded by their commissioner to do so). This still doesn't fix the problem of way too many owners allowing way too many players to retire at the end of every season. Promote them or release them, people!

The ones who have trouble filling their minors are lazy. It's not that difficult, even with this change. And as Mike said, sign your draft picks.

The problem has always been up the middle for getting the position players.  I guess I will be spending a million on just getting the short stops that I will need.  If only they can make sure that they draft 2 like I ask for every season....