Posted by shobob on 12/21/2010 7:35:00 PM (view original):
Ummm, I can see why the guy is frustrated.  He lined up his ducks thinking (or seemingly knowing) that these free agents would sign with him, and they didn't.  Tim, did you send in a ticket to try and get to the bottom of this?  If not, do so.  If so, let me know what their response is.

Posted by timf on 12/21/2010 4:14:00 PM (view original):

Recently I lost out on two big-time FA's that I offered max contracts too, and they went to two inferior teams so I did some digging.
On 10/6/2009 patrickm wrote: The logic for when two ML free agents or International free agents are offered the same value for a contract will see some adjustments.  There will be a few tiebreakers introduced before relying on the time the first contract was offered. The tiebreakers are as follows: Playoff contention (based on last seasons winning %), coaching staff, and ballpark.
On 11/15/2010 patrickm wrote: When comparing free agent contracts of the exact same value 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 figured I should be good to sign those FA's because I had the second best record in the world (104 wins) and I had good coaches but the two teams I lost out to had 59 wins and 89 wins respectively and neither was the players previous team. When I looked it up in the FAQ section of HELP to see why I lost I found this bit of information:

"When a free agent has multiple exact offers of any value at the ML level the tiebreakers are as follows: relevant IQs of the coaching staff and ballpark. If the players previous franchise is also bidding on him, then that franchise will receive a loyalty bonus. When the coaching staff is used to break the tie position players will look at the hitting IQ of the hitting coach and the fielding IQ of the fielding coach. Pitchers will look at the pitching IQ of the pitching coach and the bullpen coach. In cases where the offers are still tied and the coaching staff has been factored in ballpark is used to determine which franchise the player will sign with. Pitchers always want to pitch in a pitchers park, while position players will always want to play in a hitters park."

Sorry for the lengthy post but I think it's worth bringing to people's attention since the update we were told about had no mention at all about tiebreakers being removed but that is in fact what has occurred.

Posted by timf on 12/22/2010 2:11:00 AM (view original):
Iain I'm not looking for anyone to blame and I don't care that I lost out on the guys. I got another guy I wanted instead and shuffled things around. But that is not the point. They said that loyalty was going to be added. They never said anything about taking previous record out of the equation, which I've shown from the FAQ section that it is indeed no longer one of the criteria used. That is the issue and anything else you take from what I've said is missing the point. Nobody else could tell me that they saw somewhere that this was going to be done so I can't be the only one that is more than a little surprised that this has happened. I will let everyone know the response to the ticket I issued if I ever get a real answer.

Posted by tecwrg on 12/21/2010 10:10:00 PM (view original):

The implication that timf is trying to make is that previous record has been taken out of the equation.  But we don't know that for a fact.  Winning percentage is just one of a number of factors that are considered.  Perhaps the influence of the other team's coaches or ballparks more than made up for the difference in winning percentage.

We're only seeing part of the puzzle.  For me, it's not enough information to draw the same conclusions that timf has jumped to.  But I do think it would be interesting to see how WIS responds to a ticket (if he submits one).

And I've heard that the core of the HBD game engine was reverse-engineered from microchips salvaged from the Roswell Incident in '47, but that WIS staff is prohibited from confirming this.

Posted by tecwrg on 12/21/2010 10:10:00 PM (view original):

The implication that timf is trying to make is that previous record has been taken out of the equation.  But we don't know that for a fact.  Winning percentage is just one of a number of factors that are considered.  Perhaps the influence of the other team's coaches or ballparks more than made up for the difference in winning percentage.

We're only seeing part of the puzzle.  For me, it's not enough information to draw the same conclusions that timf has jumped to.  But I do think it would be interesting to see how WIS responds to a ticket (if he submits one).

And I've heard that the core of the HBD game engine was reverse-engineered from microchips salvaged from the Roswell Incident in '47, but that WIS staff is prohibited from confirming this.

Posted by MikeT23 on 12/22/2010 6:15:00 AM (view original):
Nothing in that indicates that winning percentage was removed.   Nor does it say it's included.   Maybe that's your answer.   It's not included and it's right there for all to see.

You are right Mike, if they want everyone to have a shot at FA's taking out previous seasons record is a good way to do it. Part of me agrees with that logic but part of me also thinks that anyone in their right mind knows that realistically a FA will choose a winning team over a terrible team about 99% of the time. Whatever the case is, and I don't care what they do one way or another, they should have made everyone aware of the change. That is why I'm a little perturbed, all they had to do was add one line in their post about the update and this whole situation could have been avoided.

Again I agree and I think that HBD can not parallel real life because of those issues. BUT, WiS needs to keep us better informed if they are going to make that change. Like I said, I would have no problem with them making any changes they want as long as they inform us. We always have the option to leave and spend our money somewhere else, but if they are making updates and not giving us all the information it makes me wonder what else they are working on and not telling us about. It's kind of ike a cell phone company not telling you about charges you may incur if you use certain applications.