Posted by timf on 12/22/2010 6:47:00 AM (view original):
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.
Here was the FAQ back in July, prior to the update (I rembered someone posting it in a previous discussion about a max guy in one of my worlds"
#761 Free-Agency Q. A ML free agent in our world has several contracts offered to him that are the same exact value. How is it determined who he will sign with?
A. 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 small 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.
No mention of previous season's winning percentage. I think it's entirely possible that it never made it into the game, or never made it into the FAQ if it was in the game.
Had they added a line in the update, you would have found something else to be perturbed about. It appears to be what you do.