Posted by habsin4 on 3/7/2012 9:12:00 AM (view original):
I'm not saying this for me necessarily.  I'm in here for at least 10 more seasons after my initial season, although I do have some real lemons on long term contracts.  However, if someone didn't commit to that many seasons and just wanted to try the game out, knowing you can't hire scouts and coaches to improve your team for 2-3 more seasons might turn people off to sticking around.  Because teams don't all start with the same budget, they all start with the same amount of money; different things entirely.

But I didn't realize season 1 teams started with contracts.  Anyway, just a thought for making the game more attractive to the casual player.

"Because teams don't all start with the same budget, they all start with the same amount of money; different things entirely."

Maybe we are just arguing semantics. But all teams reset to the same baseline budget when a new owner starts a season. So, a new owner cant max out advanced scouting etc until a few seasons in.

Granted, if you are saddled with huge contracts, it forces you to have a higher player payroll than you would like until you could unload those deals or they expire. No one is arguing that owners sign bad lt contracts.

But, all but the worst contracts are fairly easy to unload. And dont let owners take advantage by making you throw in a top prospect with your high priced player just to take the $ off your hand. If the deal isnt too horrific, you can probably waive the player, and he'll get claimed if you advertise that he's on the waiver wire - do this by the start of free agency when teams have $ available.

Unless the owner signed long term extensions at huge $ just to screw the team, they got signed to that deal because there were other owners interested in that player as well.

Yeah, it could be abused.  Makes sense.  Maybe instead an owner shouldn't be able to sign someone to a contract of more than x years (x could be anything from 2  to 5) until they've at least reserved the next season?  That way, they might be less inclined to abuse it by signing a 34 year old to a 5 year contract hoping to get one good year out of him.  Anyway, again, just a thought.

Not sure what BL means.  I agree, those aren't bad players.  But I'd rather have the $28million a year those two are costing me for the next 3 years to work on building my own team.

BL=Big League

You can unreserve up until rollover.

It would be nice to force owners to play out committed payroll over x-amount.   But that might even be horrible as an owner could just go absentee for the last couple of seasons.   We aren't talking about losing thousands of dollars.  Fifty bucks is three Jack on ice, an order of wings and a tip.   It's not a mortgage or car payment.

Higher player payroll is what I mean.  I had the 3rd highest player payroll in my league last season, if memory serves.  As a new owner, I would prefer the ability to spend on scouting, prospects and coaching to build my own team.

If what you say is true that the worst contracts are fairly easy to unload, how?  I'd love to unload them.  I've offered to trade them away for almost anything.  I did turn down one trade where another owner wanted my best prospect and to trade me one his players with a slightly lower contract in return.  I'll try putting them on the waiver wire, we'll see if that works.

"Unless the owner signed long term extensions at huge $ just to screw the team, they got signed to that deal because there were other owners interested in that player as well."

I get the impression the owner signed those long-term deals to entice free agents to the team in the hopes of helping him win one series.  The owner left the team the season after, and he was a contender the year before, so I suspect he thought he was one or two pieces away and figured why not mortgage the future for a chance to win it all.

If the only offers you are getting are offers where they want you to give up your best prospect, then announce your intention to waive the player..If no one offers a deal that is better than getting nothing in return, waive the player and hope he gets claimed. And post on the league chat that he's on the waiver wire.

Im sure in the aggregate those deals are horrific, but to an owner with some excess payroll, one of the deals may be palpatable--especially if you throw in cash to pay for part of the current year.

My point was that yeah, he signed some players to bad deals, but in all likelihood the players were bid up to the point where he had to offer those deals for them to sign, and in all likelihood other owners were interested at somewhere near the price they signed.

excess

FIFM

somewhere

Hey, waiver wire worked!!!  What do you know, all that kvetching for nothing.