i LOVE leaning on my FA's type A status to re-sign them for a discount. i was able to sign Santos Montanez to 1/1.5 when he was my type A, and he did well so i extended him for 2/3.

unfortunately, that trick doesn't work for the better type A's.

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once you master the learning curve (which is a bit steep) HBD isn't all that difficult and you don't need to devote more than 5 mins a day once you reach spring training.

Troll-free zone. Buy a team and you can post in a thread I start.

Some people are slow learners.

Troll-free zone. If you have no active teams, you're unwelcome in my threads. Thanks in advance for your co-operation.

Quote: Originally posted by hokiejoe on 2/03/2010Thanks for the tip. There is just so much. I may need to quit one of my jobs.

I think it takes like 5 seasons or so to get a system down and get a feel for the way you want to build and manage your teams.. but after that, the game is not that time-consuming. Most days, I don't even check on the computer, just on my phone when I'm on the train or something. Once a week, I spend about 30 minutes or so going over both my franchises top to bottom and make sure the minor leagues are still good.

Spring training is pretty time-consuming though and so is the draft. But I've found that setting up spreadsheets can make this process a lot easier and help you make better decisions. At the very least, you have to have something that forecasts your lineup going a few seasons into the future.

Quote: Originally Posted By gjello10 on 2/03/2010
If you're looking at a guy who is likely to be Type B, or could go either way (A or B), that's one thing.

However if it's an almost surefire Type A, the comp pick is going to fall somewhere between 33 and 45ish. That's a pretty good pick. If you don't have any other Type As leaving, it gets better, as you're very likely to get a 37-40ish pick. You can't discount a pick like that, or consider it only a bonus.

Add in ~20% chance of a late #1 pick, plus ~30-40% chance of a #2 pick, and you've got a pretty attractive compensation package. Far, far different from a Type B guy, who is going to net you a single pick in the 45-60 range. I can certainly see treating that as only a bonus.

Finally, if your Type A guy doesn't get signed for compensation, then you just wait until the tail end of spring training and gobble him up on a cheap contract. You can go for a long-term cheap deal, which makes him a good value even with declining ratings (David Rijo- 3 yr/$1.4m for a 31-y-o reigning Silver Slugger), which totally changes MikeT's original formula by increasing his PAs to ~2000. And in Rijo's case, I might even get a Type B pick back when he's 34. Or of course, I could possibly trade him with that cheap contract and get a pretty good prospect back.

Or you can go for a 1-year cheap deal, which still adds an extra 400-550 PAs of value in MikeT's formula, and you get another bite at the comp pick apple the next season. Repeat until you either get your Type A comp, or you get a couple of extra seasons out of him before he drops to Type B and you get that pick.

Great post, gjello. I had my All Star SS/3b coming off a 4 year contract at $9M yr. He was asking for a lot more and a long term. I wasn't willing to go that far. He was a Type A and he went unsigned, so I picked him back up at $8.2M/2yrs just before the season started and he was an All Star both years and won a Gold Glove at 3B. We even made it to the WS this past season. He's back on the market again this season as a Type A asking 7.5/4. He prob won't get it and I might try to pick him up late again. But if he is signed, I get my Type A comp. so it's a win/win.

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Oh, I am a fan of baseball and I am having fun digging in to all of this.

Quote: Originally posted by oriolemagic on 2/03/2010I actually had a team hold out on trading me a guy with 1 year on his contract because he felt he could get the type a pick. The player in question was a solid 2b. There is no question he was a type a free agent in another year. I offered him a starting pitcher who would be a future middle of the rotation pitcher. He said unless I gave him my future ace he would wait and get the type a. To me that was extremely short sighted, because the type a pick he was going to get in return would only get him about what I was offering (at best). At worst it could get him a late 2nd or 3rd rounder if someone signed mutiple type a's in the same year..

it's possible that the free agent compensation picks were just one of a few deciding factors to not trade the player in question

Quote: Originally Posted By oriolemagic on 2/03/2010I actually had a team hold out on trading me a guy with 1 year on his contract because he felt he could get the type a pick. The player in question was a solid 2b. There is no question he was a type a free agent in another year. I offered him a starting pitcher who would be a future middle of the rotation pitcher. He said unless I gave him my future ace he would wait and get the type a. To me that was extremely short sighted, because the type a pick he was going to get in return would only get him about what I was offering (at best).At worst it could get him a late 2nd or 3rd rounder if someone signed mutiple type a's in the same year..

This is wrong. The "at best" scenario is that he gets something like picks 25 and 35 for the Type A guy, catches a break and nets a star-quality position player who is falling in the draft at #25, and then snags a nice middle-rotation SP (equal to the guy you offerred) at #35.

The "at worst" scenario is that the extra pick is a worthless low rounder, and all he gets is the sandwich pick around #35-40, with which he has a pretty good shot of at least getting a similar quality player to the one you offered.

Also, one of the following two things is true. Either:

(A) He was in the playoff race, and so there is a significant added value to keeping the player for the remainder of the season and testing the Type-A waters. OR

(B) He was not in the playoff race, meaning his poor record gives him a much, much better chance of getting top value for his Type A pick, since Type A comp is awarded in inverse order of previous season's record. This gives a team with a poor record a terriffic shot at getting a very high sandwich pick and also makes them very likely to get the highest pick surrendered by the signing team (low 1 or high 2).

Looks like ADMIN agreed that you can make threads a Troll-free Zone.

Good to know.

This trade was just accepted in a world of mine, and I'd like to know your guys' thoughts. We are near the end of spring training and Don Hinske was still available as a Type A free agent. The previous owner offered to sign him and trade him to a team that wanted his services. The deal that was accepted was Hinske (contract is for 800k) and a future closer (Sta 40, Con 88, Splits 78 and 88, Pitches 89 and 78) for Rico Rivas and $5 million. He says he needs the money because he had to transfer $2 million out of his prospect budget to sign Hinske, and he wanted to be able to put that money back. In the first 5 rounds, he has the 12th pick, 3 comp picks (40,53,68), and his 4th and 5th rounders.

Messy. I don't like the "sign him and trade him to me so I won't lose my pick" deals. But, if it's after FA has ended, everyone has had ample time to sign the guy. And, obviously, the previous owner made it known he'd do the deal. So everyone had the opportunity to make another offer to acquire the guy. It's straddling the line but I guess I wouldn't complain too much.

As for the 5m inclusion, I call 'tard world. ST isn't over and someone is already struggling with cash? Learn to budget.

I hope the deal gets vetoed, but yeah the owner has budget issues every season, so we are all used to it. Personally I don't understand the deal. The team getting Hinske is bad, as his only good hitters are Rivas and another guy. So why trade your best player for a guy who will be done in a few seasons.