*NOTE: This is NOT the same FA issue I posted about yesterday*

I had Lloyd Forbes set to hit FA. I knew I wanted to keep him so I budgeted for a max contract. I offered it early in FA and was showing as #1 the entire time. Then I log in and see the X. He signed with another team for 3 years/$23.4M. What???

I messaged Admin and here was their reply:

"Looking this over it is a surprising outcome for sure. I had the devs check and they stated the player was looking to change franchises and other factors such as coaches, ball park, etc were taken into account. There aren't actual numbers or figures to provide and it seems like the decision was very close between you and the other team but ultimately the player decided to sign elsewhere."

So a FA just turns down a max deal for $85M less because he wants a change of scenery? That's actually something built in to the algorithm? Not to mention the team he left for was under .500 last year and I had the 3rd most wins in the world.

Seems like they're just trying to cover their butts on a glitch, but this is a franchise-altering mistake, and potentially world-altering.

How in the hell is this acceptable?

That happens in real life all the time.

Posted by bjschumacher on 6/1/2023 2:21:00 PM (view original):
That happens in real life all the time.

A) No it doesn't. Name me one ballplayer that turned down something like 5/$110M for 3/$23M. A one-year prove it deal after a bad season, maybe. But that's not a thing in HBD. And Forbes was being offered the max.

B) I've NEVER seen anything close to this happen in HBD. Money talks in this game. Not to mention it showed me as the top offer the entire time. If Forbes simply didn't like my franchise (which makes zero sense anyway, given I always paid him and the team was good), it never would've shown me as the top offer.

Yeah, I gotta say this goes against everything I've ever understood about this game.

Wow, that one is truly baffling.

So I am guessing this guy wouldn't resign with you during your exclusive resign FA period, yes? It seems that that refusal determined it all. Tough and hard to understand, it's like he caught you cheating with his wife or something.

Posted by cal_bears on 6/1/2023 4:33:00 PM (view original):
So I am guessing this guy wouldn't resign with you during your exclusive resign FA period, yes? It seems that that refusal determined it all. Tough and hard to understand, it's like he caught you cheating with his wife or something.

Then why was I showing the #1 offer the entire FA cycle until he signed? It doesn't add up.

I've had a few guys over the years that refused to sign an extension, that I got back in FA. They just wanted to make sure they got max dollar. Which I was offering. And which is another reason it makes no sense he'd sign for $23M total.

This is purely a guess, and I'm not nearly the HBD player as others here, but my thought is that you had enough cash to offer the max contract, but then you executed a transaction or two on the day of his signing that resulted in you not having 30MM when it came time to sign the dotted line. I see you have 128MM in salary + 5.6 in coaches. Because you have to start with at least 6 in prospects, its currently impossible for you to offer 30MM. I cant go through your transactions, but my guess is a signing or promotion prevented you from offering 30 at the time of signing.

That said, I dont think the CS response makes any sense.

I have $128M in salary now because I spent on some FAs after I lost Forbes. I had enough to cover him before that.

First time I have ever seen that. I think somehow you got screwed on that one. But its not like Admin can take it back or give you the player.

I know they use things like coaches rating, former team, previous record etc. But I thought that was to break ties. This is weird. And wrong.

Yes, you were screwed. Sad the WIS ownership can't admit that, sometimes, when code is change, there can be bugs. And even longtime code can have bugs.

Admit code isn't working as the documentation says it should. Apologies, or say it's code they purchased. Give a free season credit. Everyone moves on. Mistakes happen. Lying is harder to forgive and forget.

I know it's not the point, but that guy isn't worth the max contract in my opinion. Sucks that you budgeted for him and lost him. Sucks even more that there is no legit explanation. Sucks the most that you were leading the entire time and somebody swooped in and snagged him on the cheap. I know some players prefer shorter contracts over longer contracts. The players that do this typically have lower patience ratings. Maybe we should all look at this as an opportunity to tinker with FA contracts on those low patience players and see if we can outbid the max contracts by simply offering shorter contracts???

Perhaps you were showing as #1 the entire time because you were the only one to offer him a deal at that point? As soon as someone else did, he decided to leave.