Posted by stevehoggett on 12/22/2011 11:14:00 AM (view original):
MikeT, I agree.

I have torn my team apart, this year is a complete rebuild, get all the vet contracts off the books. I don't like to have any long term contracts unless its a stud in his prime. I look at players as assets. I can sign FAs and trade them just like I can IFAs. So to me its a matter of where does that initial investment get me its largest payoff. I can also use cap space to take on other peoples bad contracts as well and making them pay me a nice prospect for doing so...lots of different ways to go about building a team.

Not sure about your worlds but I haven't played in one where a top FA could be traded for a future HOF prospect in the same season.   Most people chasing FA have the money to spend.  No need to trade a prospect when you could have signed the guy in the first place. 

You make a good point Mike but to clairify I was refering to being able to trade top veterans for allstar prospects say a good 82-85ov. I was not referring to the hall of fame 90+ players with solid core ratings.

I personally prefer the IFA route, I just seem to go more seasons between getting the studs than my opponents. Maybe my luck will turn.

Steve you seem so much more mellow than in your GD days (if you knew me you knew me as alykaramazov before I game the account away).

Alyk, I remember the name.

I haven't played GD in a long long time 6-7 years Im guessing. Its amazing how many of the same names are still playing these games. I wish HBD would allow individual base stealer ratings. Last time I asked they said they would have to rewrite code for the entire game to allow that. You'd think $100,000s and many years later they would have had the time.

That's a whole 'nuther can o' worms right there.

I personally use the IFA market as a means of filling my minors and nothing more. I have a very slim prospect budget and the majority goes to draft picks. This is not a widely used strategy, but right now I see myself as less than 3 seasons away from contending, so perhaps that would change if I go into rebuild mode.

I have kept one of my contending teams contending through having a fairly cheapish payroll (80-85 mil), and use the extra cash for a good IFA every season.  I keep any studs on my team signed for as much as they demand (if I can), and sign cheap useful free agents at the end of the FA period.  A good young player is a valuable trading chip, so I try to sign whatever IFA I think is going to be a good one, regardless of my franchise's projected positional needs.  I have to pretty much punt the draft to do this, but how often do you get a star player in the draft picking 27th or later?  I get good enough cheap talent in the FA market to make this strategy worthwhile.  I've actually been happy with my first round draft picks the last couple of seasons anyway - they both project to be solid ML players.  I plan to implement this strategy with my team that's been stuck in "tweener land" for the last 11 seasons.  Oh yeah, punt adv scouting to have more $ available for IFAs as well.  If you are not a buyer of prospects, you don't need adv scouting at all.  As for your own prospects, the ones from the draft are a gamble, but cheaply acquired, and you can trust that your IFA scouting was fairly good when you signed them.

I also don't mind resigning my own and signing type A free agents for cheap, that's just more prospect dough to throw at IFAs.

In 2 seasons I spent $42 million on IFA's, $60 million in budget transfer cost and $31 million in IFA scouting. So I used $133 million of my budget in 2 seasons to sign these 4 guys:

$24 Million - Fernando Santos

$18 Million - Lonny Olmedo

$11 Million - David Feliz

$2.5 Million - Ramiro Gonzales

So I essentially got the best pitcher in the league, a very good SP 1/2, a good 3B and an ok reliever. This is in a world where on average half the league budgets out 20+ million for IFA's. Some owners will say WTF $133 million in budget, thats like 3 $20 million a year free agents! ARGGGHH

My first few years I would wait to sign the best player, and it left me with unspent budget. Now my general strategy is to  pay what I feel a guy is worth, even if there's a chance of there being a better IFA later in the season. I think it's better to spend your budget based on a guys value, not whether or not hes going to be the best IFA prospect.

Now I have a big debate..a 2nd great player came on the scene..a catcher so theres a hall of fame catcher and pitcher available...the catcher has good DU and low health..and good PC (75-80)....

now the problem is..I only have 14mil INT scout...and the pitcher is the SAFER target...if my int scout was 18+ and these ratings were accurate id take the catcher...but the pitcher having many key 99s makes it less likely that he would drop to a low number that would kill my investment where the catcher could drop just a bit in PC and now hes a poor defender and thus nothing special.

I obviously cant post exact ratings since the players arent signed yet....but I would project the players to end up like this

PItcher sub 3 ERA, 1.1 whip, 230 IPs..these are low guesses

catcher  345avg 45+ HRs, OBP 430+, 10 SB, a lot of extra base hits.

Im leaning towards the pitcher as hes less of a gamble, although catcher is certainly tougher to fill.

I'd lean toward the pitcher too, but that catcher might be too hard to pass up

The catcher is a stud, no doubt...right now my current future catcher will probably hit 280 with 10 HRs, but a PC of near 90, while my future starting staff although improving is still relatively thin. and mostly number 2-3 types..My best guess on the catcher, and Im doing this looking at his current ratings vs projected ratings for various categories and the difference between the two..I actually think the catcher might gain a PC or 2 in projection.

the lower health scares me a bit too especially if hes going to play 125+ games. One of my only competitors just raised his prospect payroll up 3mil, so theres no doubt hes chasing one of them as well.

Posted by stevehoggett on 12/23/2011 12:34:00 AM (view original):
The catcher is a stud, no doubt...right now my current future catcher will probably hit 280 with 10 HRs, but a PC of near 90, while my future starting staff although improving is still relatively thin. and mostly number 2-3 types..My best guess on the catcher, and Im doing this looking at his current ratings vs projected ratings for various categories and the difference between the two..I actually think the catcher might gain a PC or 2 in projection.

the lower health scares me a bit too especially if hes going to play 125+ games. One of my only competitors just raised his prospect payroll up 3mil, so theres no doubt hes chasing one of them as well.

Two other things to consider:

1.  Its always easier to trade pitchers than catchers if you think you may want to move him for ML talent later.

2.  Hitters have much less variability in their year-to-year stats.

There, now I have talked out of both sides of my mouth.

14m is pretty solid for IFA. i never do more than 1 for IFA and in several of my worlds im a big player for IFA and never sign a guy then he turns into not worth it.

btw without seeing ratings, and from what you are saying i would go with the c unless the sp projects to something like 85+ cont 80/80+ splits and at least 3 good pitches. plus good velocity and gbfb and you cant pass up a guy like that