Do factors such as previous team, winning record, coaches work as tie breakers in the FA market. Or are they part of the formula.

ie - im bidding on a FA pitcher.... I have a better pitching coach and was previous owneR and have all the advantages other than contract terms. I offer 3yrs x 7,999,999. The other coach offers 3yrs x 8,000,000. Am I winning? Or do all my "extras" only factor in for identical contracts

I just lost out on a bid to a Free agent with the same situation.  I  had the max contract as he did. He was the previous owner, had a better hitters park and I had the better hitting coach. I was the top choice until the very end of free agency. I was told....coaches, what kind of park you have....hitters will be more inclined to choose a hitters park, as pitchers a pitcher's etc. A previous owner does carry weight as well.  He chose the previous owner, same contract, but he had the better hitter's park than I did slightly. My question is  why did the other owner tell you what he was bidding on the guy?  I would hate to loose out by a mere dollar and risk taking the chance on him deciding because of  the "advantages" you have over the other owner.

The contract is a hypothetical situation. I am just curious if those factors are part of the formula to who gets the player, or if they are only reverted to, in case of a tie (max contract) situation

I think they do..as I had the same max contract....10 million signing bonus 5 years 20 mill per year....and lost out...He was the previous owner and in Boston....I had the better hitting coach, but in a neutral park.I asked the same question on the forum...and was told that previous owners, coaches, parks  had an input in the outcome. But I am far from a genius .

My understanding is that even one dollar trumps the other offer and those other factors are tiebreakers only.  I do wonder about IFA bidding though--is a major league contract in of itself worth anything to the deciding player or is it simply a mechanism to increase the money offered (ie with big league deal you can offer approx 150k-900k more in actually salary in addition to bonus).  As an example:

Team A offers IFA 20,000,000 bonus with minor league deal
Team B offers IFA 19,800,000 bonus with major league deal @ 54,500 each year.

Team A has offered about 50k more in total comp so I would think they would win out, but does the offering of big league deal sway that decision?

I am almost 100% convinced that "other factors" become actual factors after the $$$ is totaled.

Posted by gdmetz on 2/5/2015 1:43:00 PM (view original):
My understanding is that even one dollar trumps the other offer and those other factors are tiebreakers only.  I do wonder about IFA bidding though--is a major league contract in of itself worth anything to the deciding player or is it simply a mechanism to increase the money offered (ie with big league deal you can offer approx 150k-900k more in actually salary in addition to bonus).  As an example:

Team A offers IFA 20,000,000 bonus with minor league deal
Team B offers IFA 19,800,000 bonus with major league deal @ 54,500 each year.

Team A has offered about 50k more in total comp so I would think they would win out, but does the offering of big league deal sway that decision?

Team A would win.  Yes it's a mech to increase the total dollar value.  Lost out on an IFA recently in this exact manner.  We offered our whole bankroll and a major league deal.  The winner offered a minor league deal, but he had more bankroll than we did so he beat us on total dollar value.

So, what happens in this situation -

Team A neutral park, $20,000,000 contract, pitching coach is a 91. Other coaches are hitter-centric.

Team B neutral park, same money, pitching coach is a 89, but the bench coach is also a 74 for pitching.

Does Team B get the advantage because the cumulative pitching score among all coaches is better than Team A?

I don't know if it's the bench coach so much as the bullpen coach.  We had another thread in here somewhere, detailing how someone won a max free agent by budgeting for - and signing - a pitching coach as his bullpen coach. 

Well, I guess my question is, do they use the cumulative pitching values of the whole coaching staff, or is it just the pitching and bullpen coach?

Not sure if anyone knows that.