I would expect some players to lose rating points when placed on waivers - esp designated for assignment but it seems this should occur when they are placed on waivers not when they are claimed  (if anything there should be a rebump in points if a player is claimed promptly).  However this is not the case.  At present the hit to ratings only occurs after the player is claimed or passes through waivers - ie "you do not get what you pay for'  rather you get something less.  This needs to be fixed - the loss in points needs to occur when the player is placed on waivers and the player you claim should be "no worse" after the claim than before it.

Do MLB players always know when they are placed on waivers?

They would know when they are designated for assignment.  

You can waive a player without releasing or demoting him. 

For DFA, I'd have to agree with you. 

I'm partially sold on this.

DFA - possible ratings hit.

Claim - another possible ratings hit. You can't tell me that sometimes the shoulders sink after a player is claimed and they see who claimed them.

Yeah, but the original post is asking for a ratings hit when a player is waived.  In a straight waive, the player may not know that they are on the wire, so a ratings hit makes no sense unless/until they are claimed.  So IMHO, the current implementation works the way it should.

That's why I specified DFA. Pay attention.

In real life, there is no way a player wouldn't know they were waived, its in every paper and baseball website within a short time.  I wouldn't think that the HBD player would be any different.

Posted by tbarket on 6/6/2011 10:09:00 AM (view original):
In real life, there is no way a player wouldn't know they were waived, its in every paper and baseball website within a short time.  I wouldn't think that the HBD player would be any different.

Wrong.  Only successful claims are published in the media after the waiver period has concluded for the player.

A player can be waived and not claimed, and nobody other than the MLB teams will know about it.  Not even the player.

Here's a good article that describes the entire process.

"I would expect some players to lose rating points when placed on waivers - esp designated for assignment " - this is the group I am primarily concerned about - I agree that a player placed on waivers and not claimed or demoted could be uneffected.  A player who is designated for assignement is IMMEDIATELY removed from the big league team and will know his status.  This is when the impact should be reflected in his ratings as he has already been demoted - unless claimed.