My catcher Haywood Adkins in the last year of his contract had a mutual option and declined his end.  During rollover while waiting for the world to fill, I checked my FA status page and he said he was willing to resign with me, which made me happy because I wanted to keep him.  However, once the world filled and budgets were set, he told me he was going to free agency no matter what.

I was told this is a common thing.  His overall dropped by one point during rollover, which, if anything, should have changed his demands in my favor since I wanted to keep him and at the cheapest price possible.  But for some reason, he changed from willing to resign, to no way Jose.  I let him walk as a Free Agent and figured the bidding would be out of control for him and I didn't think I'd have enough money to be able to meet his escalated demands, so I never offered him a contract the first day and a half of free agency.

This morning, I figured I'd give it a whirl.  I offered him a deal at his asking price, but changed the last year of the contract to Team Options and threw in a $4 million signing bonus.  Not only was my bid the highest, but HE SIGNED THE CONTRACT IMMEDIATELY.  No "you're the best offer, but your rival is knocking on the door."  No "I've got to wait and see if anybody offers more."  One offer, and he signed it, with 2 full days of Free Agency remaining.

I've never seen a player, especially of his caliber, sign a contract without considering other offers so early in the free agency signing period.  Does this happen often, and if so, is there a way to predict it will happen?

At the end of the first day of free agency, guys will start signing right away if you are the only person bidding on them.

Posted by kahrtmen on 10/26/2010 2:53:00 PM (view original):
At the end of the first day of free agency, guys will start signing right away if you are the only person bidding on them.

Ok.... does it matter WHEN the contract was submitted?

In another world, I offered a Type A free agent his exact demands (I backloaded the contract a little bit, but total money was equal), and I had the #1 offer on him from the beginning, but he still took 3 full real life days to think about it.  So I was the only one bidding on him, yet he was still considering.

Is the difference here that I offered the contract in this case on the first day, but in the Adkins case the offer wasn't made until the second day???

Posted by jimmystick on 10/26/2010 3:04:00 PM (view original):

Posted by kahrtmen on 10/26/2010 2:53:00 PM (view original):
At the end of the first day of free agency, guys will start signing right away if you are the only person bidding on them.

Ok.... does it matter WHEN the contract was submitted?

In another world, I offered a Type A free agent his exact demands (I backloaded the contract a little bit, but total money was equal), and I had the #1 offer on him from the beginning, but he still took 3 full real life days to think about it.  So I was the only one bidding on him, yet he was still considering.

Is the difference here that I offered the contract in this case on the first day, but in the Adkins case the offer wasn't made until the second day???

1)  +1 kahrtmen
2)  My first thought is that someone else had a qualifying, but inferior, bid in on your type A, and never withdrew it.  But there is now a group of players that do not lower their demands during the FA period even if they get no offers, and they seem to be type A. I wonder if these players also wait out a minimum bid without signing until PM1 cycle 2 on the last day of FA, even if there is no competition? 
3)  FA demands displayed after rollover and before budgets are set are completely bogus and have to be ignored.

I'm not sure I'm following you on your second point dedelman. I kinda figured I was the one bidding, but you think somebody else was?

There is a glitch in the FA process.    I won't get into it right now because it's not the same thing as this one but there's a problem.   If there's one issue in FA, I'm not surprised that there is another.   My ticket is on WifS' desk. 

dedelman... per your point #2... I think those are guys who DO get an offer, but it is withdrawn prior to the point in FA that signing begins.

I've withdrawn offers this way, hoping to perhaps get a guy at a cheaper salary, but he doesn't go down until FA ends.

Posted by jimmystick on 10/26/2010 5:13:00 PM (view original):
I'm not sure I'm following you on your second point dedelman. I kinda figured I was the one bidding, but you think somebody else was?

I meant two bidders-- you, and some unseen second bidder whose offer met the player's demands but was worse than yours (more backloaded, worse hitting coach, no bonus, etc.).

All bids that meet the player's average annual salary demands are considered a valid bid by the player, even if it's just a one-year deal.  The other bid could easily have been a 1-yr offer for the desired average.  This is only true during the open FA signing process.  It used to also be true for resigning your own players, but they fixed that.