Greetings, Let's say you've got a sure-fire future Hall of Famer. Total stud...

For almost all players it is more economical/beneficial to go through Arbitration twice, then sign him long term if you want.

In HBD, is it ever beneficial to sign such a player to a long term deal early, because his asking price for a 5 yr deal is going to be cheaper than 1-2 arbitration years and the remaining 3-4 years on the front end of what would then be a long term deal?

Or, is the computations in HBD such that you should always go through arbitration twice then sign him to whatever he requires for the longer term at that later date?

To put some rather random math to it, let's say Arb1 is $2mm, Arb2 is $4mm, and the first 3 years of a long term deal are each at $8mm...for a total 5-yr cost of $30mm. For it to be worth it, the 5-yr deal going in to Arb1 would need to total less than $30mm.

Or, maybe a better way to think of it is a 7-year horizon, counting the first 2 years of the player's 2nd long-term contract. So, Arb1 + Arb2 + 5-yr Deal vs. 5-yr Deal1 + first 2 years of 5-yr Deal2.

Essentially, is it cheaper to avoid the first 2 years of arbitration and sign a deal while he's a rising star instead of an established star.

If the player is a sure fire hall of famer I want him under control as long as I can, so I’m going 2 years of Arb followed by a 5 year contract. I don’t mind potentially paying extra vs potentially having him walk early.

Don't try to compare real-life MLB with HBD in this area. The arb salaries for the first two seasons are much lower than a 5-year contract in either of the first two seasons. In the third arb year (sixth ML season) they tend to be more on the same level -- the arb salary might be even more than the long-term annual salary. So it is better off to arb the first two seasons, then sign to a 5-year contract.

I skipped a third arb once. I had a young slugger with a low patience rating so I knew he would go free agent in his age 30 season, when his power would theoretically already have started to slip. I planned out that I would LT him early, and trade him by his final LT season at age 29. You may think I overthought this, but because of the way the team played out, I ended up trading him at age 28 anyway.

Thanks, Gents....everyone seems consistent in their approach.

BTW - what is the number in parentheses next to the number of posts by everyone's name on the forum, e.g. hockey1984 - 2388 posts, followed by "(3)" while drummer_66 says 589 posts followed by (2)?

I’d say it means I’m the 3rd best poster in HBD but then I’d have to cede 2nd best to drummer, which I’m not doing.

the parenthises means the number of posts you have made today.

Haha.