The free agency timing is beyond frustrating. Some free agents will sign early, as demand warrants. However, the most demanded free agents all sign in the same cycle, a time frame that hits 3-3:30PM in the Eastern time zone (which puts it in the noonish range on the West Coast). If you want a top free agent, you have to be available in a four hour span,***during the standard work day*** (presumably the vast majority of players are in the Americas), because when the time hits the last to offer money wins. Tied up at work? Nope, you're screwed.

It's a horrible time frame. It just doesn't make any sense.

Either that or make your best and final offer well before that cycle.

I think we've all seen that many/most of the Type A/B free agents wait till that Golden Hour (PM Cycle Part 2 of Day 20) to sign.

There are also some Type As and Bs who sign immediately, 24 hours after Free Agency begins. There are also a few who sign later that day, or the second day. What makes those players different?

If you say it's because of something in their ratings, I'd love someone to show me that.
If you say it's because no one else was bidding for the player, I'd love someone to show me that.

I've long suspected that the easiest way to code this game would just be to give each player a specific time at which they sign the top bid. Ignore the "e-mails" you get back from the player, all they tell you is that you are or are not the top bid at that point in time. Any narrative the owners would like to make, about how the - quote unquote bidding war - went, would be entirely fiction, something you made up.

Just decide how much a player is worth to you and put it on the table. If you want to fart around with trying to see if you can beat some other guy by ten bucks at the last minute, fine. But if you really want the player, lay it down.