As everyone is aware, at some cycle during free agency, players salary demands begin to drop (not sure which cycle exactly). In my world, every single player's salary demands began to drop, except for one guy: Player Profile: Jae-Kuk Kobayashi - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports. I was convinced he was in a bidding war during free agency. Although after the roster freeze, he was still unsigned. His demands did not start to drop until AFTER the rule 5 draft.

At the beginning of free agency, he wanted 6.1M/yr over 5 years...he's obviously not worth that and he's now requesting 4.3M/yr. However, guys that initially demanded 6.9M/yr (example: Player Profile: Rico Guillen - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports and began dropping during FA now demands 2.3M/yr. Quite the discrepancy.

So, to be long-winded...why did Kobayashi take so long to lower his demands? Is there something special about him? Has anyone noticed this before?

Note: I don't want to sign him, I was just wondering why it took him so long to drop his asking price.

Someone sent an offer, let it sit a cylce or few, then withdrew before he signed.

And that "freezes" a players demands? That's interesting. In theory then you could artificially keep free agent demands high by doing this to numerous players...

I've seen that happen before, too. One thing I think I can say, it's usually the younger players who hold out their overly optimistic demands longest.

It's happened. I'm not sure it happens 100% of the time. And I'm not sure how many cycles you have to leave the bid out there to make it happen.

I've also seen instances where the FA page will show a 4.6m demand but, if you open the negotiation page, it will be reduced. IOW, instead of the 4.6m he opened with, the NP will show 3.2m per year instead.

Posted by oak1683 on 2/1/2017 2:10:00 PM (view original):
And that "freezes" a players demands? That's interesting. In theory then you could artificially keep free agent demands high by doing this to numerous players...

Thats a dangerous game. You could end up with a lot of overpriced crap like that.

Not sure I'd be willing to take the risk.