2018 Offseason Suggestions

[mike]

True rocky, but cmon here. I'm talking 1/3 of your games you should be winning. Thats not a lot to ask for when there is capable guys on FA who would only cost the league min because no one else wanted them.

---

I'm not pointing any fingers at you either but just in general.

[Cdawg]

Most of us trying to rebuild ARE trying to lose, it's a fact. You are looking to get a top 10 pick while minimizing payroll. Minus taking in Kemp and Butler I basically did that. I don't want to lose 162 games, but I want to lose enough to get me a top 10 pick.
And one of the guys brought it up to me like Thursday. "Hey Cdawg you could go out in FA and pick up a bunch of guys and start winning again.!" to which I replied "Sure but why do that when I can sit on this team for 2 more seasons." The thought is why go out and as Rocky said "pull a nationals" when I can use that type of money to save up more cash so I can make sure my team isn't in debt in 3 years or that I have no depth." Which is basically what happened. In trying to keep winning, I put my team in a position that we had no depth and winning 78 games and having the 17th pick wasn't cutting it. I want to win, and in order to take those 3 steps forward I have to take a step back, think about it and make my moves count.

---

Plus it's not hard to add 15-20M total in payroll and jump from a 50-60 win team to a 77-82 win team. You just want to make sure that you can win more than 82 the next year.

---

On topic, most of us have known who we want to keep, who we might want to keep and who is going. the final file just makes up our minds on the whole ordeal. 24-48 hours is more than enough time. FA should last 4-5 days tops w/ as many other subsequent things going on as well(IFA, Winterball, trading etc). 7-9 days tops should be a good off season number.

Talent wise I think the league ATM is ok. Maybe overall it should be dumbed down by 1 or two overall points but it's not like it's crazy in other leagues. The locked expenses and equal farm systems have equated in a boost in prospect talent. Give it another season or two and if you feel that we are stocked w/ GMs and talent is over flowing, bring in expansion or if not dumb down talent.

[dejota]

1) Japanese IFAs
Slim to no interest here. On a similar note I know some GMs feel FCM has plateaued to a certain degree so if anyone has any suggestions on ways to spice things up without changing things to drastically please let us know.

2) Offseason Schedule
Tentatively:

4/13 - Compensation Announced
4/14 - Resignings File Released
4/16 - Resignings Due/FA Opens
4/16 - Winterball/IFA Opens
4/17 - IFA Reports Sent Out
4/18 - 48 Hours Passed & FAs May Sign (Lowered from 72 Hours)
4/19 - Winterball/IFA Bids Due (Before Sim Ahead)
4/19 - Sim to March
4/20 - Winterball/IFA Results Announced
4/22 - ST Sim
4/26 - Season 10 Sim 1

3) Free Agency
Two Things:

If you're publicly and intentionally losing you risk alienating/upsetting your fan base and players. The game handles the player's personality aspect of that equation but not so much for the fans aside from generally losing over a period of time. When you tank it's even harder on a fan base. I think teams who tank or intentionally avoid FA should be subject to random hits to fan loyalty or even fan type. Once a team has established they are recommitted they can apply to have it bumped back up.

Two, we have revenue sharing. If this were real life and ATL/OAK decided to publicly take that approach they would be sued by the other 28 teams in a heartbeat. The only reason the Marlin's haven't been sued to date is for playing coy about a similar approach and as a result they have a fan base more apathetic than Dave Chapelle after 3 seasons of his show and a bender.

I'm not sure what is "fair" here but this does strike me as another one of those situations where GMs want to have their cake and eat it to. In other words, you want to be able to bank as much cash as possible without it affecting your ability to rebuild or your fan base. At what point is that so unrealistic it's unfair to the league? From the commish's chair, honestly, it's as soon as that's an accepted mindset or approach. In reality it most certainly isn't, so why should it be acceptable in FCM? Again, from my POV, I don't think it should be but any time I try to assert realism I tend to turn into a dictator who makes decisions unilaterally. So let me know what you guys think about that.

4) Talent Levels
Apparently I'm the only one who thinks it's time to sound the alarm on talent levels. I willing to let it go for a few years at this point I'm just afraid this is a problem you can't wait to try and fix. I'm worried that if we do let it go by the time it's obviously an issue so many GMs will be bored/frustrated to the point of wanting to quit.

[Peter]

Dj if you think the talent level is such an issue,maybe you should bump down the 90+ players down from 3.9% to like 3.4% or something like that but I do think andy is probably right that this is is probably not a talent problem but more of a distribution problem

[GoIrish]

I will chime in with my thoughts on these 4

1) I think that is a tremendous idea but I think that will consist of a lot of extra work. I prefer the 'KISS' (Keep it simple stupid) method of handling things. I think what we have works, I think we need to have the IFA's become a lot more random. We need some Hee Sop Choi's that just suck but people get roped in. There have been a lot of servicable to decent to good players from the IFA.

2) At the end, we could bump that up a bit. We could do the ST sim on 4/20 and 1st sim on 4/22. I think that is a pretty big lul at the end of the offseason there where some teams are going to be sitting on their hands.

3) I think the changes in the teams finances has probably the biggest effect on the free agency and some teams reluctancy to spend. Teams are tighter now on their budget and spending then where we were in the past. It is not saying that is a bad thing but teams would rather use a prospect than a FA because it is the much cheaper option. We also have other teams that have established their roster from season to season. Take my team for example, my rotation, lineup and bullpen were set from last season to this and the only additions I made in FA was a few min contracts for bench players or AAA players for depth.

4) I can see both sides of the coin on this but I don't think this is a tremendous problem at this point. Injuries happen and some players will dip in ratings when that happens and make room for the new cream of the crop. I think we will see a cycle of players revolving and it will just happen over time. I also think the changes you made last season or the season prior to spread out the peak of prospects will help this. I think we will see prospects now down in the farm for longer periods of time that will help the longevity of some of our current players before we see them tail off rating wise for the new talent.

[mattynokes]

A little late, but here's my thoughts...

1) Japanese IFAs

I'd pretty much get rid of IFAs altogether. Maybe 2 or 3 entered in total (Latin and Asian). I could see the money saved on scouting fees, bidding, and contracts being a concern. But I think over time GMs will start offering more for draft picks and eventually it'll balance out.

2) Offseason Schedule

Longer off-seasons are better than shorter ones. Running through it too fast, is like rushing to pack for vacation and on the drive/flight you keep thinking you forgot something and then when you get to your destination you realize you forgot your phone/camera.

3) Free Agency

Players not signed is "oh well" to me. I don't think you can force anyone to sign players or have a specific payroll. Afterall it's their team to run. One thing to help it might be to cut the draft off at 3 or 4 rounds. Drafting just 3 or 4 rounds and then deleting the remaining draftees will lower the amount of players in a team's system and could probably weed out some future 75-78 overall players. For me, I'd rather take an in-systems high 70s player on my bench rather than sign a low 80s FA.

4) Talent Levels

The biggest problem I have is seeing a veteran randomly drop. I could see it being realistic if the player had some injuries or just wasn't producing, but I've seen some guys on my team who've been consistent all year long and all the sudden they fall 3-4 points.

Lowering the draft to only 3 or 4 rounds could help this. Instead of some fringe 65/75 guy seeing a huge jump to 70/90, veterans may sustain their ratings and it should help with the overall talent inflation.

[Peter]

ditto what sean said on his number 2

[mike]

2 teams for sure wont be reaching 54 wins with the possibilty of another 2 not making it either. That is just sad. Purposley trying to lose isnt right. Based on Budget there should be a salary floor teams must apply to. That way even if they do try to lose or get around it by signing one crappy player to a high amount just to meet the floor they at least get punished in their pocket book.

[Cdawg]

I have an idea that would revolutionize IFA in such a way that it is more about prospects than it is about signing the next Ichiro or Hedeki. But just thinking about it, could make it time consuming and thus a pain/drain on anyone in charge of it. But again it's more of a blackboard idea that probably has never been tried before.

[rockybull]

In Free Agency I have to watch very closely the amount of years I throw out to guys, because a lot of my specs are very close to MLB ready especially with a jump or two. I don't plan on giving out 2-3 year deals for guys and then risk blocking guys. I went out and traded for Honzo last year to add more payroll, along with getting cash from Seattle to make it worth taking Honzo off his hands. I have been adding money, will look to do some 1 year deals this free agency as well. I went out and signed Delmon Young at only $3 million dollars and he has been fantastic. I have Keith Chandler 78/83 who is having a very very good year for me making league minimum along with Sean George 83 overall player making minimum too having a good year. I have other guys that are very cheap doing some very nice things as well. I have a real good defensive SS that helps my pitchers. So although I don't have a 99 million dollar payroll, or even a good winning %, I still think I did enough in offseason to not tank, and at least have a respectable team out on the field.