Random Suggestions

[mattynokes]

I've ran my own league before and I've helped run others, so you'll come to find that I have a lot of ideas. I think this league is pretty innovative with things like the player agent and probably some of the better draft pick compensation rules I've seen. I think I can add some suggestions to boost the innovation here. Know that you're not going to hurt my feeling by not liking one of my ideas. They are only ideas and some may be thrown out from the top of my head.

Addition To Player Agent Categories:
The rules look pretty good, but I think the leadoff hitter would count as a star player as well. He's definitely more than a role player. He's a table setter and the #3/4 hitter's RBI totals are dependent on how much the #1 hitter gets on base.

Personally, I would also suggest moving the Boras/McInnis players lower. It seems there's a lot of quality players in the 85-89 range. Lowering it to something like 88 would catch a lot more of the league's better players.

Incentive Laden Contracts:
Basically performance bonuses. These would probably be only for the player agent guys. It's pretty much a way to get a guy to sign for a lower base contract and have to earn their money. If you're unsure of what type of things are usually measured, check out Cot's Baseball Contracts for some ideas.

Vesting Options:
They sort of tie into incentive contracts, but this is a way for the player to get his contract guaranteed for the next season. Just another tool for the player agents to use. This is why Billy Wagner still remains on the Braves roster. Here's his contract details from Cot's Baseball Contracts:

Code:

Billy Wagner lhp
1 year/$7M (2010), plus 2011 option

    * 1 year/$7M (2010), plus 2011 option
          o signed by Atlanta as a free agent 12/2/09
          o 10:$6.75M, 11: $6.5M club option ($0.25M buyout)
          o 2011 option guaranteed with 50 games finished in 2010

Also a more in-depth one with Chipper Jones:

Code:

Chipper Jones 3b
3 years/$42M (2010-12), plus 2013 option

    * 3 years/$42M (2010-12), plus 2013 option
          o signed extension with Atlanta 3/31/09
          o $3M signing bonus (paid each Jan. 15, 2010-12)
          o 10:$13M, 11:$13M, 12:$13M, 13:$7M club option
          o 2013 option guaranteed at $9M with:
                + 123 games in 2012, or
                + average of 127 games in 2011-12
          o 2013 option price increases by $1M each for:
                + 128, 133, 138, 140 games in 2012, or
                + averages of 132, 137, 138, 140 games in 2011-12
          o annual performance bonuses: $0.75M each for 135, 140 games

Draftee Signing Bonuses:
There's a lot of realism here and this is just something else to add to the realistic approach and it also gives something else to make cash valuable. Possibly through dice rolls a few draftees could become Boras clients and a few McInnis clients.

I wouldn't think bonuses would go past the 2nd round and to what exactly a player would get if they don't have either agent, I'm not sure. Maybe a pre-determined amount based on selection order (sort of like the NBA).

[Scott]

Personally I like all of these suggestions, glad you shared.

['PR']

The only ones I see really sticking is the Lead-off hitter one and the incentives one. Having to sign a draftee will make it a tougher challenge for the small market teams trying to get up in par.

[mattynokes]

The only ones I see really sticking is the Lead-off hitter one and the incentives one. Having to sign a draftee will make i a tougher challenge for the small market teams trying to get up in par.

And that's realistic. I don't think it should be that many, maybe 3-5 for each Boras and McInnis. And they wouldn't necessarily be the top 6-10 draftees. I think they should be randomly selected out of the 85+ peak draftees by a dice roll (or something without human bias).

From the 2010 MLB Draft you're basically looking at $4-1M for 1st rounders and $1M to $500K for 2nd rounders. And then a bit more for a Boras client.

[dejota]

First of all thanks for the input.

The Agent feature is open to both the incentives and vesting options, GMs do not generally take advantage or try to negotiate these into deals. However, it's encouraged to do so. I intend the feature to be a two-way street in the sense that while you may have to pay more than the game for some guys you have the flexibility to sign guys before arbitration (like Longoria, or Hanley Ramirez) and have even gone so far as to post a How To on the agents here: http://www.firstclassmogul.com/showthread.php?tid=2624

I'm all for expanding the agent but 90s is just the arbitrary cutoff that was generally accepted. If GMs are open to extending the Agent feature I think 88+ would cover most players that would be worth paying attention to, but I don't think it'd receive enough support much to my dismay :)

The 1.33 rule is just an easy way to do it, but if GMs support that formula I'm not opposed to updating it since it's rather simple and arbitrary at the moment.

Lastly, the amateur bonus idea isn't terrible but it's difficult to implement. I think it would be interesting if we selected just a handful (say 5-10 randomly from the top 20 or 30 prospects by peak) and made it known before the draft that they would command a signing bonus. I doubt it would change the GMs approach to the draft, or again get much support but anything that adds more realism to FCM is something I'm all for.

I hope the rest of the league puts their 2 cents in on these fine suggestions.

[mike]

The insentive ideas we already have but liek DJ said barley any team has been takign advantage of that.

Personally I don't like the 88+ suggestion. While you can find quality players who are 88 and 89, there are also lots who are not worth tehir weight in salt that are overarted. Also I think agents are best reserved for the true superstars of the game.

Also don't like the idea of signing bonus for the rookies. Its a stupid rule they have in the mlb that only handcuffs the small markets. There is no justification for not letting the team select the best player available just because they don't have the money to pay a bonus.

[jps93]

^^^^

[Jordan]

^^^^^^

[GoIrish]

With player agents, my only concern is we need an arbitrary ranking or rating for the cutoff. Any number that we use there will always be a couple players on the other side of it that will outperform others. In other words, if we changed it to lets say 86, there will be 84 and 85 rated players that will out perform 87 and 88 rated players and then the argument could be made that we are using now. We need to have a cut off at some point because it would put too much work on the administration of the league to handle all of those negotations. I have not made it unknown that I am not a tremendous fan of the process but I understand why it is in place and can appreciate the efforts that are made.

in regards to the draft day signings, I don't think that is something we can implement because any player that signs a contract gets a bonus of some kind. There is a kid by the name Matt Szczur that was drafted in the 5th round by the Cubs. The cubs gave him a 100,000 signing bonus and another 500,000 bonus if he does not go to the combine for the NFL draft. There are often fringe players that drop in drafts because they could play multiple sports. Then a team gives them the 1st round or 2nd round bonus numbers in order to entice them into baseball. We would be entering the same waters of the agents, at what point do we cut off players that require a signng bonus?

['PR']

Excellent point IMO Sean. I feel the agent process is already doing the best it can at protecting the stars of the league. Dropping the number down to 88 was a suggestion of mine a long time ago, but as season's have gone by, I noticed we shouldn't fix something that isn't broken.