Franchise Budget Question

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

Just thought I'd share something I experienced.

As I said a little earlier, I'm playing in a franchise with contracts adjusted to match closely with real life. I got curious, and simmed through 2018 to get to the offseason. When I got to free agency, I found that Harper, Machado, and almost all of the other "name" free agents resigned with their own clubs.

Out of curiosity, I did it twice more, and got the same results. So, if you're playing with real money, so to speak, then perhaps its very true that teams can go bonkers and ignore their budgets during that window where they can resign their own players.

[JLoco11]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

I got to my first off season, and saved a few files to test things out.

And it's exactly what people have been stating, the math either doesn't make sense or is glitched.

You could have a $50 million payroll or $150 million and the game still thinks you can spend only $5 million in free agency.

Dumping salary doesn't change anything. Freeing 40 man and 90 man roster spots doesn't change anything.



I thought my sponsorships would bring in dollars for FA, but that's not the case either. It literally feels like the owner is telling you that you only have $5 million to spend.

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

I got to my first off season, and saved a few files to test things out.

And it's exactly what people have been stating, the math either doesn't make sense or is glitched.

You could have a $50 million payroll or $150 million and the game still thinks you can spend only $5 million in free agency.

Dumping salary doesn't change anything. Freeing 40 man and 90 man roster spots doesn't change anything.



I thought my sponsorships would bring in dollars for FA, but that's not the case either. It literally feels like the owner is telling you that you only have $5 million to spend.

In my experimentation, I found very similar results. After the initial process of resigning my one free agent, I offered contracts to all of my renewable and arb eligible players. This amount totaled about 30 million dollars less than what my budget max is listed at. The contracts offered to the arb players also should have been around or above what their requests should have been.

So, it should be logical to think that I had 30 million to sign players from other teams once free agency set in. Certainly more than 20 mil at the very least.

And I didn't try to do that. Instead, I made offers of 3 mil per year or less to three or four players, totaling around 10 mil. But then when I advance forward a day, the system tells me that I can't make those offers and removes them.

I try making one small offer, and the same thing happens. In the end, I'm not able to actually sign any free agents from outside of my team until the majority of my own players have accepted my offers. But by then, most of the better free agents have already signed with other clubs. So, I have a lot of budget room and no one to spend it on.

Its clearly something wrong with how the system is programmed. I'm curious to see how the 2019 offseason will play out. I have this expermintation franchise saved with every single arbitration eligible player on my team already signed to a deal through 2020, and most of the renewables locked up at least though 2019 too. So I'll have almost zero players unsigned heading into the next offseason except for the ones who renew for 70-80k.

If I go into that offseason with 30 million in budget space and no one to go to arbitration with, will it let me sign free agents from other teams? I'll find out soon.

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

Also, I found it incredibly annoying that the system does NOT inform you when your own players resign now. Its just in the notes with the players from other teams. I've played The Show for 10 years, and it always did before.

Is there a way to adjust the settings so that I get a window that pops up informing me when my own guys agree to terms???

[CoachCraven]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

Also, I found it incredibly annoying that the system does NOT inform you when your own players resign now. Its just in the notes with the players from other teams. I've played The Show for 10 years, and it always did before.

Is there a way to adjust the settings so that I get a window that pops up informing me when my own guys agree to terms???

That really annoys me as well. Why the heck would they take that out?

[bravesfan1984]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

So is it just better to play with budgets off? That's what I'm gathering reading through all this.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Operation Sports mobile app

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

So is it just better to play with budgets off? That's what I'm gathering reading through all this.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Operation Sports mobile app

Well, IMO, if I turn the budget off, then it takes away all meaning from the offseason. And thats just as important to me personally as game play. So, its very frustrating. Trying to figure out a work around.

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

OK, so I simmed to November of 2019. Resigned my one free agent, and offered contracts to a score of guys who were renewable. After cutting a few low rated guys loose, I had three spots open on the 90 man.

I had five guys arb eligible, and offered all of them both arbitration at a reasonable number, and also offered them all contracts at a high number for 3-5 years, in their green "happy zone".

After all this, I had about 60 mil in budget space at the start of free agency. I offered 4 guys contracts totaling about 45 million, and the system let it all ride out. I only signed two of them, but it seems that I COULD have signed them all.

So, either year two is "fixed" in the offseason, or there were some other factors floating around that were keeping me (and most other players) from offering free agent contracts before the arb process sorted itself out. Either way, it seems to be good news. Perhaps 2018 is the only offseason with problems like that.

[sink4ever]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

OK, so I simmed to November of 2019. Resigned my one free agent, and offered contracts to a score of guys who were renewable. After cutting a few low rated guys loose, I had three spots open on the 90 man.

I had five guys arb eligible, and offered all of them both arbitration at a reasonable number, and also offered them all contracts at a high number for 3-5 years, in their green "happy zone".

After all this, I had about 60 mil in budget space at the start of free agency. I offered 4 guys contracts totaling about 45 million, and the system let it all ride out. I only signed two of them, but it seems that I COULD have signed them all.

So, either year two is "fixed" in the offseason, or there were some other factors floating around that were keeping me (and most other players) from offering free agent contracts before the arb process sorted itself out. Either way, it seems to be good news. Perhaps 2018 is the only offseason with problems like that.

Good stuff. I think only having 5 arb-eligible players helped a bit, as well as the 3 open 90-man spots.

Also, when I've simmed it seems like I can offer as many contracts as I want as long as the highest single contract is under my max allowable. For instance, if I can afford a $12m contract to someone, I could offer $10m contracts to as many guys as I want. However, as soon as one of them accepts the others will be withdrawn since I can't afford them anymore.

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

Good stuff. I think only having 5 arb-eligible players helped a bit, as well as the 3 open 90-man spots.

Also, when I've simmed it seems like I can offer as many contracts as I want as long as the highest single contract is under my max allowable. For instance, if I can afford a $12m contract to someone, I could offer $10m contracts to as many guys as I want. However, as soon as one of them accepts the others will be withdrawn since I can't afford them anymore.

That was unfortunately not my experience in the 2018 offseason, in any of the times I went through it. Each time, after offering contracts to all of my own guys, I should have had plenty of room left to offer large contracts. But the system would reject even ones of 2-3 mil per season, and only allow the smallest ones (sub 100k) to go through.

This would always be the case until several of my arb eligible guys agreed to terms, and THEN, it would allow me to sign players from other teams. But of course by that point, there weren't nearly as many good ones to offer contracts to.

The problem could be related to how much those players were asking for in arbitration (wish that wasn't secret), but at the same time, the contracts that they agreed to were likely higher in 2018 dollars than they should have been requesting on a one year arb deal anyways. So, I don't know.

For now, until they patch it (if they do), I'm going to focus on improving my team via trade in year one of a franchise, and then trying to resign a player who's contract is expired, rather than wait to see if their previous team sets them free.

[sink4ever]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

That was unfortunately not my experience in the 2018 offseason, in any of the times I went through it. Each time, after offering contracts to all of my own guys, I should have had plenty of room left to offer large contracts. But the system would reject even ones of 2-3 mil per season, and only allow the smallest ones (sub 100k) to go through.

This would always be the case until several of my arb eligible guys agreed to terms, and THEN, it would allow me to sign players from other teams. But of course by that point, there weren't nearly as many good ones to offer contracts to.

The problem could be related to how much those players were asking for in arbitration (wish that wasn't secret), but at the same time, the contracts that they agreed to were likely higher in 2018 dollars than they should have been requesting on a one year arb deal anyways. So, I don't know.

For now, until they patch it (if they do), I'm going to focus on improving my team via trade in year one of a franchise, and then trying to resign a player who's contract is expired, rather than wait to see if their previous team sets them free.

Hmm, very interesting. If you try only offering arbitration to arb-eligible players and don't offer any other contracts, I believe the "Pending Offers" will be the amount that they are asking for. It tends to be a fair bit higher than the actual arb numbers you're offering.

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

Hmm, very interesting. If you try only offering arbitration to arb-eligible players and don't offer any other contracts, I believe the "Pending Offers" will be the amount that they are asking for. It tends to be a fair bit higher than the actual arb numbers you're offering.

I'll check that out, thank you.

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

I'm still encountering weird budget issues in my franchise. I played through the 2018 season, through the offseason, and am now in June of 2019. I currently have 34 mil in budget room, and 13 mil in the bank, but the CPU will not let me make a trade that adds more than a net of 10 mil or so to my roster.

I currently gain about 900k per week. I've tried to make a number of trades that would take me down to around 200-300k per week, but the system will not allow it. Since I would still be in the black, and would still be well under my budget threshold, it doesn't really make any sense.

I'm playing every game of this franchise, so it'll be a while before I hit the next offseason. We'll see what happens then.

[countryboy]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

I must say, the new budget system is bit confusing, but once you get used to it, it is absolutely amazing!

Now that I figured out my available budget for the year, I am having a blast with the offseason, and enjoy watching teams like the Tigers, Padres, and Reds who made the playoffs last year have extra money to spend on the open market and use it!

I very much prefer this budgeting system vs that of '16 (I didn't play '17)

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Franchise Budget Question

I must say, the new budget system is bit confusing, but once you get used to it, it is absolutely amazing!

Now that I figured out my available budget for the year, I am having a blast with the offseason, and enjoy watching teams like the Tigers, Padres, and Reds who made the playoffs last year have extra money to spend on the open market and use it!

I very much prefer this budgeting system vs that of '16 (I didn't play '17)

Can you share your secrets? All I've been able to come up with is going into the offseason with as few guys in the arbitration process as possible, because they are the big mystery.

In my Cubs franchise, I recently simmed to the offseason between 2019 & 2020 out of curiosity and because that's just one of my favorite parts of the game. I had about 50 million in budget space, and four guys who were arbitration eligible. I made all of them reasonable, long term offers, and after that should have had in the neighborhood of 20-25 mil in budget space remaining.

However, the game wouldn't let me sign ANY players from other teams. Always saying that I lacked the budget space.