GETTING FREE AGENCY TO WORK
For those who've played multiple seasons or intend to you've either found or WILL find that the CPU controlled teams will likely sign ALL their expiring free agents to contracts.
Making free agency a barren wasteland.
The reason for this is (1) You can sign players WAY TOO cheaply (2) 99% of every player's contract is WAY off in terms of dollars.
I'm into my 2nd season and contorl 4 teams: PHI, WAS, KC, and BAL. The biggest FAs after season one were:
OF Ryan Sweeney 80 OVR (rel. by Oak)
SP Pedro Martinez 80 OVR (rel. by CLE)
1B Ryan Shealy 78 OVR (rel. by KC)
These were the top3 rated players available after yr one.
What I'm doing is using the below link for every team, and editing contracts given the salary listed.
The Angels unfortunately had a lot of potential free agents for the '09 offseason but they resigned ALL of them...guys like Abreu, Jered Weaver, John Lackey, Joe Saunders, Kendry Morales, Chone Figgins, Vlad, and Howie Kendrick.
If the CPU had let even a few slip away it would've been an even better FA pool. However, every player was re-signed and CHEAPLY at that. Abreu posted a + .300 avg, 23 HR, 90 RBI, and 23 SB and signed for a 4yr $5mil deal....IMO, that's about $4mil less than what he could've gotten IRL, and 4 years was crazy seeing as how he'd be 39; three years would've been more likely.
Jered Weaver signed for under 6 years $3mil/per, Figgins 6yrs under $5mil/per, and the list goes on...Even guys like Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis signed longterm deals (4 yrs or more) which didn't even crack $1mil. I use the Angels as an EX. for every team in this game. Of course their budget's will vary, but this logic and these types of deals will occur if you don't edit their contracts.
So...How do you fix it?
The link I posted is a VERY good start, and can pretty much solve the bulk of the problem seeing as how guys signed for deals that run past 2010 have contracts that are still WAAAAY off.
Example = Carlos Lee who's signed thru 2012 and in the game his contract is about $5mil less per year than it is in real life; in MLB2K9 his contract is $14mil, but his salary for 2009 is $19mil.
Editing contracts is simple since the value you enter will be the amount paid for each yr of the contract, and as you enter $19mil for Carlos Lee's contract you take away $5mil from Houston's budget -- viewable in the top right corner of the Team Summary Menu.
If you're in the 2nd season of your chise or deeper you'll have to get a little creative in deciding how much to make the player's contract worth. I did a comparison of sorts...and settled in on a 4 yr deal @ $3.9 mil for Jered Weaver. Joe Saunders, a slightly lesser rated SP, I gave a 4 yr $3mil deal.
Someone like Chone Figgins, who signed for LESS than his expiring contract was worth, was bumped up to $6.5 mil/yr (from $5mil).
ALSO..Highly important to make the lower-rated bench players contract's no less than $400/450k. There's TOO MANY guys signed to like $317K or lower, and every little bit helps.
After editing MLB contracts for the Angels, A's, Astros, Bluejays, & Braves, results were as follows:
-The Angels were about $10mil over there budget after the edits.
-A's went from having $20mil to $6mil available. Matt Holliday was resigned for 5yrs and only $10mil. I changed that figure to $19mil...worthy of a 97 OVR rated player.
-Astros went from $15mil to $1.75 mil available.
-Bluejays went from $20mil to $4mil.
-Braves went from $17mil to around $3-4mil.
After editing these 5 team's contracts I wanted to test out what my edits did, & I was pleased in some of my findings:
Given the Angels were a good $10mil over budget they had some key guys becoming FAs, such as Brian Fuentes and Scott Shields. Neither of them were able to be re-signed and the FA pool now had a closer and trusted set-up man available for the taking. Mike Napoli also was a "Cap" victim as he wasn't able to be re-signed either. Neither Tejada, Pence, Halladay, or Vazquez became FAs though....That's ok...because their contracts will need to be edited as they were likely too low anyways. Which in turn will push their respective team closer to being over-budget, and can/will put a top-player in the next FA class.
As for ATL I've got a trick up my sleeve. Even though I'm into 2010, the McLouth deal was done after I was past the trade deadline in my 1st yr 'chise. I'll make that deal happen in my 2010 'chise, and that will tie up more of ATL's budget. Then perhaps someone like Tim Hudson will be available...or Javy Vazquez.
I know this seems like a lof of work, but if you pace yourself and do maybe 3-5 teams a day, before you know it you'll be done w/ the editing well before your season is over.
*NOTE* Since I simmed through w/o looking at the trade block it's unknown whether this could have an affect on the CPUs decisions on who to place on there. However, one can assume that maybe the CPU team who is OVER the budget will put an expensive contract on the block to CUT payroll.:wink:
Making free agency a barren wasteland.
The reason for this is (1) You can sign players WAY TOO cheaply (2) 99% of every player's contract is WAY off in terms of dollars.
I'm into my 2nd season and contorl 4 teams: PHI, WAS, KC, and BAL. The biggest FAs after season one were:
OF Ryan Sweeney 80 OVR (rel. by Oak)
SP Pedro Martinez 80 OVR (rel. by CLE)
1B Ryan Shealy 78 OVR (rel. by KC)
These were the top3 rated players available after yr one.
What I'm doing is using the below link for every team, and editing contracts given the salary listed.
The Angels unfortunately had a lot of potential free agents for the '09 offseason but they resigned ALL of them...guys like Abreu, Jered Weaver, John Lackey, Joe Saunders, Kendry Morales, Chone Figgins, Vlad, and Howie Kendrick.
If the CPU had let even a few slip away it would've been an even better FA pool. However, every player was re-signed and CHEAPLY at that. Abreu posted a + .300 avg, 23 HR, 90 RBI, and 23 SB and signed for a 4yr $5mil deal.
...IMO, that's about $4mil less than what he could've gotten IRL, and 4 years was crazy seeing as how he'd be 39; three years would've been more likely. Jered Weaver signed for under 6 years $3mil/per, Figgins 6yrs under $5mil/per, and the list goes on...Even guys like Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis signed longterm deals (4 yrs or more) which didn't even crack $1mil. I use the Angels as an EX. for every team in this game. Of course their budget's will vary, but this logic and these types of deals will occur if you don't edit their contracts.
So...How do you fix it?
The link I posted is a VERY good start, and can pretty much solve the bulk of the problem seeing as how guys signed for deals that run past 2010 have contracts that are still WAAAAY off.
Example = Carlos Lee who's signed thru 2012 and in the game his contract is about $5mil less per year than it is in real life; in MLB2K9 his contract is $14mil, but his salary for 2009 is $19mil.
Editing contracts is simple since the value you enter will be the amount paid for each yr of the contract, and as you enter $19mil for Carlos Lee's contract you take away $5mil from Houston's budget -- viewable in the top right corner of the Team Summary Menu.
If you're in the 2nd season of your chise or deeper you'll have to get a little creative in deciding how much to make the player's contract worth. I did a comparison of sorts...and settled in on a 4 yr deal @ $3.9 mil for Jered Weaver. Joe Saunders, a slightly lesser rated SP, I gave a 4 yr $3mil deal.
Someone like Chone Figgins, who signed for LESS than his expiring contract was worth, was bumped up to $6.5 mil/yr (from $5mil).
ALSO..Highly important to make the lower-rated bench players contract's no less than $400/450k. There's TOO MANY guys signed to like $317K or lower, and every little bit helps.
After editing MLB contracts for the Angels, A's, Astros, Bluejays, & Braves, results were as follows:
-The Angels were about $10mil over there budget after the edits.
-A's went from having $20mil to $6mil available. Matt Holliday was resigned for 5yrs and only $10mil. I changed that figure to $19mil...worthy of a 97 OVR rated player.
-Astros went from $15mil to $1.75 mil available.
-Bluejays went from $20mil to $4mil.
-Braves went from $17mil to around $3-4mil.
After editing these 5 team's contracts I wanted to test out what my edits did, & I was pleased in some of my findings:
Given the Angels were a good $10mil over budget they had some key guys becoming FAs, such as Brian Fuentes and Scott Shields. Neither of them were able to be re-signed and the FA pool now had a closer and trusted set-up man available for the taking. Mike Napoli also was a "Cap" victim as he wasn't able to be re-signed either. Neither Tejada, Pence, Halladay, or Vazquez became FAs though.
...That's ok...because their contracts will need to be edited as they were likely too low anyways. Which in turn will push their respective team closer to being over-budget, and can/will put a top-player in the next FA class.As for ATL I've got a trick up my sleeve. Even though I'm into 2010, the McLouth deal was done after I was past the trade deadline in my 1st yr 'chise. I'll make that deal happen in my 2010 'chise, and that will tie up more of ATL's budget. Then perhaps someone like Tim Hudson will be available...or Javy Vazquez
.I know this seems like a lof of work, but if you pace yourself and do maybe 3-5 teams a day, before you know it you'll be done w/ the editing well before your season is over.
*NOTE* Since I simmed through w/o looking at the trade block it's unknown whether this could have an affect on the CPUs decisions on who to place on there. However, one can assume that maybe the CPU team who is OVER the budget will put an expensive contract on the block to CUT payroll.:wink:
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