MLB '17 Budget System

[countryboy]

Ok. For most of the year I've been playing '16 because '17 had some "issues" that caused me to find more enjoyment in '16 than '17. However, after having messed around with '17 after all this time, I'm finding '17 to be a very enjoyable experience (although batter handedness on batter walkup screen still bugs me), except for one thing.....

I don't understand the new budget system.

So I'm asking those who have played thru a franchise season or more, can you please explain to me, in as simple of terms as possible, how the new budget system works in '17? Are there any issues with it to where is makes it impossible for CPU teams to be competitive/sign free agents or anything of the sort?

I'm really wanting to move my franchise from '16 to '17 because the gameplay is that much better, but this last little hurdle is preventing me from doing so.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help or attempts to help.

And please, I ask, let's not turn this into a "what's wrong with '17 thread", I simply want to discuss the new budget system and how it works. Because honestly, while I've enjoyed playing '16, I have this feeling like I missed out on a hell of a baseball game due to minor annoyances that I couldn't get past....until now.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

My understanding is that the goal is to accrue as much money as possible over the year. The more money you bank, the more budget you'll have in the off season.

Contracts and other financial commitments are represented as a week by week expense, and profits do the same. So you're basically working with a weekly profit margin in the budget screen. You can go into the red on your profit margin in a single season, but how far depends on how much money you saved.

Once the season ends, your new budget is decided based on how much money you saved and your team's performance. Once you've set your team and spring training starts, your owners grab any excess bank as profit and leave you with a grace of 5 million extra in the bank (assuming they can afford that).

I'm unclear on if excess profit effects further seasons or if it just gets burned in the digital ether, as I play every pitch, so I haven't gotten nearly far enough to figure that out.

There is unfortunately no simplified year by year view of this in game. This was the best I could do to keep the explanation as simple as possible. Hope it helps!

[countryboy]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

My understanding is that the goal is to accrue as much money as possible over the year. The more money you bank, the more budget you'll have in the off season.



Contracts and other financial commitments are represented as a week by week expense, and profits do the same. So you're basically working with a weekly profit margin in the budget screen. You can go into the red on your profit margin in a single season, but how far depends on how much money you saved.



Once the season ends, your new budget is decided based on how much money you saved and your team's performance. Once you've set your team and spring training starts, your owners grab any excess bank as profit and leave you with a grace of 5 million extra in the bank (assuming they can afford that).



I'm unclear on if excess profit effects further seasons or if it just gets burned in the digital ether, as I play every pitch, so I haven't gotten nearly far enough to figure that out.



There is unfortunately no simplified year by year view of this in game. This was the best I could do to keep the explanation as simple as possible. Hope it helps!

Thank you very much! I appreciate the explanation and yes it does help.


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[zippy2212]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

My understanding is that the goal is to accrue as much money as possible over the year. The more money you bank, the more budget you'll have in the off season.

Contracts and other financial commitments are represented as a week by week expense, and profits do the same. So you're basically working with a weekly profit margin in the budget screen. You can go into the red on your profit margin in a single season, but how far depends on how much money you saved.

Once the season ends, your new budget is decided based on how much money you saved and your team's performance. Once you've set your team and spring training starts, your owners grab any excess bank as profit and leave you with a grace of 5 million extra in the bank (assuming they can afford that).

I'm unclear on if excess profit effects further seasons or if it just gets burned in the digital ether, as I play every pitch, so I haven't gotten nearly far enough to figure that out.

There is unfortunately no simplified year by year view of this in game. This was the best I could do to keep the explanation as simple as possible. Hope it helps!

This years budget system definitely isn't easy to grasp. I know I still haven't fully, but this pretty much covers it. Hopefully, they expand on it for next year and give us a better explanation of how it works.

[lil_bomber_713]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

I’m having trouble with the budget too. I control all thirty teams with an entirely custom roster. I just ended my sixth season and have multiple players sitting in free agency that are too expensive to sign. I don’t know what to do next. I’m not sure what a budget increase will do. I’m not buying anything and I don’t know if I have enough stubs for all thirty teams to increase. Anyone have any suggestions?

I also hate the walk-up screen showing which side of the plate the batter hits from.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

I’m having trouble with the budget too. I control all thirty teams with an entirely custom roster. I just ended my sixth season and have multiple players sitting in free agency that are too expensive to sign. I don’t know what to do next. I’m not sure what a budget increase will do. I’m not buying anything and I don’t know if I have enough stubs for all thirty teams to increase. Anyone have any suggestions?

I also hate the walk-up screen showing which side of the plate the batter hits from.

I've never experienced this myself but I have heard tell of custom rosters messing with long term budget balance. Unfortunately, as far as I know at least, there isn't a fix.

[Willis135]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

Just wanted to bump this to get some new eyes on this thread. I'm just looking to see if anyone else can help us better understand how to tell how much budget room a team has for the off season. Team budgets being weekly and contracts being yearly is confusing

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[coach422001]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

Just wanted to bump this to get some new eyes on this thread. I'm just looking to see if anyone else can help us better understand how to tell how much budget room a team has for the off season. Team budgets being weekly and contracts being yearly is confusing

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I've been assuming that I take the balance shown, multiply by 26 (for the 1/2 year the season runs) and that is the remaining budget. I'm using my 2014 carry over franchise. I haven't had issues thus far in the off season signing free agents to their teams (I got up to the last week of the 2017 MLB transactions for the year, and I try to mimic real life trades/free agency when it makes sense for the team in question). I do have a number of free agents in the pool that A) didn't resign/take the qualification offer or B) are no longer in the real MLB pool so I need to get them assigned to teams in a logical manner. I tried to keep my 40 man rosters at least up to 35 players at this point in off season. I have the concern that based on what Chris Sale wants, I can't get him on Boston. Based on the salary demands, Boston would be left with about 750K per week budget left. 750 K x 26 leaving 19.5 million. There are too many roster spots open for them to make this work at this time. On the other hand, Arizona has about 4.5 million per week still available, or 117 million. So they have wiggle room for various big name players. Also the coaches salaries come out of this too. For total team budget I look at the current budget screen then add the outstanding available budget and this gives me the rough idea of what the team had available for the year.

Don't know if this helps but it is what I'm seeing/assuming with my franchise.

[Willis135]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

I've been assuming that I take the balance shown, multiply by 26 (for the 1/2 year the season runs) and that is the remaining budget. I'm using my 2014 carry over franchise. I haven't had issues thus far in the off season signing free agents to their teams (I got up to the last week of the 2017 MLB transactions for the year, and I try to mimic real life trades/free agency when it makes sense for the team in question). I do have a number of free agents in the pool that A) didn't resign/take the qualification offer or B) are no longer in the real MLB pool so I need to get them assigned to teams in a logical manner. I tried to keep my 40 man rosters at least up to 35 players at this point in off season. I have the concern that based on what Chris Sale wants, I can't get him on Boston. Based on the salary demands, Boston would be left with about 750K per week budget left. 750 K x 26 leaving 19.5 million. There are too many roster spots open for them to make this work at this time. On the other hand, Arizona has about 4.5 million per week still available, or 117 million. So they have wiggle room for various big name players. Also the coaches salaries come out of this too. For total team budget I look at the current budget screen then add the outstanding available budget and this gives me the rough idea of what the team had available for the year.

Don't know if this helps but it is what I'm seeing/assuming with my franchise.

It does help, I spent a couple hours last night messing around with it and found it to actually be a pretty good system once you get a grasp on it.

The numbers on my free agent screen and trade screen as far as max offers go were slightly different. I multiplied each by 26 and then found that the max offer of the trade screen was more accurate than the free agent screen.

After multiplying by 26, I had about 90 million to work with since I have several high dollar players unsigned. I then intentiaonlly overpaid several players and found once I hit the 90 million dollar point that I ran out of funds. I like the weekly cash flow during the seasob, but would also like to see my yearly budget somewhere. But as it sits, weekly cashflow/budget is workable

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[Willis135]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

I was also able to take my weekly cash flow into the red and still sign players. The risk with this I think is during the season if you underperform and stay in the red for weekly budgets you will have to shed payroll or risk your budget decreasing significantly during the following off-season

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[HarlemYankee]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

One of the few things that Madden has actually gotten right since the acquisition of the exclusive NFL rights was that in 2014 or so they started making anyone who was still a free agent once the season was about to start be able to sign a one-year, minimum contract and try FA again the season after. I believe NBA 2K has followed suit as well. The amount starting pitchers just wasting away at a 78 rating or above is ludicrous... I'm sure a starting pitcher would rather be pitching in a bullpen somewhere than being forced into retirement.

I can't imagine how hard it is to get video game teams to actually behave like real teams when it comes to the off-season but I wish someone could figure it out. There's never any rhyme or reason for why any team does anything... In my MIA franchise that I started in 2015 I looked at the Yankees roster and they had 3 82+ catchers and a horrible rotation. It'd be nice if teams could sense they have a logjam at a position and trade for some depth, or if you could sign starting pitchers and convert them to relievers and see a noticeable uptick in velocity with a loss of stamina. It happens all the time in real life.

[coach422001]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

One of the few things that Madden has actually gotten right since the acquisition of the exclusive NFL rights was that in 2014 or so they started making anyone who was still a free agent once the season was about to start be able to sign a one-year, minimum contract and try FA again the season after. I believe NBA 2K has followed suit as well. The amount starting pitchers just wasting away at a 78 rating or above is ludicrous... I'm sure a starting pitcher would rather be pitching in a bullpen somewhere than being forced into retirement.

I can't imagine how hard it is to get video game teams to actually behave like real teams when it comes to the off-season but I wish someone could figure it out. There's never any rhyme or reason for why any team does anything... In my MIA franchise that I started in 2015 I looked at the Yankees roster and they had 3 82+ catchers and a horrible rotation. It'd be nice if teams could sense they have a logjam at a position and trade for some depth, or if you could sign starting pitchers and convert them to relievers and see a noticeable uptick in velocity with a loss of stamina. It happens all the time in real life.

The roster moves aside, i can't imagine it would be that hard to switch from pre-season demands to start of season 1 year contracts (when game phase moves to X, players in pool y length of demand = 1 year). You'd get more 5-6 starters, aging catchers, etc out of the FA pool and onto the teams. At the end of the year the team would then have the first option to sign them to the longer deal. Like you mention, Madden gets it. Of course if they get that into the game, my next request is that the player lowers the monetary demand as the season goes on to get onto a team in need.

[zippy2212]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

I just finished an off-season and was able to sign Jeff Locke, Danny Salazar and Eduardo Nunez all for way under their asking price once February rolled around. So it's possible, but like others said, it's just to bad the CPU doesn't do it.

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[Caulfield]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

so what, if any, were the improvements in the new vs the old way, or is the new way only improved aesthetically?
maybe in 18 SDS can marry the old way with the new with a (relatively) simple tweak.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: MLB '17 Budget System

so what, if any, were the improvements in the new vs the old way, or is the new way only improved aesthetically?
maybe in 18 SDS can marry the old way with the new with a (relatively) simple tweak.

The improvement is that it is possible to spend over your budget within a season based on your weekly earnings.

The new way and the old actually are already married, it's just that the old way is hidden. When you are in the actual free agent signing screen, you do get to see a basic yearly budget breakdown. Why this isn't easily accessible in the budget tab itself is a little beyond me. I guess they didn't want confusion over why you could sometimes go over budget, but other times you couldn't, or maybe they just plum forgot to put it in once the new features were integrated.