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Player Questions - 5/30/2006 7:13:59 PM

Taz0713

Posts: 186
Joined: 5/16/2006
Status: offline

I have a couple of questions regarding the retirements and extensions.

1. At what point does a player notify you of his intent to retire?

2. When do most of you offer extensions to your current players in the last year of their contracts? Is there an advantage of trying to sign to an extension or wait until free agency? What do you look at before offer an extension?

I reserve the right to ask follow up questions based on the answers.

Thank you,

Randy

Post #: 1

RE: Player Questions - 5/30/2006 8:30:15 PM

Amaroq

Posts: 1100
Joined: 8/3/2005
From: San Diego, California
Status: offline

1. There are three types of retirement.

The 'typical' retirement happens during the off-season, between the World Series and the amateur draft.

There are also (infrequent) retirements-in-season; these are typically from aging senior players stuffed down into the minor leagues, or from aging players whose early-to-mid-season form is utterly awful.

Players can also retire-in-season due to a career-ending-injury.

In each type of retirement, there is no warning: your player announces his retirement and *poof*, he's gone. Obviously, the first one is a lot easier to plan around - usually they're players you haven't renewed, or weren't counting on.

2. I can't answer for everybody!

I typically offer extensions to my current players between May and July. That way, if I know I'm not going to be able to re-sign the player (or have decided not to), I can try to trade him.

However, you can also offer your players an extension after the World Series but before pressing "Start Off-season". The advantage to doing it that way is that the salary of all of your players whose contracts are expiring is taken off the books immediately after the World Series. So, if somebody was demanding more than you could afford to pay, you might be able to afford it at that time.

(Example: I have 60 players on roster for a total of $248M. Five of them, with a total contract value of $15M, are in the last year of their contracts. Most of them are aging backups, but one is a hot young pitcher, who wants a raise from $2M to $10M. Unfortunately, my budget is only $250M, so I can only afford to offer him $4M. If I wait until after the World Series, the values of all of those players are cleared off my wage bill - so my total is now 55 players for a total of $233M. I can now afford to pay him the $10M he wants. Its going to be a bit tight to pick up four other players for less than $7M, but that's what the amateur draft is for, right?

)

What do I look at?

Five factors:

1. Attributes - Duh.

I'm more likely to renew a veteran player whose 'key' attribute (Stuff, Contact) is above 75 than one who is hovering around the edge of 'making my team'.

2. Age - I'm more likely to renew the younger the player is. However, with the '07 aging model, I have renewed a 36-year-old for a two-year contract, which I never would have done with '05.

3. Current performance - If he's currently got a 3.00 ERA, or is batting .300, I'm much more likely to offer an extension than I am to the guy with the 6.75 ERA, or the .217 batting average.

4. "Ratings History" - I don't remember if that's the exact name of the button, but there's a button on the player card that you can hit to get a graphical view of the player's ratings-over-time. This can give you a really good sense of whether the player has been improving the last few years, 'maintaining', is in a gradual decline, or is in steep decline. I'm much more likely to keep the guy who is 'maintaining' than one in decline. You can also get a 'quick' sense of that from the arrow next to potential: A guy with a green up-arrow is still improving, a yellow side-arrow is maintaining, and a red down-arrow is in decline.

5. Other players in my organization - This is pretty simple. Do I have a AAA player who is looking to make his break into the bigs, or not? If so, I'm more likely to let the veteran expire. If not, I'm more likely to renew.

Sometimes, the equation gets quite complex. For example, I recently had the following situation at second base:
- a 32-year-old starting-quality 2B, 'in decline' but still good enough to start.
- a 28-year-old backup-quality 2B, 'maintaining', but not one I'd want to count on day-in, day-out.
- a 25-year-old backup-quality 2B, 'improving', with great potential and nice AAA stats.
All three were expiring.

Obviously, I kept the 25-year-old. However, I also decided to give the 32-year-old a two-year extension, and let the 28-year-old go. The next year, the 32-year-old was the starter, with the 25-year-old as his backup, and two years later their situation reversed.

(in reply to Taz0713)

Post #: 2

RE: Player Questions - 5/30/2006 10:08:33 PM

Taz0713

Posts: 186
Joined: 5/16/2006
Status: offline

Thanks for the quick response.

But, I now I have a couple of follow up questions based on your answers>

1. With your answer regarding player retirement, if you have a player who is say 41, do just assume they will retire or would you try to resign to a one year extension? This leads me to question #2. (ex. Greg Maddux)

2. With the first year of the association, you really don't have a rating history to review. How would you suggest deciding on who to give an extention to? And I am referring to those in the late 20's early 30's.

3. Will a player refuse an extention offer and want to become a free agent?

Thanks again for the quick response.

(in reply to Amaroq)

Post #: 3

RE: Player Questions - 5/30/2006 10:26:33 PM

Amaroq

Posts: 1100
Joined: 8/3/2005
From: San Diego, California
Status: offline

You're welcome. They're good questions!

1. That depends. You don't lose (much) if you make them an offer, and they accept, and they then retire - their salary is immediately removed from your wage bill. So, no harm in offering - though there can be harm in giving them a 5-year-deal, obviously, as they might just sit it out, collecting the cash, and, though they can terminate the deal at any point, you're on the hook for 75% of it even if you want to fire them.

Personally, I'd assume a 41-year-old would retire - or would degrade to the point that he wasn't going to be useful next year. But, if he was honestly a key part of the team, still capable of contributing at the highest level (Maddux), I'd be willing to take a chance on him.

2. That's true - in that case, I'd be more likely to look at the up-arrow, side-arrow, down-arrow thing. However, I don't typically have that trouble: I usually play 'fantasy draft' style, and draft for the future rather than for the present. Since I'm usually drafting players aged 21 to 27, I lock them up for four- and five- year deals.

3. Yes. I have one stellar 23-year-old on my roster today who has decided he wanted to become a free agent. Unfortunately, he won't just announce it outright - I had to offer him all four extensions (1-, 2-, 3-, and 4 years), which he turned down in succession.

Its left me with quite a dilemna: do I keep him for his stellar talents now, or do I trade him before the deadline? He's 23, with potential > 70, Stuff > 80 already - he looks like the next Pedro Martinez.. and he doesn't want to play for me! I suppose (intellectually) that I ought to get something for him - there are no 'compensatory picks' in PureSim - but he's so good, he might be the difference between winning a World Series and not. Fortunately, I've time to think about it.

In general, I think this is underdone - I think more players ought to refuse, especially backup players who aren't seeing 130+ games and 400+ at bats. That would really help with the 'stockpiling talent' problem.

(in reply to Taz0713)

Post #: 4