Flaw in the new Free Agent bidding

[hwt1313]

I love the new format for the free agent bidding, but there is a slight flaw.

I bid on 3 low price FAs for my bench and the minors. My bids for each were well above the asking price. Since nobody countered my bids, they stayed listed at 1 point throughout the process. When the bidding was over, all 3 refused the offer of 1 point. I have since signed all 3 for less than my original offer.

There should be a minimum accepted bid for each player. For example, if a player will NEVER settle for less than 10 points, and I bid up to 15, the bid should start at 10 rather than 1. This way, I will be guarranteed the player if nobody else bids.

[Phlint]

i actually disagree with you. that happened to me, too, but it was only annoying for that season. in the long run they shouldn't have a minimum bid. i would rather use trial and error to find their lowest price so that i might be able to score someone that others may not be willing to bother with

[hwt1313]

Normally I would agree with you, but i DID bid far more than they would have accepted. I bid 15 for a free agent who later accepted 3 points. But my bid stayed listed as 1 point.

[Phlint]

huh. wierd.

[Clay Dreslough]

1) You have an excellent point about players not displaying the price they will accept. I have changed this so that ALL players bid on during the off season go to the highest bidder. This may be the best solution. If we decide to have some holdouts, I'll implement that later.

2) The bidding system a bit complicated, because it allows for "Max Bids". It is explained somewhat at
http://www-1.sportsmogul.com/bb/Help/Free_Agents.htm.

Because of the options for different length contracts, our system automatically calculates the minimum bid needed to exceed the current highest bid. So if the high bid is 20 points for 3 years and you "bid" 50 points for 3 years, it will set your bid equal to 21 points for 3 years but it will ALSO set a "max bid" of 50 points for 3 years.

To raise your actual bid higher than 21 points, you need to enter another bid on top of your own high bid.

Clay