End of season Free Agent period

[willat]

Can someone tell me how the free agent period is going to work at the end of the year?

I haven't played a full season and was curious before I sign up.

How long will it last, in real time? How many bids will you be able to make? Is there a limit on the number of FA you can sign during the period?

I guess it will be a little different with human players, but I hope it just isn't the first guy to log on gets all the good FA.

Are the different rules for the online game listed anywhere on the web site?

[James Grove]

Free agent signing proceeds through several phases.

At the beginning of Free Agency, the ballplayers available are asking for top dollar. As each month of free agency goes by, players lower their requests.

Each user gets to place as many bids as they like. However, at any given moment you are only allowed to be the top bidder on as many players as you have open roster slots on your team.

As you place a bid, the ballplayer in question will decide whether he likes your offer better than the current high bid. (For example, any player will prefer 5 points for 2 years over an offer of 4 points for 2 years. But a young star may prefer your offer of 10 points for 2 years over another offer of 15 points for 5 years, if he expects to keep improving over time.) If the ballplayer likes your bid, then his asking price will increase to either:
1.) Just over the current high bid (or over the "hidden maximum"), so that you are the new high bidder
2.) Just over your top bid, if there was a "hidden maximum" price that the current top bidder had placed.

In this regard, bidding works like eBay, where the price only goes to your maximum bid if somebody else bids it up.

If you become the high bidder, you have the opportunity to adjust your hidden maximum price. This can help prevent you from being outbid by another player.

Each ballplayer has a status bar. The bar fills with red (like a thermometer) as the bidding goes up. When the bar fills entirely, then the status bar turns green. This indicates that the player is satisfied with the bidding, and will sign a contract at the end of that round of free agency.

When a ballplayer's status is green, users can continue bidding higher if they like. But at the end of the simulation round, the ballplayer WILL sign with the player who holds the highest bid. This is the "Going, going, gone" phase of bidding, so to speak.

If the ballplayer's status is still red at the end of the round, he will reevaluate his asking price, and lower his expectations. This may result in the then-current high bid meeting his new demands. In this case, his status bar will turn green, and he will sign at the end of the next round. If the high bid still does not meet his demands, the thermometer will still be red, but will now be closer to the full mark.

All bids remain in effect until the end of the last round of free agency, so even though a ballplayer may not sign today, he may sign in a later round as his demands drop.

The length of the free agent round depends on how fast your simulation speed is. Ask the other players in your league or look at the information in the top of your window to see when the next sim will take place.

I hope this helps!

-James Grove

[Slugger222]

Willat,

A few tactical hints.....

Watch the bars closely. A Green bar means that the player will sign at the next sim. A Red Bar means that he is still considering bids, and will NOT sign then.

If you see a green bar, someone else CAN STILL bid on that FA, (Beware snipers.... they can strike just when you think you have someone locked up.) So pad your green bar bid with some $$$ in the "Maximum bid" section.

Also, MAKE SURE that you have a bid the player will eventually like. Players do not always sign. The last FA draft sim is March 26th (I believe).

If you do not see a Green Bar before the March 26th sim runs, there is a chance that he will go into the regular season unsigned.

Why???? Because in some leagues, star players were going for unrealisticly low amounts, destroying the game balance.

It's an easy system, and is fair to both the person who can sit by his computer all day, and the one that can only log on once or twice in a draft and place bids.

I think that you will like it - especially after you have a few draft's under your belt.

Happy hunting!

[Pagan]

Patience can be a real virtue. I found out through trial and error that there can be some real bargains available right before the next season starts and even into the season. Case in point- in the league I play in Sosa was a FA with a 95 pt per year price tag. No one wanted that even though he had hit 63 HRs the year before. I checked in right before the new season and was shocked to see he was still there but with a price of 5 pts per year. I bid 10 pts to drive the gauge to the max so he's costing me 15 a year for 5 yrs-still a bargain. I got Jaun Gonzalez the same way for 11 pts per year for 6 yrs. Before I understood how the system worked I signed AJ Bennett for 36 pts a yr-more than the rest of my staff put together!!.
Once the year starts the FA prices seem to go back up-Sexson was down to 5 or 6 pts right before the season, then jumped back to 37 when the season began.But when I needed a FA in September, I got him for 7 pts and Todd Walker for the same. It pays to keep checking the FA wire and just keep in mind that timing is everything.
I also thought I had Scott Rolen only to be outbid at the last minute. But that guy later dropped out of the league and I was able to get the computer to trade him to me-but my own bidding during the FA period made his salary much higher-still worth it though.[B][SIZE=3][FONT=times new roman][COLOR=green][PHP]

[James Grove]

For what it's worth, Clay has been adjusting the Free Agent code to make them pricier...

It doesn't make sense for superstars to be so cheap.

So if he hasn't already posted the update, one will be up soon that keeps the free agent prices higher at the end of the season. You will still be able to get some bargains, but not the fire-sale prices some players have had.

Cheers,
James

[willat]

How long is the free agency period, in real time, for a 10 game a day league?

Also, do you get your new rookies before or afte the FA period?

[Pagan]

It was a week or so-the 10 game a day went at 60 days per 10 hours during the off season I think. I believe the rokies came in sometime during the free agent period, but honestly I didn't check my roster for a few days duringthe off seson since I already knew who I had and they could have come in before everything started up.