an idea to speed up the off season free agency period

In the past we required a bid for a player to go 24 hours as the high bid before that bid was declared the winner. I think we could speed up free agency in the offseason by gradually lowering this length. I was thinking something like 24 hours for the first 4 or 5 days, then 2 or 3 days where this window was lowered to 18 hours, followed by lowering the window to 12 hours.

I dont think this is a good idea because people dont check every 12 hours. If someone can only access a computer between 6 pm and midnight and someone makes a bid at 2 in the morning, they shouldnt lose that free agent.

If we can't do this. How about a random cut off point? We could have someone determine a time on a certain day when all bidding would end. We all would know the day that bidding was ending, just not the time? So it would require everyone to get their best offer in. Maybe you could set this on the 4th day of free agency or something just to make sure it doesn't drag on forever. The amount of time that the offseason took last year is what hurt us most in my opinion.

We should consider making free agency last like 5 days and you would have 5 days to bid on each player. We would get rid of the 24 hour thing. This would get rid of some of the lower priced contracts, give people more time to bid, and be a lot quicker.

Err... just a cut-n-paste of what I said in the "Plan" topic:

Quote :

Have a set number of days for free agency. Once those
days are up, move to the draft regardless of who is signed. Keep
free agency open, though. People can still bid on free agents
during the draft period. Then have a set number of days
to wrap things up after the draft. If there are still free
agents out there, so be it. It won't hurt for a signing or
two to go into the first or second week of April.

It's kinda' a rehash of what Admin said... but doing away with hour
limits and just having a set block of time before the next phase
is appealing.

-Cinci'

One problem with this would be in overall free agent planning. For instance last year I was interested in Ethier and Murton, but only to a certain point. After that I moved on to just getting some fill in type players for the next 2 seasons or so in Patterson and Nixon. If all bidding for every free agent ends at the same time this will be kinda difficult.

What if we did this in tiers somehow, like maybe did the A free agents bidding ended within 5 days, B type free agents within 7 days, then had a cutoff for all others. This would make that type of planning doable.

The draft can be held during free agency, but it has to be done after the A and B free agents are signed due to draft compensation. So this might work with what I said above. The A and B free agents could be signed within 7 days, the draft could be held on the 8th day, and free agent signings good go on until say day 10.

Bidding in real life goes on simultaneously, if you are bidding on an A free agent and the bidding gets too expensive you can move on to someone else. I dont see how there would be a problem.

Likewise, I don't see it being a problem.

Out of curiousity, how long has past offseasons been? Is
ten days really an improvement?

-Cinci'

I would say last season was closer to 3 weeks. On admin's comment that's how it should be... I don't know that it would happen though if all bidding ends at a set time. Say I'm after player A, but if he gets to expensive I'm going after player B. The bidding for both is still open, and all free agent bidding ends today at noon. If bids are still being placed right up until noon today on player A I have no idea whether I'll need to bid on player B. I think if there is a set cutoff point for all players the last 10 minutes prior to the deadline will be a madhouse on here... if you're bidding on 10 players or so there's no way you'll be able to keep up.

What if we did a tiered approach to the deadline? Say something like this:

All bidding for 90+ players will end day 4 of free agency at midnight.

All bidding for 87+ (or whatever the cutoff for B level free agents is) players will end day 5 of free agency at midnight.

Amateur draft will be held 8pm the 6th day of the free agency period

All bidding for 82+ players will end day 7 at noon

All other free agent bidding will end day 7 at midnight

Sim up to Spring training will be posted early day 8

Sim through Spring training will be done evening of day 8

New season starts day 9.


I think something like this would give us a definite plan for the offseason, keep things moving, and still allow some adjustments if you don't get the top free agents you were after.

I would say last season was closer to 3 weeks. On admin's comment that's how it should be... I don't know that it would happen though if all bidding ends at a set time. Say I'm after player A, but if he gets to expensive I'm going after player B. The bidding for both is still open, and all free agent bidding ends today at noon. If bids are still being placed right up until noon today on player A I have no idea whether I'll need to bid on player B. I think if there is a set cutoff point for all players the last 10 minutes prior to the deadline will be a madhouse on here... if you're bidding on 10 players or so there's no way you'll be able to keep up.

What if we did a tiered approach to the deadline? Say something like this:

All bidding for 90+ players will end day 4 of free agency at midnight.

All bidding for 87+ (or whatever the cutoff for B level free agents is) players will end day 5 of free agency at midnight.

Amateur draft will be held 8pm the 6th day of the free agency period

All bidding for 82+ players will end day 7 at noon

All other free agent bidding will end day 7 at midnight

Sim up to Spring training will be posted early day 8

Sim through Spring training will be done evening of day 8

New season starts day 9.


I think something like this would give us a definite plan for the offseason, keep things moving, and still allow some adjustments if you don't get the top free agents you were after.

Another thing we could consider is if one of the admin personnel is bidding on a player they must do so early in the bidding. If you won't be around at the cutoff point for bids on a player you're interested in you can submit your bid to an admin who is not bidding on that player. They can then bid for you. Not sure if this is possible but something else to consider

Well... I will bid on my bench players after I bid on my top tier free agents... and I'm usually bidding alone when it comes to that...

And we COULD have an issue where ppl just wait until the deadline to bid and we'll have a dead free agency for 4 days...

Here is what I am planning to put up for vote. Say now if you see any issues with this. Otherwise it will be

A) Keep free agency as is. This means all free agents are open until the most recent bid has stood for 24 hours. Once all "A" free agents have signed and a large majority of the others have signed we will move on to the draft. There would need to be a day or two in between, while the contracts for all the signed free agents are entered in the league file and simmed up to the draft.

B) Set a cutoff time for signing "A" free agents. This would be 5 days after the start of free agency. As we get closer to this cutoff point I will set a minimum increase that must be made when submitting a new bid for each player. For example on the 3rd day it may be 250k total over the life of the contract, day 4 may be 500k, and day 5 may be 750k. This will vary depending on how high bidding has gotten already for each player, and how much bidding has occured. If you are bidding on one of these players and can't be online at the deadline you can submit your max offer and bidding instructions to a league official who's not bidding on the player, and have them bid for you. If it looks like there are 2 or 3 clear bidders for a certain "A" free agent I will try and arrange a chat session where they can bid until a high bidder is determined. Once all "A" free agents are signed we will move onto the draft. "B" free agents will not need to be signed because the teams losing these players just receive a pick at the end of the draft. If you end up resigning one of your own "B" free agents the player you picked with your compensation pick will go to the team losing the next player on the "B" free agent list that did not receive a pick (so if one team does this, whoever was in line for the 181st pick will receive the player they picked). Following the draft I'll get the drafted players to their rosters and post a new game file. Following that you will have 3-5 more days until the Spring training sim to sign free agents. I'll determine this at the time based on people's opinions, and the # of free agents remaining. I'll do the same thing I did for the "A" free agents as we get closer to spring training. I'll then do the spring training sim the next scheduled night, and start the regular season the following night. This plan will mean a draft date approximately a week from the end of the season, and a start of the season scheduled when we complete the draft.

I don't think you really need to speed up Free Agency as a whole... you can just have the draft a little earlier and start ST a little earlier... if owners want to know their team better for a better draft, then they'll try to get bidding done faster... otherwise IRL you do see players signed after the initial signing period...