2106 Season Thread

[Huckleberry]

This is the thread for all discussion for the 2106 season, our league's seventh. This first post will be updated throughout the season and will also include links to other threads or amendment votes that come up during this time.

Sim through the WBA Championship Series is complete, we are now on a break to recruit three owners.

[Huckleberry]

OOTP Preseason Predictions:

[Huckleberry]

History pages and player pictures updated on the HTML reports, I'm going to try to get the in-game images file updated today at some point. If and when I do, I will bump that thread.

[Huckleberry]

Seoul is off to an ugly start.  Hang in there, Mike JK, that franchise needs consistent ownership with a plan.

[squaredrive]

 OOTP star ratings make me second guess myself from time to time.  i keep pluggin this guy in waiting for magic but he seems like a 4.5 star bench bat at best...

http://www.worldbaseballassociation.com/reports/news/html/players/player_4195.html

[Claybor]

I think they over value defense and more so speed.

[Huckleberry]

I think they over value defense and more so speed.

This is exactly it.  Whatever the star formula is, it seriously overrates baserunning and speed to a large extent and defense to a lesser extent.

[claphamsa]

its something in this leauges setting too

[Karachi_GM]

ignore

[Huckleberry]

ABL Batting Season Record Watch:

Here are the ABL single season records I found where someone is currently on pace to break or tie the record. As you can see the changes to the league settings to get our offense back to where we originally intended (about 1995 NL levels) has caused offense to increase this year. I will try to do pitching later but my guess is that there won't be as many records in danger.

Slugging Percentage - Current Record 0.621 by Sammy Roberts

Ralph Martin of Saõ Paulo is currently slugging 0.647

OPS - Current Record 1.021 by Sammy Roberts

Ralph Martin of Saõ Paulo is currently at 1.080

At-Bats - Current Record 667 by Gabriel Arévalo

Will Jones of Santo Domingo is currently on pace for 671

Runs - Current Record 133 by Pio Seixas

Carlos Vargas of Saõ Paulo is currently on pace for 152, Ralph Martin of Saõ Paulo is on pace for 150, John Pottle of Santo Domingo is on pace for 150, Pio Seixas of Saõ Paulo is on pace for 140

Hits - Current Record 225 by John Pottle

John Pottle of Santo Domingo is on pace for 240, Will Jones of Santo Domingo is currently on pace for 228

Total Bases - Current Record 349 by Prospero Calaa

Ralph Martin of Saõ Paulo is on pace for 395, Carlos Vargas of Saõ Paulo is currently on pace for 355

Singles - Current Record 177 by John Pottle

John Pottle of Santo Domingo is on pace for 194

Triples - Current Record 13 by Sergio Guillén

Pio Seixas of Saõ Paulo is on pace for 13

RBI - Current Record 138 by Juan Hernández

Ralph Martin of Saõ Paulo is on pace for 159, Cheslav Zamorov of Santo Domingo is on pace for 150, António González of Saõ Paulo is on pace for 140

Batter WAR - Current Record 9.2 by Pio Seixas

Carlos Vargas of Saõ Paulo is currently on pace for 11.4, Ralph Martin of Saõ Paulo is currently on pace for 10.8

[Huckleberry]

Also, now that I'm done, it's basically a Saõ Paulo party and they invited Santo Domingo. Ha.

[AndyHustle]

22 yo SS with an 11 WAR? #want

[Huckleberry]

Yep, will be interesting find out what his extension demands are when the time comes.

[claphamsa]

all ABL...sounds like the fix is in! #NeverABL

[claphamsa]

Yep, will be interesting find out what his extension demands are when the time comes.

looks like hes already resigned...at 22.

[APMP]

I was looking at the ABL vs.  IBL offensive numbers last night. Not even funny how much higher ABL offense leader Sau Paulo's OPS and runs scored are compared to IBL leader Mumbai's.

[Coop]

That's true, but I'm glad to say that IBL hitting stats now appear to be much more in line with historical norms.  Last year the IBL as a whole batted .237, as I recall.  I don't know what it's hitting now, but a survey of the various teams' lineups shows that it's much higher than that.  The fixes that Huck put into place during the offseason have clearly worked.

[sumhzrd]

Sao Paulo's park factors for AVG, Doubles and Triples go along way toward explaining the offensive numbers there, don't you think?

[CaseyBlakeDeWitt]

Very proud of having the strongest middle infield of all time. Martin and Vargas are my heroes.

[squaredrive]

Thanks for putting this together Huck, great to see-

[Huckleberry]

looks like hes already resigned...at 22.

Good catch.  Then again, he is still going to have to extend after his age 26 season.

[sumhzrd]

I know that the recent trades of large sums of excess cash for draft picks are well within the rules, but I don't think these transactions are good for the health and competitive balance of the league. No two competitive teams withg cash balances below $50M are going to complete a trade of a 3rd and 4th round pick for $25M, which is essentially ~50% of an average teams budget.  The value of these mid-round picks, especially from good teams is nowhere near that valuable, These are not transactions where two teams are exchanging assets of similar value with a joint expectation that both teams might end up better off.  These only happen except when one team has accumulated a huge amount of cash, above an arbitrary limt that risks being valueless after the trade deadline.  Which ever team ends up winning the bidding war for such a cash infusion gains a very large long-term competitive advantage.

I think the spirit of the rule limiting cash balances to $50M is to encourage owners to spend money to be competitive, but without other anti-tanking or minimum spending rules in place, we're developing a pattern of transactions with hugely lopsided values being exchanged.

We could address this in a few ways, including one or more of the following:

- eliminate trades that involve cash sums over some more modest limit?
- set a schedule of maximum cash values that can be acquired in exchange for draft picks in a given round   - $10M for 1st round / $7M for 2nd round, etc
- conduct an open reverse auction when an owner with > $50M wants to disburse excess cash for picks or players
- bar transactions where one team is getting only cash; instead, any excess balance over the $50M limit would be distributed equally to all other teams in the league

I believe this is an important topic that needs to be addressed between now and the start of the upcoming offseason.

 

[Echo127]

^^I think this is a good discussion to have...But I don't know what the solution would be.  My thoughts:

1: I think the cash limit is important, because it discourages teams from *completely* tanking on multiple seasons.

2:Arbitrary limits on cash-spending in tradesmight be a good idea. But in some cases there might be a workaround; "I can't give you 20M for that 3rd round pick? How about I give you this 10M replacement-level contract + 10M instead?"

3. League votes on vetoing would be another option...But that would make all agreed trades be delayed at least 1 game week, which is probably not OK.

4. I think some of this problem is due to AI mismanagement... I.e., AI assembles a not-very-good and over-priced roster, new manager comes in and sells everything to rebuild. Now that we've got a full league active and interested (crossing my fingers) the problem might work itself before long.

[Huckleberry]

I agree the league needs to come up with a solution, I have thought about it but every solution has obvious workarounds that will be used almost as soon as the rule goes into place.

At this point I'm just trusting that the owners are doing the best for their org that they can in the moment. Perhaps we should post a thread as each trading deadline and offseason approach to make everyone aware of which teams are over the cash maximum. At least if every owner is aware then the market value will be set by the whole market.

[sumhzrd]

Echo, I agree that the $50M cash limit makes sense.  And Huck's suggestion of a reminder notice of which teams are bumping up against the limit is a good one For me the simplest approach is to set a max cash amount that can be exchanged for a draft pick.

If you trade away a draft pick or a minor league prospect, the max cash coming back to you can be:

1st round  / 5 potential stars    $8M'
2nd round / 4 potential stars    $5M
3rd round / 3 potential stars     $3M
4th round / 2 potential stars     $2M
5th round / 1 potential star       $1M
6th round or lower   $500K for each pick.

these numbers are examples to promote discussion, but the main thing I think we need to accomplish is to set a reasonable max price for a draft pick that comes close to approximating the value to a typical seller of draft picks.  If I can get $25M for a 3rd and 4th, that's a no brainer.  If I can only get $5M, then maybe that's close to approximate market value, that I consider holding on to my picks, or including other players in the deal.  At these levels, it also opens up the market for that excess cash to more teams that are willing to unload picks.  $25M doesn't end up in just one team's lap.  We give the owner unloading cash an incentive to search out multiple trading partners to unload the full amount of his excess.

[Claybor]

OK. Obviously I am the 'prime' target here as I have now made 3 of these trades in a row. I think you may be missing the value of goodwill, which I have mentioned in at least 2 of these deals figuring the over spending now might grant me the same in return at some later date. (Nothing set in stone, just something one would expect if situations were reversed which they likely will be when my youngsters all start wanting multi year 10's of million dollar contracts on a $50M budget.). In all cases i did not have the time to really pursue or dicker for more, and all parties came to me, I did not initiate trade in any of them.

I do understand the issues with the situation though, and am good with whatever limits are put in place for the future.

[Huckleberry]

sumhzrd - I like the idea but all someone would have to do is include a player in the trade and then claim the cash is for the player. It's just tough to handle by league rule.

And again, it's also something that the league needs to set the market value on. We can agree that $25M is too much for a 3rd and 4th rounder, but at the same time if nobody else is offering him anything then that's the actual value because if he doesn't take it then he's just plain losing $25M.  That's why I'm still leaning toward a notification system. If a team is going to lose cash to the maximum and they want to get something in exchange for it then they need to make a main post in the trading block forum and announce that they're giving cash and asking for offers. At that point we can't blame them for taking the best offer.

Heck, I might just make a post myself each season keeping track of the teams that are on pace to simply lose cash to the maximum.  In fact, I think I'll do that right now.

[squaredrive]

I agree this seems like an issue for competitive balance and more concerning may serve to limit quality of free agents entering the market if teams can readily get cash to resign their stars.

While i agree that many of the ideas have easy workarounds - a simple fix is to set a cap on the amount of cash that can be traded by any team during a single season.  This would also be a push against cash hoarding and likewise raise the value of money that can be traded by limiting supply. 

[APMP]

I'd be fine with the notification system that Huck proposed or even capping the cash if there's a way it makes sense (I haven't thought it through fully yet).   I didn't think anybody would actually trade for cash last season and then felt left out when it happened

[AndyHustle]

As someone with a boatload of upcoming cash for next season and an interest in more draft picks, I say we definitely pick up this conversation when the season ends before somebody annoys the rest of the league with a deal.

[Claybor]

1.Not thrilled with a few comments above.

2.Not a fan of arbitrary limits.

3.Having second thoughts about being told how I am allowed to spend my cash and what things are worth. (But that may be due to #1 and a 2 week bout of insomnia.)

[Huckleberry]

As someone with a boatload of upcoming cash for next season and an interest in more draft picks, I say we definitely pick up this conversation when the season ends before somebody annoys the rest of the league with a deal.

The only thing that will happen for now is notification of the teams that are going to be burning cash at the end of the year.  As long as you make a trade block post announcing that you're looking to sell cash then there won't be any problems at all.

[claphamsa]

As someone with a boatload of upcoming cash for next season and an interest in more draft picks, I say we definitely pick up this conversation when the season ends before somebody annoys the rest of the league with a deal.

The only thing that will happen for now is notification of the teams that are going to be burning cash at the end of the year.  As long as you make a trade block post announcing that you're looking to sell cash then there won't be any problems at all.

this is the best response!  do what you need to do, but be clear about it

[Txhorns]

I don't think that there ever needs to be a cap on how much a draft pick is worth.  The value of draft picks can change from year to year and is based on the teams involved, not the rest of the league.  I do think that there should be a required trading block post about wanting to trade off cash reserves.  In my opinion there is only 1 limit to this type of transaction that should be discussed. 

The first is that the team selling cash should be required to take the highest bid they receive as this will kill any kind of buddy deals.  There should be 1 exception to this rule though, being able to accept the best offer from the other league regardless of whether it's the highest bid overall.  This can help a team make a deal but not be required to improve their direct competition.  Example: Rome is trying to sell $10m in cash and receives an offer of a first round pick from London and an offer of a second round pick from Santo Domingo.  Rome should be allowed to choose the Santo Domingo offer if it is the best offer from the ABL.

[Huckleberry]

Woohoo! ABL Champions for the first time.

The WBA Championship Series has a nice subplot as well-known Santo Domingo superstar pitcher Gareth Pollock is actually a Brisbane native.

[reflections311]

Brisbane looking on getting their first title.
Been a up and down year with lot's of injuries and down seasons..
but we put it together at the end.
See if we can take it farther for that championship

[squaredrive]

congrats on the ABL pennant Huck!!  you were due!