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Absolutely no doubt in my mind, DW, that the AI is the thing that is holding this game back. I understand and have been told many times over by the devs and higher-ups how difficult this is to get right and how much time has been, and continues to be, spent on trying to do so. There have been some advances, I'll grant that, but the AI as it is in many cases can't even properly assemble a competitive team or even one that is fully-stocked with the right combination of pitchers and position players, starters and backups. Not only does this result in situations like you are seeing here but also makes it really tough to get the sort of challenge one seeks without having to impose a whole raft of house rules and the like.
I would love to see more granularity with regard to historical games and how closely they follow the IRL path other than just the current binary option of all historical transactions or none. I think something like being able to nominate players across the league (whilst in commissioner mode) as "Marquee" or "Franchise" players - meaning they rarely if ever are traded away - would be an excellent start in this regard. You can mark a player with a non-trade clause as things currently stand but the players too readily in most cases waive it. Maybe if they just tighten that up it would be an excellent first step to achieving this, but it needs a complete overhaul IMHO. I would also think that a redo of the historical market sizes and financial circumstances of each franchise over the years wouldn't go astray, as well.
Problem is, the historical side of things is slowly but surely falling out of favour with the people buying the game. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, because all of the shortcomings with the historical side of things are deterring more and more from spending time in that realm. Which in turn pushes it down the priorities list.
It's still a magnificent simulation, but I have watched this side of it gradually worsen overall and despair it will never turn back around.
In other words, I'm feeling you.
Rant over.
G
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