Suggestions for promotion/relegation leagues

ZenMaster61 · 08-21-2020, 02:04 PM

I just recently started my first promotion/relegation fictional league, and after a short period of playing I noticed a few things that really need to be changed.

My basic setup is 6 leagues with 16 teams each, and the financial factors were mass adjusted for each league by this percentage:

League 1 -> 0%
League 2 -> -50%
League 3 -> -75%
League 4 -> -90%
League 5 -> -95%
League 6 -> -95%

I made a couple of adjustments to the standard 2020 MLB financials, such as disabling revenue sharing and removing the cash maximum, but I left a lot the same. I'll try to include any relevant changes when listing issues.

Also, I started unemployed during the 2020 season and simmed ahead 10 years before choosing a team, so the league had a decent amount of time to settle in.

1.) Players can opt out if a team is relegated, but a team does not have the same option.. This is the biggest issue I've noticed so far. Most of the star players request an opt-clause for if the team gets relegated, which makes sense, but it also makes sense for the teams to have the same option. When picking a team and looking at financials I noticed there were some truly horrendous contracts in the lower leagues, and when I looked closer most of these players had signed the deals when the team was at a higher level. The players all had opt-out clauses for relegation, but didn't exercise them due to how overpaid they were. The worst offender was a 25/80 overall pitcher in the fourth league with a 4/88 million contract. He signed an 8 year deal at the top league, fell off a cliff production wise the second year of the deal (which I'm sure heavily contributed to his teams relegation that year), and then continued to get worse as his team fell in consecutive years all the way to the fourth league. He now makes more per year than the total team budget. This is an extreme case, but there were many other players at the second and third levels with similar contract situations.

2.) Players can sign with a lower level team, the team then gets promoted to a higher level, then the player can opt out if the team gets relegated back to the level they originally signed the player at. . I don't know if this was intentional, but I don't like the way this works. I think that if a player signs with a relegation opt out clause it should only be usable when being relegated below the level they originally signed at, and if teams had relegation opt-out options I think it should work the same for them. With the way it currently works there are many teams losing players on very good contracts because they were relegated after spending one year at a higher level.

3.) Lower league players salary demands for extensions are radically different than their demands in free agency. The first team I took control of was in the 6th league and they had a very good pending free agent. He was 26 years old, good character attributes, amazing production (8.7 WAR), normal injury proneness, 70/80 overall and 75 potential as compared to the top league. This is the type of player I've seen go for 8/240 million in other saves, but he only asked for 8/12 million to sign an extension with me. I figured there's no way he would actually sign for that amount, but I offered anyways, and he accepted a few days later. This seemed kind of bizarre, so I looked through the salaries of the other league 6 teams and many of them had players with similar deals. I wanted to know if the player accepted the deal due to loyalty to the team, or because of the financial factors of the 6th league, so I force quit the game and let the same player go to free agency. I offered the same 8/12 contract, he responded a few days later telling me "thank you for the wonderful laugh", and ended up signing for 4/86 million with a top league team. (And just to clarify, this was a player I had zero control over. I had no arbitration years available and could not make a qualifying offer). So, I don't know if there is a way to change this with the current game settings, but there needs to be a way for players to recognize they can receive more money if they leave a lower league. Otherwise, some very good players spend a majority of their careers at low levels.

I'll continue this save and update if any of these issues self-correct over a longer period of time, and add anything new I notice.

08-21-2020, 02:04 PM	#1
ZenMaster61 Bat Boy Join Date: Mar 2020 Posts: 13	Suggestions for promotion/relegation leagues I just recently started my first promotion/relegation fictional league, and after a short period of playing I noticed a few things that really need to be changed. My basic setup is 6 leagues with 16 teams each, and the financial factors were mass adjusted for each league by this percentage: League 1 -> 0% League 2 -> -50% League 3 -> -75% League 4 -> -90% League 5 -> -95% League 6 -> -95% I made a couple of adjustments to the standard 2020 MLB financials, such as disabling revenue sharing and removing the cash maximum, but I left a lot the same. I'll try to include any relevant changes when listing issues. Also, I started unemployed during the 2020 season and simmed ahead 10 years before choosing a team, so the league had a decent amount of time to settle in. 1.) Players can opt out if a team is relegated, but a team does not have the same option.. This is the biggest issue I've noticed so far. Most of the star players request an opt-clause for if the team gets relegated, which makes sense, but it also makes sense for the teams to have the same option. When picking a team and looking at financials I noticed there were some truly horrendous contracts in the lower leagues, and when I looked closer most of these players had signed the deals when the team was at a higher level. The players all had opt-out clauses for relegation, but didn't exercise them due to how overpaid they were. The worst offender was a 25/80 overall pitcher in the fourth league with a 4/88 million contract. He signed an 8 year deal at the top league, fell off a cliff production wise the second year of the deal (which I'm sure heavily contributed to his teams relegation that year), and then continued to get worse as his team fell in consecutive years all the way to the fourth league. He now makes more per year than the total team budget. This is an extreme case, but there were many other players at the second and third levels with similar contract situations. 2.) Players can sign with a lower level team, the team then gets promoted to a higher level, then the player can opt out if the team gets relegated back to the level they originally signed the player at. . I don't know if this was intentional, but I don't like the way this works. I think that if a player signs with a relegation opt out clause it should only be usable when being relegated below the level they originally signed at, and if teams had relegation opt-out options I think it should work the same for them. With the way it currently works there are many teams losing players on very good contracts because they were relegated after spending one year at a higher level. 3.) Lower league players salary demands for extensions are radically different than their demands in free agency. The first team I took control of was in the 6th league and they had a very good pending free agent. He was 26 years old, good character attributes, amazing production (8.7 WAR), normal injury proneness, 70/80 overall and 75 potential as compared to the top league. This is the type of player I've seen go for 8/240 million in other saves, but he only asked for 8/12 million to sign an extension with me. I figured there's no way he would actually sign for that amount, but I offered anyways, and he accepted a few days later. This seemed kind of bizarre, so I looked through the salaries of the other league 6 teams and many of them had players with similar deals. I wanted to know if the player accepted the deal due to loyalty to the team, or because of the financial factors of the 6th league, so I force quit the game and let the same player go to free agency. I offered the same 8/12 contract, he responded a few days later telling me "thank you for the wonderful laugh", and ended up signing for 4/86 million with a top league team. (And just to clarify, this was a player I had zero control over. I had no arbitration years available and could not make a qualifying offer). So, I don't know if there is a way to change this with the current game settings, but there needs to be a way for players to recognize they can receive more money if they leave a lower league. Otherwise, some very good players spend a majority of their careers at low levels. I'll continue this save and update if any of these issues self-correct over a longer period of time, and add anything new I notice.