Something I noticed with independent leagues

[ra7c7er]

I'd read a few posts where people said they were playing around with independent leagues but found it to easy. I think I've figured part of it out.

AI independent league teams will not resign players. They let everyone go to FA even when extensions are on.

I never paid a lot of attention to other teams re-signings until the current round of test leagues I've been working on. And I notice year after year no team would re-sign anyone.

This is just one league of the 9 I have.
2017 (first year of possible FA)
UFA at all star break - 241
UFA day before FA- 240
1 player retired

2018
UFA at all star break - 114
UFA day before FA - 109
2 players traded
1 retired
2 released before end of season

2019
UFA at all star break - 97
UFA day before FA - 94
1 player traded
2 players retired

2020
UFA at all star break 128
UFA day before FA - 121
4 players traded
1 retired
2 released before end of season

2021
UFA at all star break - 132
UFA day before FA - 120
5 players traded
6 players retired
1 released before end of season

I could go on I tested this for 25 years, and 9 leagues, but I think you get what I'm trying to show. There are two possible options that are going on here.

1. Independent leagues are hard coded to not resign players and it overrides changing the setting to allow extensions

2. the option to allow extensions isn't working.

Turning extensions off and on with ML leagues works but not knowing if it's working with indy leagues I can't test it. Since I get the same result with and without it turned on.

[Trebro]

That would mesh with what happened in the league I did. And I had extensions turned on for mine.

[SirMichaelJordan]

They do give out extensions its just a rare case when contract lengths are at 1 year. Its not just that the AI team are not extending players, its the players themselves wanting to test FA and the fact that teams will only resign the very good players at let everyone else go. The AI sees all of the money coming off the books and makes a smart decision of letting sub par players walk.

If you set max contract length to 2 years rather than 1 you will see a lot more resigning.

2 year contacts are just as realistic as 1 year contacts as most indy players sign a 1 year contract with a player option IRL.

[ra7c7er]

Originally Posted by SirMichaelJordan

They do give out extensions its just a rare case when contract lengths are at 1 year. Its not just that the AI team are not extending players, its the players themselves wanting to test FA and the fact that teams will only resign the very good players at let everyone else go. The AI sees all of the money coming off the books and makes a smart decision of letting sub par players walk.

If you set max contract length to 2 years rather than 1 you will see a lot more resigning.

2 year contacts are just as realistic as 1 year contacts as most indy players sign a 1 year contract with a player option IRL.

I'm already using multi-year contracts. I have it set to 10 years.

Perhaps you are on to something, though. Since indy leagues don't create as good of players as ML leagues maybe the game doesn't create good enough players that the AI under normal circumstances would keep them. BUT If the game isn't looking at the fact that a guy with average ratings is basically a superstar, in the indy leagues, then the game logic needs a bit of a tweak to take into account the talent difference of an indy league vs. a ML league.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by ra7c7er

I'm already using multi-year contracts. I have it set to 10 years.

Perhaps you are on to something, though. Since indy leagues don't create as good of players as ML leagues maybe the game doesn't create good enough players that the AI under normal circumstances would keep them. BUT If the game isn't looking at the fact that a guy with average ratings is basically a superstar, in the indy leagues, then the game logic needs a bit of a tweak to take into account the talent difference of an indy league vs. a ML league.

Not true - a guy with avg ratings, poor ratings, good ratings - doesn't matter - they're only superstars if they put up the numbers that say so. Ratings don't tell you anything except what a player should be capable of. He can have 5 stars and hit .245 while a 3 star hits .324 - so is the 5 star a superstar?

What are your overall league numbers like?

[SirMichaelJordan]

Yea what is your setup?

[ra7c7er]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Not true - a guy with avg ratings, poor ratings, good ratings - doesn't matter - they're only superstars if they put up the numbers that say so. Ratings don't tell you anything except what a player should be capable of. He can have 5 stars and hit .245 while a 3 star hits .324 - so is the 5 star a superstar?

What are your overall league numbers like?

I wasn't going by stars I was talking actual ratings (eye, discipline, control, etc.) Even if going by stats teams shouldn't be letting go 11 game winners with 1.79 ERAs or hitters with .345 Avg who slug .798 and hit 26 homers in a 80 game season.

Overall the league numbers are great using the default settings. I get some high averages .320+ but also some pitchers will be sub 2 ERA. I'm not saying teams should be resigning everyone on their roster but they should be resigning at the very least their best 5-10 guys.

Default settings except for contract years and extensions and no arbitration. FA set to 3 years. Other then that everything is on the default settings.

[STeK]

Okay if this is true it will be a problem for me and I really don't want to start over. I have created an Indy league to run along side MLB, and so far so good, but I am only halfway through my inaugural season. I have signed a few players to multi-year contracts, 2 years up to 4 years. Looking at the other teams salary pages they seem to have a lot of their players on 2 year contracts, mostly auto renew for baseline salary or MiLC. There have been a couple of signings up to 3 years that make sense. So my question is: Does the AI release these players at the end of the year anyhow? When does this problem start happening after several seasons? What if I disable allowing players to be purchased by other leagues?

[ra7c7er]

Originally Posted by STeK

Okay if this is true it will be a problem for me and I really don't want to start over. I have created an Indy league to run along side MLB, and so far so good, but I am only halfway through my inaugural season. I have signed a few players to multi-year contracts, 2 years up to 4 years. Looking at the other teams salary pages they seem to have a lot of their players on 2 year contracts, mostly auto renew for baseline salary or MiLC. There have been a couple of signings up to 3 years that make sense. So my question is: Does the AI release these players at the end of the year anyhow? When does this problem start happening after several seasons? What if I disable allowing players to be purchased by other leagues?

It isn't going to happen until they get to the start of FA when ever you have that set to.

I really enjoy playing with indy leagues. It's way more sporadic with players then using ML leagues which is more challenging but with this issue it becomes really easy to get a ton of top tier talent and just start rolling over everyone.

[STeK]

Originally Posted by ra7c7er

It isn't going to happen until they get to the start of FA when ever you have that set to.

I really enjoy playing with indy leagues. It's way more sporadic with players then using ML leagues which is more challenging but with this issue it becomes really easy to get a ton of top tier talent and just start rolling over everyone.

I see what you mean. Is this the "minimum service years for FA" option you are speaking of? If so, will setting it to 25 years give me normal multi-year contracts throughout the league for that period of time?

[STeK]

nevermind lol, I just realized that auto-renew is tied in with the service years for free agency. Setting it to 25 years would just give me auto renew for that period of time and probably negate contract extensions altogether.

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by STeK

Okay if this is true it will be a problem for me and I really don't want to start over. I have created an Indy league to run along side MLB, and so far so good, but I am only halfway through my inaugural season. I have signed a few players to multi-year contracts, 2 years up to 4 years. Looking at the other teams salary pages they seem to have a lot of their players on 2 year contracts, mostly auto renew for baseline salary or MiLC. There have been a couple of signings up to 3 years that make sense. So my question is: Does the AI release these players at the end of the year anyhow? When does this problem start happening after several seasons? What if I disable allowing players to be purchased by other leagues?

I wouldn't panic as this may be something that is exclusive to his league. I personally do not have this problem in my sim save that is up to year 2034 and even with contract at 1 year, I still see teams resigning players just not as much as if the length was higher.

It could have something to do with financials. IDK.

OP, are you sure extensions are allowed in the league?

[ra7c7er]

Originally Posted by SirMichaelJordan

I wouldn't panic as this may be something that is exclusive to his league. I personally do not have this problem in my sim save that is up to year 2034 and even with contract at 1 year, I still see teams resigning players just not as much as if the length was higher.

It could have something to do with financials. IDK.

OP, are you sure extensions are allowed in the league?

Yes extensions are enabled for all 9 leagues

[ra7c7er]

Originally Posted by SirMichaelJordan

I wouldn't panic as this may be something that is exclusive to his league. I personally do not have this problem in my sim save that is up to year 2034 and even with contract at 1 year, I still see teams resigning players just not as much as if the length was higher.

It could have something to do with financials. IDK.

OP, are you sure extensions are allowed in the league?

I redid all my templates and restarted my full world of 9 leagues. This time around teams are resigning players but it's very very few. Not even one player a team is getting resigned. Which I guess for indy teams is somewhat realistic. But giving teams to opportunity you'd think they would resign a few more. Rather then resigning 1 and letting 20+ go to FA.

I've added up the amount of players going to FA from all teams for a period of 5 years. 15.68 players per team per year. So the teams are turning over half their active roster size and 1/3 their organization. Personally I think that is way to many.

I still think the AI looks at the players based on a the same scale as a ML league. So the AI doesn't see many players as worthy of resigning.

To make it fair I guess I'll need to limit the amount of players I resign myself.