Offseason Poll #7 - Free Agency Contracts

[Vik]

Current Rule

You can structure your bids however you like but the contract amount per year must be constant.  You cannot offer $20 million in the first season and $3 million in the second season or vice versa.  There is no restructuring of deals at this point.

Proposed Rule Change

You can structure your bids however you like; the contract amount per year does not have to be consistent. However, each subsequent year of the structured contract must be more than the previous years.

For example:

3 years for 10m a year

Current rule:
Year 1: 10m
Year 2: 10m
Year 3: 10m

Proposed Rule Change (example):
Year 1: 6m
Year 2: 10m
Year 3: 14m

Note: If this passes, we would only put into effect on opening day all offseason FA bidding will remain at current rule.

[kidd5jersey]

I like variable bids.

[EastCoastGonzo]

Obviously the min salary per year is $500k, probably needs to get stuck in there.

But I think we may need to add a formula for structuring the contract. It would be weird to bid 2yrs / 2m = 4m and pay 500k/3.5m. Or maybe people don't mind that.

I think we should add a formula like the first year of the contract must be a certain % of the total value of the contract.

2 yrs = 40%
3 yrs = 30%
4 yrs = 20%
5 yrs = 10%

[RyanJames5]

Current Rule

You can structure your bids however you like but the contract amount per year must be constant.  You cannot offer $20 million in the first season and $3 million in the second season or vice versa.  There is no restructuring of deals at this point.

Proposed Rule Change

You can structure your bids however you like; the contract amount per year does not have to be consistent. However, each subsequent year of the structured contract must be more than the previous years.

For example:

3 years for 10m a year

Current rule:
Year 1: 10m
Year 2: 10m
Year 3: 10m

Proposed Rule Change (example):
Year 1: 6m
Year 2: 10m
Year 3: 14m

Note: If this passes, we would only put into effect on opening day all offseason FA bidding will remain at current rule.

I love variable contracts, but I don't think the rule above is ideal.  I wouldn't want to have to gradually pay someone more.  If I want to front load a contract, I definitely should be able to do that.  A league that I have been in for quite awhile that uses variable contracts has the following rule and it works really well.  It allows front loading or backloading, but nothing extreme. 

No single year can deviate more than 40% from AAS. So a contract with 5 million dollars AAS can only range between 3 million and 7 million for any one year.

[indiansnation]

I want varable also

[kidd5jersey]

I like Ryans idea

[EastCoastGonzo]

I love variable contracts, but I don't think the rule above is ideal.  I wouldn't want to have to gradually pay someone more.  If I want to front load a contract, I definitely should be able to do that.  A league that I have been in for quite awhile that uses variable contracts has the following rule and it works really well.  It allows front loading or backloading, but nothing extreme. 

No single year can deviate more than 40% from AAS. So a contract with 5 million dollars AAS can only range between 3 million and 7 million for any one year.

I would like this idea too but I think we have to make a decision about the direction of the league. Are we trying to get more realistic or just make convienent changes. Because contracts that are less money on the back end aren't realistic, it just allows for longer contracts with fewer penalities because you can front load the contract when they're actually worth that amount of money.

I'm for variable contracts but realistic variable contracts where all the years are the same or escalating.

[RyanJames5]

I would like this idea too but I think we have to make a decision about the direction of the league. Are we trying to get more realistic or just make convienent changes. Because contracts that are less money on the back end aren't realistic, it just allows for longer contracts with fewer penalities because you can front load the contract when they're actually worth that amount of money.

I'm for variable contracts but realistic variable contracts where all the years are the same or escalating.

The reality of the rule is that neither are realistic because teams have no limitations in real baseball.  So the rule of allowing variable contracts, no matter how they come out is making the league more realistic. 

[Vik]

Current vote here is 7-5 in favor and all comments also supporting and great feedback.

Would be nice to get some more votes but assuming this will pass I will take into account comments and discuss further so we can draft up a revised and more specific rule.

[EastCoastGonzo]

The reality of the rule is that neither are realistic because teams have no limitations in real baseball.  So the rule of allowing variable contracts, no matter how they come out is making the league more realistic.

There may not be a limitation but there has never been a contract in real life where a subsequent year is worth less than a previous year.