Free Agency Begins January 17th, 12pm CST

[chrisetc21]

Free agency is scheduled to start on January 17th.  One request I have in the name of organization and preventing confusion is a format for posting free agents.  Linder has a pretty good requirement in his league (Mendoza Line) so we're going to steal it and use it here. 

All GMs will now be required to post Free Agent threads in a specific format.   All Free Agent threads that aren't posted in this format will be declared invalid and locked.

Here are the two posting requirements:
1. The subject header will include position, then the player's full name.
         (ex: SP Javier Osuna)
2. A link to the players profile page must be posted in the thread.


Profile pages should come from Baseball-Reference.com or FanGraphs.com
If those are not available, a "signing announcement" from baseballamerica.com, MiLB.com, or another reputable source will be required.

Profile Pages are preferred over Signing Announcements.

[chrisetc21]

At this point I would say we're going to begin free agency on Friday, January 17th at 12pm CST.  That should give us plenty of time to sign players before the season starts.  Please keep the posting guidelines in mind when posting your free agents.  Thanks.

[seanrmgallagher]

Last year we broke it up a bit by only allowing some people to be bid on at a time. Have a hundred or more open bidding wars could be a bit overwhelming and it might be easier for everybody to have bidding on only certain positions or alphabetical groups start at different times. Just a suggestion.

[chrisetc21]

Yes, definitely good suggestion.  We'll break it up by position and limit the amount of winning bids at one time, probably to four bids which seems to be a good number used in other leagues.

[soiytenlee]

Is there a thread that lists all the available free agents that will be up for bid come the 17th? Am I just going right past it?

Nevermind, I found the thread that talks about how all available players in FanTrax will be our FA list. Sorry for the unneeded post.

[chrisetc21]

Someone had asked about how to sign minor leaguers.  I can't find the message or what have you.  Minor leaguers would receive an initial prospect contract.  To place a bid you would simply start a thread with the guidelines above for the thread title and then in the body of the post you would put PC or prospect contract.  Every bid thereafter would say PC+ an amount that is considered a one time bonus.  So PC + $2m is an example.  If you were to win that bid you would give the player a $2m bonus, deducted from your salary cap for that season.  You would then assign the player to your minor league system whereby he would follow the six year contract platform for arbitration salaries once he was promoted to the 40 man roster.  Players on the 25 man roster are automatically part of the 40 man roster.  Hope that clears up the question.

[chrisetc21]

We're going to open different positions each week for free agency.  Once the week is up for each position, no opening bids may be placed.  So, for example, on day 7 an opening bid is placed for a position.  Bidding on that player will continue until the player is won however no more opening bids past day 7 of that position.  Once all positions have been opened and closed for their period, all positions will re-open until the free agency period closes for the year on the final day of the World Series. 

There's no strategy in which positions open at what time, I just picked them from catcher through the outfield and then pitching. 

Week 1 - Catchers
Week 2 - 1B & 3B
Week 3 - SS & 2B
Week 4 - Outfield
Week 5 - Pitchers

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 $3million in the second season or vice versa.  There is no restructuring of deals at this point. 

International free agents under age 23 who have not signed a contract with a major league franchise as of July 1st, 2013 are NOT eligible for this free agent period.  These international free agents will be part of the international free agency period beginning in July of 2014.  While a major league contract automatically trumps a minor league contract regardless of value, no minor leaguer under the age of 23 may be offered a major league contract.

There are no more than 4 winning bids allowed at one time for any one owner regardless of major or minor league bidding. 


Major League Free Agents

The bidding should note the following.  Thread title should have position followed by player name.  First Post must include a link to the player.  Bidding needs to include... number of years, salary per season, and total salary. 

k abbreviation stands for thousand and m abbreviation stands for million so there should be no confusing the terms.  $500k is $500,000 and $50m is $50,000,000. 

Winning bids must stand for 48 hours. 

Minimum bid increase amounts for major league contracts are $500k for bids under $50 million and $2m for bids over $50 million. 

Thread title example

SP Roger Clemens


First post/initial bid example

Roger Clemens

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clemero02.shtml

5 years, $10m per year, $50m total


Additional bids example

5 years, $10.5m per year, $52.5m total




Minor League Free Agents


Minor leaguers can be bid on as well however their initial bid will be stated as PC or Prospect Contract which carries no bonus.  Every successive bid from a PC or Prospect Contract should be noted as PC + $.  The minimum bid raise for minor leaguers is $50k.

Winning bids must stand for 48 hours. 

Minimum bid increase amounts for prospect contracts are $50k for bids under $5 million and $200k for bids over $5 million. 
   

Thread title example

SP Mark Appel


First post/initial bid example

Mark Appel

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=appel-001mar

PC


Additional bids example

PC + $50k

[Jss0062]

good to go

[ThePetis]

We're going to open different positions each week for free agency.  Once the week is up for each position, no opening bids may be placed.  So, for example, on day 7 an opening bid is placed for a position.  Bidding on that player will continue until the player is won however no more opening bids past day 7 of that position.  Once all positions have been opened and closed for their period, all positions will re-open until the free agency period closes for the year on the final day of the World Series. 

There's no strategy in which positions open at what time, I just picked them from catcher through the outfield and then pitching. 

Week 1 - Catchers
Week 2 - 1B & 3B
Week 3 - SS & 2B
Week 4 - Outfield
Week 5 - Pitchers

I'm not crazy about this idea.  I understand not wanted 50-100 bids going at one time, but I'd prefer another method.  Perhaps a rule that lets an owner open a bid on only one, or possibly two players per week, regardless of position.

[chrisetc21]

I'm not crazy about this idea.  I understand not wanted 50-100 bids going at one time, but I'd prefer another method.  Perhaps a rule that lets an owner open a bid on only one, or possibly two players per week, regardless of position.

Have you ever participated in a free agency bidding process?