Recommended Salaries

[ae37jr]

I just came across this trying to find gate share %. I remember lookin at this several years ago and it made me a better player. I think it's a good reference to look at as free agency approaches.

While it is somewhat subjective, it basically tells you anything over $14 million per year is an overpay. Even if it's the best player in the league. Your average player in starting lineup should make no more that $4.75. Bench players shouldn't make more that $2.5.

So before you offer a player $11 million in free agency, ask yourself.. is this player a star? Erik Brooks I'm looking at you.

Of course the flip side of this is that sometimes you need to over pay to get the player you want/need. Just don't make it a habit or you will run out of money sooner than later.

[BaseClogger]

I thought this was hidden and only commish could see. Might have to look around the league settings area tonight to see what is visible.

[Trebro]

This is a good reminder. Thanks Alan!

[ae37jr]

I thought this was hidden and only commish could see. Might have to look around the league settings area tonight to see what is visible.

it's posted on forums here

[BaseClogger]

I thought this was hidden and only commish could see. Might have to look around the league settings area tonight to see what is visible.

it's posted on forums here

That’s so old.

[RonCo]

This is something I've brought up before, and has been changed at least once sine it was posted. I've also been chatting about these settings with the board over the past few says, so this is good timing.

Here is the "new" setting Matt posted when the salary cap was changed back in 2052. You can see that the settings have been dropped for "Average" and above players in that time period.

While I agree that this is useful to know, I disagree a bit with Alan's use of the word "overpay." While that might be suggested in the labels, all those tiers really do is act as parameters that the game uses to set FA (and to an extent) Extension asks. This is important because it means the better players will sign for less money than they once did...(for example, back when I signed Thum to his big $30M seasons, part of that was because Thum expected YS9 to pay more then than he would have these days). In a sense, dropping these prices are an advantage to big revenue teams who can all afford to pay up to cap, though there's always some complex game theory here.

"Overpay" is a market question. These are settings that allow a player to have a view of what the market might be.

At the end of the day, you can guess what the settings are by where the top salaries are. I say that because as a rule the very best players will expect to be paid about twice the rates listed for superstars. Note that the double $14.5M Superstar before is about $30M ... hence Thum, whereas double the $11.5M listing for Superstars today is $23M, which is right about where our top players are paid per year.

One of the reasons I chose this league is that Matt has always been very open about the settings. These things really do make a very large difference, and if Matt alone knew them it would give him a major advantage.

[RonCo]

As a very general rule of thumb, it's probably fair to say that players in FA will start by asking for about twice what they think their category would pay them, and will negotiate down from there if the market doesn't agree.

Also, as a very general rule, if you want to have the guy sign quickly, you probably need to make an initial offer that is in that 2x range.

[RonCo]

This is why it is my opinion that the myth about players' asks bloat because of how much money is in the environment is just that--a myth. Players' FA/extension asks are much more tied to these figures than anything else.

Dropping them also means that established players will be easier to sign to extensions, FWIW, which is another advantage to big teams, and which was a silent amplifier to the value of the salary cap change. Raising the cap while having it easier to sign lower-priced extensions is a great boon if you can spend to cap.

[RonCo]

These settings are also classic OOTP neep because they are important things in the game, but are not labeled in any way that actually lets you know what they are really doing.

At best they should be labelled "Player Salary Expectations," or something like that, and they should be better defined in the commish pages.

[JRamirez]

Yes, given experience in a lot of solo play, these ranges are almost "best guesses" (or beginning negotiating figures), especially as you go the talent ladder.

[BaseClogger]

I wish these settings would get reshared.