Also, this is another table that runs out past the margins of the forum, so I’ve pasted it below all the text.
Anyway, let’s jump in, shall we?
Let’s start with the case of Phoenix’s 1B Jorge Pena, which I conveniently labeled as “WTF?” And I do mean that. He’s 28 years old. His status in the last v24 file was a Team Option for $10.2M, followed by three arbitration years. What am I missing? I don’t know, but I’m guessing Sean pulled some of that smelting factory/Denney’s magic someplace. Regardless, Pena had a marvelous year last year. He’s also a sold defender at 1B. He’s quite pricey, but not horribly so if he will turn those 3 WAR despite hitting only RHP. I’m inclined to think I’d have kept him. He’s only asking (me) for $3M, though…so maybe there’s something I don’t know? Maybe he’s a product of his park? You tell me.
Anyway, moving up the page, I note that—with two exceptions—every player I thought should be released and that was actually released is asking for less money on the market than they were making (Jeremey Webb’s ask of Bikini is for a minor league deal with a major league option). I suggest that means the player was in agreement that their market value was less than their contract. Those exceptions are Mexico City’s Salvador Allende, who is asking for close to the same money, but is hoping for more years, and Vancouver’s Angel Gonzalez who wants another half-mil to go with four years of control. I’m not sure either are going to get the AAV they are looking for, though it’s possible. I don’t know that either will get the years. I note Twin Cities Alfonso Trinidad is also asking for several years, though he’s asking for less than the $14M he was slated to get if the River Monsters executed their option.
Going further up the page was see Tony Frost, who Vancouver bought out, then resigned to a slightly more comfortable $10M with a $9M TO kicker. I expected Vancouver to keep him, and this qualifies.
We then get to five mostly bigger-name higher-priced tickets in Owen McKelvey, Mal Fountain, Edgar Sosa, Alaric Wullenweber, Jeffrey Smith, and Thomas Kramer. I assumed their teams would keep them, but they did not. Sosa and Kramer as less-names, and are asking for less than their contracts would have called for, so this suggests they agree that the team made a good decision. The others are aging stars, and are still looking to cash in. I’m pretty sure Fountain, Smith, and Kramer were released due to financial constraints around cap and budget limitations. McKelvey is only 32 and should have something left in the tank.
It will be interesting to see if Fountain, Wullenweber, and Smith can pull the four or five years they are asking for. In straight v24, I suppose they might. The question of how the aging curves will survive the v25 conversion will be interesting to watch. Our GMs seem to have been pretty conservative in trading during the dead period of the conversion. Time will tell.
- - -
So there we have it. A full scouring of the off-season options. (For Sean’s fun with PPT accounting, that’s 6 Features good for 24 points!). As always, feel free to tell me where I’m wrong!
I admit to having my full OOTP nerd goggles on as we go forward to see if and how v25 seems to handle this part of the game, and how different it will feel. While a lot of people point to the game’s results engine as changing every version, my view is that it really does not. But this financial aspect of players agreeing to contracts most certainly does.
Am I right?
Well…obviously, I think so. But if nothing else, I find it quite a bit of fun to deal with.
Team | Pos | Name | Age | Type | 2058 | 2059 | 2060 | 2061 | 2062 | Projection | Asking> | 2059 | 2060 | 2061 | 2062 | 2063 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LBC | RP | Owen McKelvey | 32 | T | $3.0m | $3.0m(T) | $3.0m(T) | Keep | Release | $4.200 | $4.200 | $4.200 | $4.200 | ||||||
LOU | 3B | Mal Fountain | 37 | T | $8.9m | $12.6m(T) | Keep | Release | $13.000 | $13.000 | $13.000 | $13.000 | P | $13.000 | |||||
LV | SP | Edgar Sosa | 33 | T | $4.5m | $5.5m(T) | $6.0m(T) | Keep | Release | $1.700 | |||||||||
PHX | SP | Alaric Wullenweber | 38 | T | $11.3m | $11.3m(T) | Keep | Release | $12.600 | $12.000 | $12.000 | P | $12.000 | ||||||
VAN | LF | Jeffrey Smith | 39 | T | $7.5m(^) | $12.0m(T) | $15.0m(P) | Keep | Release | $15.000 | $15.000 | $13.600 | $13.600 | V | $11.600 | ||||
VAN | SS | Thomas Kramer | 37 | T | $8.0m | $12.0m(T) | $14.0m(P) | Keep | Release | $7.000 | $7.000 | ||||||||
VAN | 3B | Tony Frost | 38 | T | $11.2m | $12.2m(T) | $13.2m(P) | Keep | Void>Resign | $10.000 | T | $9.500 | |||||||
BRK | RP | Cheuk-yan Liu | 33 | T | $4.8m | $4.8m(T) | Release | Release | MLC | ||||||||||
BRK | RP | Ken Arroyo | 33 | T | $4.0m | $4.2m(T) | Release | Release | MLC | ||||||||||
CHI | SP | Marcus Olivares | 29 | T | $3.5m | $3.0m(T) | $3.5m(T) | Release | Release | MLC | |||||||||
DM | RP | Jorge Ávila | 34 | T | $2.5m | $2.5m(T) | Release | Release | $1.800 | ||||||||||
DM | 2B | Jeremy Webb | 38 | T | $1.0m | $1.0m(T) | Release | Release | $1.500 | ||||||||||
LBC | CF | Bill Morley | 37 | T | $8.0m | $8.0m(T) | Release | Release | $2.800 | ||||||||||
LV | 1B | Aarnoud Budding | 38 | T | $6.3m(^) | $12.6m(T) | $12.6m(T) | Release | Release | $4.640 | |||||||||
MEX | SP | César Macías | 32 | T | $3.0m | $3.0m(T) | $3.0m(T) | Release | Release | $1.300 | |||||||||
MEX | SS | Ewan Allman | 39 | T | $3.8m | $3.8m(T) | $3.8m(T) | Release | Release | $1.600 | |||||||||
MEX | 3B | Salvador Allende | 37 | T | $7.0m | $7.0m(T) | $7.0m(T) | Release | Release | $8.000 | $7.000 | $7.000 | $6.500 | ||||||
TWC | 3B | Alfonso Trinidad | 37 | T | $14.0m | $14.0m(T) | $13.0m(T) | Release | Release | $10.600 | $10.600 | $9.500 | $9.500 | P | $9.000 | ||||
VAN | RF | Ángel González | 38 | T | $9.0m | $12.0m(T) | $12.0m(P) | Release | Release | $9.500 | $9.500 | $9.500 | V | $9.500 | |||||
PHX | 1B | Jorge Peña | 28 | T | $7.6m | $10.2m(T) | $10.1m(A) | $11.6m(A) | $13.1m(A) | WTF? | Release | $3.200 |