A Plea to Those Teams with Money

[Tyler]

Do not let Jesus Luna go to Japan. He's cheap. Please keep him in PEBA.

[Hitmen]

Do not let Jesus Luna go to Japan. He's cheap. Please keep him in PEBA.

He's not that cheap. Cheaper than others, but not cheap. I tried.

[Denny]

And I see with today's sim that Mr. Luna signed with Yamato for the bargain-basement price of $14.9 million a year for 7 years, the last being a player option, and also a pitching bonus of $1.1 million.

If that's considered cheap, I'd hate to see West Virginia's notion of something expensive!

[John]

I'll put in a good word for the Hitmen here. They made a valiant run at Luna, but he followed the money to Yamato. And, barring a trade, he'll be the last PEBA player to do that for quite some time. Yamato has now tied up 3/4 of their budget in just two players for the next five years.

[Hitmen]

I'll tell you what, looking at the FA market, I think I did a decent job extending some of my bullpen after this season. Luckily they had devent loyalty and/or greed ratings and I was able to sign them for a lot less than their asking price. And trying to replace them in the FA market would have been ridiculous.

I'm guessing that the FA market may not be the way to go if they keep asking for that kind of money. Apparently we have a lot of A-Rod/Santana wannabes in PEBA. 1.0 that is. I'm sure in 2.0 this kind of thing stopped since all the good FAs went to Bakersfield for the league minimum every season.

[Tyler]

And I see with today's sim that Mr. Luna signed with Yamato for the bargain-basement price of $14.9 million a year for 7 years, the last being a player option, and also a pitching bonus of $1.1 million.

If that's considered cheap, I'd hate to see West Virginia's notion of something expensive!

Well, when star batters (not superstar batters) want north of $20 mil and the league's best pitcher wants $15 mil, I'd call that (relatively) cheap.

[Matt]

I think I am in agreement with the Coal Sox. What some of those hitters want is ludicrous, and Luna wanting ONLY 15 mil seems like a nice bargain. I would have paid it. If my team wasn't already under a third mortgage.

[Tyler]

I would certainly have made an offer for Luna if my budget had allowed, even if I had the league's #2-@6 starters already in my rotation. That's just too cheap to let go.

[Coqui]

I would certainly have made an offer for Luna if my budget had allowed, even if I had the league's #2-@6 starters already in my rotation. That's just too cheap to let go.

But it isn't cheap because no one can afford it. It might seem cheap in comp. with the position guys but it isn't even affordable for any team in our league.

[Hitmen]

I would certainly have made an offer for Luna if my budget had allowed, even if I had the league's #2-@6 starters already in my rotation. That's just too cheap to let go.

I tried, but no way I spend $15 mil per year for 7 years and lock up that kind of money for the future on a guy who didn't even play for me last year. I made a couple of reasonable offers, but if the LRS teams are going to break their budgets and pay the guy until he's 37, more power to them. He could have played for the defending champs, or he can go be a nobody in Japan. He made the choice. And I save potentially 100 million over the next 7 years and don't have to face him on an opposing staff either.

I'm okay with that.

[Hitmen]

I would certainly have made an offer for Luna if my budget had allowed, even if I had the league's #2-@6 starters already in my rotation. That's just too cheap to let go.

But it isn't cheap because no one can afford it. It might seem cheap in comp. with the position guys but it isn't even affordable for any team in our league.

Value != cheap. I think that's the issue. Relatively, he might have been a decent value. But not cheap. And personally, I didn't see the value in his demands. Just because a lot of others are overvaluing themselves more doesn't mean he wasn't as well.

I'm wondering why OOTP doesn't have a "prestige" setting for the leagues, or something like that. No way in real life a pitcher that good in his prime takes an additional 2-3 million and a couple of extra contract years to go play in Japan.

[Sandgnats (Bill)]

I understand his reasoning of cheap comparing Luna's demand for $15 M to Hector Castillo's demand of $27 M. In that regard, I can see his point.

But, never would I agree that 15 million dolars is cheap. That's absurd! I don't care what size market you have of how immense your budget is, $15,000,000 is still $15,000,000. Hopefully the 8 digits helped with dramatic effect.

Another thing to remember about free agents is that they ask a lot more than they really want(At least most of them). That's the game. It's a game to us, but from their perspective(if they were real), this is their livelihood. They may only get one chance in their career to sign a big long-term contract, so of course they will ask for the world. Career ending injuries can hit a 24 y.o. just as easily as a 37 y.o.-so they have grab the cash when the gettin's good.

I am by no means an OOTP expert in any way, shape, or form, but here's a tip to help with the demands of offering a huge long term contract.
DONT!!
My tip is that if a player wants a 5 year deal for $100,000, you can get away with giving him $15 M for 1 year. Think about it. If the player wants a long term deal and that's scaring owners away, waiting 1 year in his career will not hurt his marketablilty. So, consider a one year offer next time you want to land a big fish and save yourself the better half of 100 million dollars!

I do have an example for anyone who's willing to read about it. I have posted this before on another thread but anyway...
In a personal league I'm running to gain as much knowledge about OOTP as possible, there was a free agent that was the most recent MVP of the 'AL' asking for a 6 year deal for 156 million. That's $26 M per year!!
Now, he was similar to David Ortiz in real life and even better. He hit like 335 with 54 HR's & a lot of walks. Obviously, I couldn't afford the monster demand, but I was successful in landing him with a 1 year-$16 M deal. The results were outstanding! Additionally, in PEBA, I just landed Mark Frazier(RF) for $15.6. Is he expensive, hell yes, but he wanted either $20 or $23 per year. I cannot remember. My point is that the player doesn't mind taking a little hit in his dream paycheck for one year as opposed to all of the years of his dream long-term contract.

Good luck and hope this helps!

[John]

Not a bad suggestion at all, Bill. If you're lusting after one of the remaining big ticket players, this would be a good option to try.