Random questions from a new GM

[Winston-Salem Spirits (Brad)]

Questions from a new GM: 

- All transactions occur on proboards (as opposed to Fantrax) but the list of available players on Fantrax should be accurate. Yes?

- FAs posted in the FA thread who are then not shown as awarded to/won by any team in the following MlbPA post were not bid on and therefore still available? And we can't bid on FAs until their positional slot comes open later this winter in February or so?

- Can someone go over/link info on PP designations. I get that the clock doesn't start until 150 ABs/50 IP but I am a bit unclear how to classify from that point. Do we then start looking at service time - that is once you've reached the 150/50 plateau, are you PP/18 until you've reached 1 year service time? Or is there some other mechanism I'm not familiar with?

- The upcoming draft covers 2014 draftees, post July 2 int signings, and MiLB players. If a player has seen MLB time but has yet to accrue his 150AB/50IP is he still considered a MiLB player? 

Thanks ahead of time for anyones effort on these.

[Deleted]

- All transactions occur on proboards (as opposed to Fantrax) but the list of available players on Fantrax should be accurate. Yes?

YES (but teams will still need to cut guys that become FAs this year so won't be true till that happens)

- FAs posted in the FA thread who are then not shown as awarded to/won by any team in the following MlbPA post were not bid on and therefore still available? And we can't bid on FAs until their positional slot comes open later this winter in February or so?

YES (but we'll have a lot more free agents from expiring contracts and buyouts too) and NO (milb FAs are available but only to draft, not to bid as FAs until the next prospect bidding period)

- Can someone go over/link info on PP designations. I get that the clock doesn't start until 150 ABs/50 IP but I am a bit unclear how to classify from that point. Do we then start looking at service time - that is once you've reached the 150/50 plateau, are you PP/18 until you've reached 1 year service time? Or is there some other mechanism I'm not familiar with?

WE DONT LOOK AT SERVICE TIME (If a guy hit 150/50 last year, say Mookie Betts, then he became PP18 giving you that current season plus 4 more, that means you control him through 2018 at a minimum salary. The only exception to this is if a guy doesn't play at all for a whole calendar season, then you don't have to count that season as one of the 4 more. For instance, Matt Harvey was PP16, but because he didn't play at all this past season, he'll now be controllable through 2017 instead of 2016 and thus PP17. That's the only time when PP designation changes.  Otherwise, its always the season a guy hits 150/50 (even if its his last AB of the year to get 150, see Brett Lawrie) plus 4 more.)

- The upcoming draft covers 2014 draftees, post July 2 int signings, and MiLB players. If a player has seen MLB time but has yet to accrue his 150AB/50IP is he still considered a MiLB player?

YES (Prospects are defined as those who have not yet hit 150/50 and prospects are eligible for drafting)

If I missed something here, I'm sure someone else will correct it...

[Winston-Salem Spirits (Brad)]

Great! Thanks Tim.

[Rawhide GM (Jimmy-LM)]

Tim pretty much hit the nail on the head with everything

[BlueSox GM(Matt P)]

Are all milb players available to draft or only ones with MLB ABs/IPs? I've seen posted both ways.

[Rawhide GM (Jimmy-LM)]

They way I have the rule written, its any prospect unowned + Those players from the June draft and signed after the July 2nd international signings, age 23 or younger.

[Winston-Salem Spirits (Brad)]

From rule 7:
"These players must be publicly announced and displayed in the designated area "Restricted FA's" as Restricted by 11:59PMEST DEC 31st"
Where is the 'designated area'? Does that mean they need to be clearly designated as restricted on our roster?

Also, how do I go about shedding useless players from my roster? Is there a dedicated time to do so?  I guess I have questions about the whole waiver and claim system.  When and how can we add unrostered MLB players?  Only during FA?

[Deleted]

I imagine Jimmy will put up a place to designate these guys at some point in the future, no pressure to name them prior.

As for shedding "useless" players, if guys are FAs they automatically come off your roster. If they are prospects, you'll be able to waive them (i assume). If they are PP15-PP18, then you can choose to just up what is essentially your option on them. I imagine Jimmy will announce a process for picking up options and letting PP guys go. Guys with contracts can only be waived/bought out.

[Deleted]

So I get this straight.
I have two pitchers Trevor May and Ethan Martin. Both are just under 50IP. When they hit that number 500k contract must be given. That will count against cap but do I have to move them to my MLB roster or can they remain Prospects with a 500k hit to cap.

[Javelinas GM (Scott)]

Anyone with a pp contract can be held in minors or in ML roster.

[Deleted]

And they always count against the cap correct

[Deleted]

yes

[Deleted]

Thanks, I guess I'm not as dumb as I think I am.

[Deleted]

Are all RFA bid on at the same time?

[Winston-Salem Spirits (Brad)]

From Rule 6: Free Agent Process

"During the off-season bidding, each calendar week will feature either Restricted Free Agents or a player position as a guideline to that week's bidding. You may ONLY bid on a player in that category that week."

[Deleted]

The next question is once a manager loses a draft pick, because of a RFA signing, said manager can no longer bid within that tier?

[Winston-Salem Spirits (Brad)]

That is a good question.

[Deleted]

it ends being even more complicated. first of all, we'd have to know if all the RFAs are going to be bid in one group (tom's first question, the rule makes it sound if thats the case for RFAs but not UFAs but it should still be clarified).

If the RFAs are all bid at once then it won't matter because you don't lose draft picks until after bidding is done (you don't lose a pick unless the posting manager doesn't match and that decision is post-bidding, I could win 5 bids and they all get matched so no picks lost).

If the RFAs are bid in groups then there's the question of whether the real pick is assigned after the end of each round, and then Tom's question about whether that prevents bidding in the next round. Its a fair question and a possible outcome, MLB also allows teams to keep buying FAs with QOs after forfeiting their first round pick and MLB just creates compensation picks, but even if we do that then there's the question of whether if you don't have a first will the league take your 2d rd pick instead (and then just give the losing manager a comp 1st in place of your 2d).

There are lots of things to clarify here and lots of competing interests. Certainly teams will prefer to get a real 1st rd pick over a comp pick, but at the same time most bids will get matched so teams will want to bid for multiple guys just to try improve their odds of getting a non-match and since you don't know who will match after you can't really limit that during the bidding.

[Winston-Salem Spirits (Brad)]

Oh sh*t. It really is going to take someone being reckless with their offers for owners not to match. I know I'm willing to go pretty high to retain N.Cruz. I wonder if we would be better served allowing two tags, but only one of each. The franchise tag would be a rare designation (already is) and the lack of restricted tags would open up UFA quite a bit. Is there a reason, as the league progresses, to expect there to be more quality FAs every year? That is, because we're just one year in do we have less guys coming off a contract than we might in future years?

[Deleted]

there's a similar league to this one a few of us are in that allows 3 tags (1 required franchise, 1 rfa, one either), so i think jimmy tried to pare to down the use of tags in here already by reducing the number to 2 (although allowing both to be used for either). plus that other league doesn't require you to give up a pick, so the pick loss should make more people not match in here. it works ok in there, but those two factors should make more guys available through biding in here. that said, no stars will be ufa, just rfa. the only stars that won't be match eligible will be the japanese and cuban guys that come over and all those will be bonus bidding. i don't know about fewer guys coming off contract or not. hard to say. we probably do have fewer just since some of the bigger/longer real life contracts (same as a franchise contract) were drafted in here when everyone had free cap, but those wouldn't be franchised in the future. but we had buyouts too. an interesting question for sure tho, curious how other people see it. i think there will also be a few teams with a ton of cap this year (teams that rebuilt from the getgo) so they might dominate bidding.

but yeah, still, a lot of rfa bids should still get matched.