2018 Regular Season Sim 2 Complete - Next Sim Sunday 9/4

[Z]

I think Zhang is a BLB pitcher throwing against minor leaguers.

His stats don't mean anything to me right now.

This. Nobody is saying he isn't as advertised, but he's not exactly pitching against Lord Stark.

Oh, come on.

There are a number of BLB-caliber starting pitchers in AAA right now.

None of them have opened the season by throwing 35 scoreless innings with zero walks and 29 strikeouts.

Obviously that performance isn't the same as how he would perform in the BLB but to say it means nothing sounds like a huge reach to me.

[Pat]

I think he needs at least another 2-3 seasons down there.

[umd]

This. Nobody is saying he isn't as advertised, but he's not exactly pitching against Lord Stark.

That's why he's still in AAA. He's not an ace right away. He could be a #4 this season probably. 3.50-4.25 ERA. Let's talk again in 2019. I would just prefer to pay a 25 year old Zhang $24m than a 38 year old Reeves or whoever.

[Delandis]

I think Zhang is a BLB pitcher throwing against minor leaguers.

His stats don't mean anything to me right now.

This. Nobody is saying he isn't as advertised, but he's not exactly pitching against Lord Stark.

[Carlos]

I think Zhang is a BLB pitcher throwing against minor leaguers.

His stats don't mean anything to me right now.

[Delandis]

2018 Regular Season Sim 2 Complete - Next Sim Sunday 9/4

I never really noticed until now, but I really like your uniforms UMD.

-In Baltimore, I'd be happy when our big boppers would start bopping. We're 3rd in BA but 7th in runs scored. We are notoriously slow starters every year it seems. Nonetheless, our starting pitching has been the worst I've seen in a while. Our long time pitching coach retired last year(I want to say I hired him in '94?), so his departure may be part of the problem.

[umd]

I think FAs take into account a teams history.

#GhostOfClay

Sucks we can't purge it without wiping out my teams.

[Pat]

I think FAs take into account a teams history.

#GhostOfClay

[umd]

Knappe and Marrero hurt. Shiiiiiit.

[umd]

Unfortunately most of the rebuilding teams don't have a $115 million payroll, or the ability to put $25 million of that in the minors.

I'm pretty sure they do. Would you rather have a 31 year old closer at $15m for 4 years or spend $25m on a 23 year old potential ace?

This. He's not a minor leaguer - I think we all know/knew that. Sure I had a lot of extra payroll space. Carrying $10m cash profit is a difference maker for every budget (big or small) but as I laid out in that long post to Paul about increasing revenue streams there's nothing really "stopping" the lower budget teams in our league from being competitive money wise overall.

Matt and I were both "have nots" for a very long time in an age where the person in charge was not only an insufferable cheating douche, but the teams were never on equal footing to begin with financially or in the settings.

Now they are much more balanced. Brad, Matt and Andrew spent an endless amount of time tweaking settings to give every market equality outside performance on the field.

Let's take your California budget as an example:

Current Budget: $93m
Salary Report: $54m
Cash Available: $0 - You put $10m into your stadium.

Current Expenses: $47m
*This is personnel ($4.2m) and player payroll ($600k) paid so far
+
scouting and PD is (mostly) what is left over ($42m)

Let's take a look at FA:

12/18 RP Shinji Yamashita (37) $3m $3m
12/18 RP Kazu Shimada (30) $5m $5.5m
12/30 Manny Reyes (36) $5.5m $5.5m

12/31 DVS signs Zhang to Contract at ~$24m a year.

1/9 2B Hector Torres (35) $750k
2/9 CL Travis Gerlach (31) $15m $11m $9m $8m $7m
2/24 1B Xavier Hernadez (36) $2.6m

Alright, so let's take a look at some things here. I'm not approaching this reply as an attack at all. More of an under the financial hood post.

Let's get a few things out of the way.

Yes, I and others have massive overall budgets.

Yes, I had a ton of FA money this season. An abnormally large amount - more than I have ever had before.

Yes, Zhang has moved up the top prospects list and looks pretty solid so far but with signing international players it's possibly the highest talent to cost to production risk we have in this league. All GMs - contender or rebuilder are taking a significant risk shelling out $144m to a guy with no stats and one scouting report.

Back to math and decisions. Budgets are all about decisions. So let's take a look at some of the choices we both made this offseason:

1. Cash - you invested all $10m into your stadium. $5m for seats to build your future revenue stream and $5m into dimensions to shape your stadium to your future team. Perfectly reasonable move. I did the same investing in seats and holding $5m extra for FA.

2. Scouting and PD - you have approximately 45-50% of your budget (I can't see that info so it's hard for me to be sure) invested in these key rebuilding categories. They are important and it would be hard to argue with anyone spending around $42m on them. I have only about 12% of budget in them.

These were decisions we both made and neither were "right" or "wrong". I will say that Zhang was available to you and almost every other rebuilding GM. That includes a contender in Batavia who added Reeves at $30m and Anguiano at $8m.

After being convinced in that thread that Zhang might be good as advertised, I swooped in and landed him for $24m a year and $144m total.

Now there is no guarantee he would've signed with you for the same amount or TOR or another rebuilding team because as Pat mentioned some FA just won't be interested in your franchise. It kind of sucks, but winning games can change that from your side or straight up greed on the player's side.

For example sake let's say you could get him at $24m a year $144m total. Let's look:

Before he signed you invested:

$10m cash (in stadium upgrades)
$13.5m in FA (Yamashita, Shimada, Reyes)

That alone is $23.5m just for this current season of Zhang's contract.

Add in the remaining FA money you chose to spend:

$18m (Gerlach, Torres, Hernandez)

That's $42m without even touching your scouting and PD budget of $42m

Let's say you took 15% of your scouting and PD. Think of it as a gratuity and a front loaded investment in a 23 year old SP that you don't have to scout and is already almost fully developed according to OSA. That's an addition $6m to spend.

Could you have signed Zhang? I think so. This really wasn't a case of the big market team throwing a boatload of money at a FA. I didn't severely overpay. I chose not to offer him $30m a year over 4-5 years because I made budget decisions figuring that would be a bad idea. $25m though? Sure, I chose Zhang over Reeves ($30m), Gerlach ($15m), Santana ($15m) and plenty of other targets who would help me win my division.

You probably (if my math is right in this post) could have decided something similar:

You had $48m (give or take) to play with if you chose to get him as laid out above.

$25m for Zhang
$10m for Stadium
$13m before he signed would have still landed you Shimada, Yamashita and Reyes.

That's $48m. I'd bet most other rebuilding teams are similar. Add in the advantage of low future payrolls for rebuilding teams which we didn't discuss here and that $25m a year could have been spread over even more years considering a seven year deal only brings the kid to 30 years old.

Hopefully this was a little helpful.

[Carlos]

Clay would trade Alvarez to Carlos for two firsts and a prospect.

Lol even I never traded Clay anything like that. But a first would have switched hands once upon a time ago.

[Matt]

Unfortunately most of the rebuilding teams don't have a $115 million payroll, or the ability to put $25 million of that in the minors.

I'm pretty sure they do. Would you rather have a 31 year old closer at $15m for 4 years or spend $25m on a 23 year old potential ace?

[PaulC]

Back to reality for California. 1-5 sim... :banged:

However the career of Morla is of to a rousing start.

After striking out in his first at bat, he roped an rbi single for his first BLB hit and followed that up with two line drive doubles! He also currently has a hit in every game he has played (six) in the BLB this season!!

[PaulC]

For all the GM's rebuilding who had the money and didn't sign this kid and let UMD do it...great job!

Unfortunately most of the rebuilding teams don't have a $115 million payroll, or the ability to put $25 million of that in the minors.

[umd]

For all the GM's rebuilding who had the money and didn't sign this kid and let UMD do it...great job!

You talked me into it. And yes, he remains in AAA for the time being. Unless I deal him on June 15.