Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2017 0:13:09 GMT -5
This one is really bothering me and has been bothering me all night. The Phillies is a relatively new owner and he had three offers that I ruled as illegal. I'm going to first post his offers and then my response email...and then we'll get into the rest of the situation.
---
Phillies initial offers email
"Here are my bids.
Lourdes Gurriel
I offer him a $79.125M signing bonus. Combining this with his actual contract received from the Blue Jays, the whole contract will then look like this:
Seven years, $97.525 million (AAS = $13.932....M)
2017: $79.125M
2018: $1M
2019: $1.5M
2020: $2.5M
2021: $3.5M
2022: $4.5M
2023: $5.4M
If the long decimal in the AAS is a problem (seven year deals are weird) that makes this offer invalid, then I'd like to submit another offer of the same structure with a $79.6M signing bonus, for a 7 year, $98M deal ($14M AAS), but again, that's only IF the above bid is invalid because of the decimal points.
I'm assuming international free agents are exempt from the front/backloading restrictions, since GMs have no control of the structure of the deals under the rules. If that's not the case, I guess the biggest offer anyone could give him would be $34.183M (signing bonus). If that is the case, then I'd like to offer that $34.183M signing bonus.
Other, less complicated deals:
Eric Thames
I offer a $5 million signing bonus, for a final contract of:
3 years + 1 year CO, $16M + $7.5M CO, AAS = $5.333...M if you don't count the CO, $5.875M if you count it.
2017: $5M
2018: $5M
2019: $6M
2020: $7.5M club option
Hernan Perez
I offer the following contract:
Four years, $20 million ($5 million AAS)
2017: $4M
2018: $12M
2019: $3.25M
2020: $3.25M"
---
My response email
"Josiah,
I know you are fairly new to this league so I completely understand some of these mistakes. It's a complicated league so I want to clear a few things up for you. Please ask as many questions as possible to Shawn or myself. We know these rules inside and out and are always willing to help you.:
1. That Gurriel bid is illegal. "A franchise may only offer an AAS up to 30 percent of their salary cap (as declared in section 3) to a single player.", as a tier 3 team the most you could offer to a single player is $36M AAS
3. In the case of Eric Thames, there's a lot going on here. First off you are not allowed to offer club options to players. The only way club options get involved in this league is if you franchise a player and they have a real life option. I could understand some of the confusion with this part because I honestly was confused too, but since Thames already had more than 150 MLB ABs before going to Korea and coming back, he was suppose to be bid on as a regular free agent; no signing bonus involved. This really isn't the biggest deal since your offer was not the winning bid, but this one I understand the confusion.
4. Hernan Perez bid was illegal in two different ways: #1: You listed the contract as 4 years, $20M but the contract breakdown had it as 4 Years, $22.5M. I would have given you a one time pass on this but then... #2 your contract just barely was illegally front-loaded by $.25M. “4. The total of salaries in the first half or the last half of the contract (in years) may not exceed 70 percent of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, half of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last half of the contract.” 70% of $22.5M is $15.75M. The first two years of the contract add up to $16M. This also isn't a big deal since your offer wouldn't have been the winning bid.
Like I said, I understand that this league is very complicated and takes time to learn the rules. Don't hesitate to read up on the rules and ask any questions you have. I hope you don't take this as a slight, please feel free to PM me before you send out your next round of offers. I will make sure that your bids are legal if that would be helpful.
Thank You,
Seth (Rockies GM)"
---
After I sent that, he went to the chat box and pointed out to me the second paragraph under his initial offer for Gurriel: " If that's not the case, I guess the biggest offer anyone could give him would be $34.183M (signing bonus). If that is the case, then I'd like to offer that $34.183M signing bonus." He also then sent in another offer for Gurriel saying he offers him a $36M signing bonus which I think we clearly disregard since we have a hard no second bids policy and in this situation this is...his 3rd bid?
---
Josiah did send me an email trying to clarify the situation:
"Just decided to PM you directly to clear this up.
The first post on the rules thread says "Clarified that there is no limit to an IFA signing bonus" yet you ruled my bid illegal for exceeding a limit on signing bonuses. You also said the AAS of a contract I offered him exceeded $36M, when it was less than $14M.
Even if that first bid was declared illegal, I clearly laid out an "if that his is illegal, I offer a $34.183 M signing bonus".
Also, Thames very clearly falls under the definition of an IFA laid out in the rules. There's no clause about prior MLB experience in that definition.
The Perez bid was just a math error by me."
---
How I see the case is this: His initial bid was clearly invalid since the $79M signing bonus is way more than the 30% of cap space we're allowed to bid on one player. The question then becomes, are we going to allow that second offer he lists of $34.183M signing bonus or not?
I am completely overwhelmed by this situation and ask for help from you guys.
---
Phillies initial offers email
"Here are my bids.
Lourdes Gurriel
I offer him a $79.125M signing bonus. Combining this with his actual contract received from the Blue Jays, the whole contract will then look like this:
Seven years, $97.525 million (AAS = $13.932....M)
2017: $79.125M
2018: $1M
2019: $1.5M
2020: $2.5M
2021: $3.5M
2022: $4.5M
2023: $5.4M
If the long decimal in the AAS is a problem (seven year deals are weird) that makes this offer invalid, then I'd like to submit another offer of the same structure with a $79.6M signing bonus, for a 7 year, $98M deal ($14M AAS), but again, that's only IF the above bid is invalid because of the decimal points.
I'm assuming international free agents are exempt from the front/backloading restrictions, since GMs have no control of the structure of the deals under the rules. If that's not the case, I guess the biggest offer anyone could give him would be $34.183M (signing bonus). If that is the case, then I'd like to offer that $34.183M signing bonus.
Other, less complicated deals:
Eric Thames
I offer a $5 million signing bonus, for a final contract of:
3 years + 1 year CO, $16M + $7.5M CO, AAS = $5.333...M if you don't count the CO, $5.875M if you count it.
2017: $5M
2018: $5M
2019: $6M
2020: $7.5M club option
Hernan Perez
I offer the following contract:
Four years, $20 million ($5 million AAS)
2017: $4M
2018: $12M
2019: $3.25M
2020: $3.25M"
---
My response email
"Josiah,
I know you are fairly new to this league so I completely understand some of these mistakes. It's a complicated league so I want to clear a few things up for you. Please ask as many questions as possible to Shawn or myself. We know these rules inside and out and are always willing to help you.:
1. That Gurriel bid is illegal. "A franchise may only offer an AAS up to 30 percent of their salary cap (as declared in section 3) to a single player.", as a tier 3 team the most you could offer to a single player is $36M AAS
3. In the case of Eric Thames, there's a lot going on here. First off you are not allowed to offer club options to players. The only way club options get involved in this league is if you franchise a player and they have a real life option. I could understand some of the confusion with this part because I honestly was confused too, but since Thames already had more than 150 MLB ABs before going to Korea and coming back, he was suppose to be bid on as a regular free agent; no signing bonus involved. This really isn't the biggest deal since your offer was not the winning bid, but this one I understand the confusion.
4. Hernan Perez bid was illegal in two different ways: #1: You listed the contract as 4 years, $20M but the contract breakdown had it as 4 Years, $22.5M. I would have given you a one time pass on this but then... #2 your contract just barely was illegally front-loaded by $.25M. “4. The total of salaries in the first half or the last half of the contract (in years) may not exceed 70 percent of the total contract dollars. If a contract covers an odd number of years, half of the middle year of the contract is counted in the last half of the contract.” 70% of $22.5M is $15.75M. The first two years of the contract add up to $16M. This also isn't a big deal since your offer wouldn't have been the winning bid.
Like I said, I understand that this league is very complicated and takes time to learn the rules. Don't hesitate to read up on the rules and ask any questions you have. I hope you don't take this as a slight, please feel free to PM me before you send out your next round of offers. I will make sure that your bids are legal if that would be helpful.
Thank You,
Seth (Rockies GM)"
---
After I sent that, he went to the chat box and pointed out to me the second paragraph under his initial offer for Gurriel: " If that's not the case, I guess the biggest offer anyone could give him would be $34.183M (signing bonus). If that is the case, then I'd like to offer that $34.183M signing bonus." He also then sent in another offer for Gurriel saying he offers him a $36M signing bonus which I think we clearly disregard since we have a hard no second bids policy and in this situation this is...his 3rd bid?
---
Josiah did send me an email trying to clarify the situation:
"Just decided to PM you directly to clear this up.
The first post on the rules thread says "Clarified that there is no limit to an IFA signing bonus" yet you ruled my bid illegal for exceeding a limit on signing bonuses. You also said the AAS of a contract I offered him exceeded $36M, when it was less than $14M.
Even if that first bid was declared illegal, I clearly laid out an "if that his is illegal, I offer a $34.183 M signing bonus".
Also, Thames very clearly falls under the definition of an IFA laid out in the rules. There's no clause about prior MLB experience in that definition.
The Perez bid was just a math error by me."
---
How I see the case is this: His initial bid was clearly invalid since the $79M signing bonus is way more than the 30% of cap space we're allowed to bid on one player. The question then becomes, are we going to allow that second offer he lists of $34.183M signing bonus or not?
I am completely overwhelmed by this situation and ask for help from you guys.
