Change to Contract Rules
Dec 4, 2017 21:15:02 GMT -5
Texas Rangers, Sean_RedsGM, and 3 more like this
Post by Commish_Ron on Dec 4, 2017 21:15:02 GMT -5
I am going to enact my first executive decision. I promise not to make a habit out of this but this one is really about streamlining administration of the league. The less time that needs to be spent on manual administration the more time that can be spent increasing general league awesomeness . Apologies for the verbosity of this post.
I bet the title of this post made 1/2 of you groan. "Changes again? You have to be a damn PBL scholar to keep track!" I know I know. But bear with me here.
StatsPlus has a very cool feature that I can use to quickly and easily identify all contracts that are out of compliance. That is how I identified the contracts mentioned here:
paramountbaseball.proboards.com/thread/11811/out-compliance-contracts?page=1
Most of our rules can be configured in this tool. A few cannot. I do like our rules as they are and believe they are effective and fair. But I also REALLY like automation. It is worth the sacrifice of some of the effectiveness to alter the rules so that administering contracts can be fully automated. As a further bonus all of the changes remove complexity. The rules will now be even more easily understood than they were before.
With that in mind. These changes will be applied immediately. I will be happy to debate proposed tweaks for next off season.(Complete rules rewrite is posted below if you want to skip the detail and just view the final result).
1. Remove the two arbitration hearings requirement for signing multi year extensions. The only requirement for signing a multi year extension will be completing four years of major league service. Ideally I would like to make this five years but that complicates players that qualify for super two arbitration. If we force five years teams would not have an opportunity to multi year extend super two players until the other option is losing them to Free Agency. So four it is.
2. Remove the requirement of waiting until the off season begins before signing players to a one year extension to avoid arbitration.
3. Remove the under $10M exemption for if any year in the contract can be more than double another year. Now no year can be more than double any other year for any and all contracts.
4. Previously, the value of all incentives was not allowed to exceed 25% of the lowest annual salary. This has to be modified to not exceed 25% of the average of the annual salaries.
5. Innings Pitched incentives based on endurance cannot be regulated. So the only innings pitched restriction is they cannot exceed 180. I realize this opens a window for abuse but what can I say. Ease and automation outweighs this for me. This kind of goes under the don't be a dick category. If you are going to be that guy that gives your lefty specialist a bonus for 150 Innings Pitched well then, bully for you. Hope that wins you a title . Additionally bonuses are assumed to be paid in your budget forecasting. So all you are doing is hurting your buying power through the season and getting a cash refund at the end.
6. The only penalty for out of compliance contracts due to incentives and buyouts is they will be altered to be brought into compliance (incentive targets reduced or buyouts raised). This is a penalty. It follows that contracts will have to have more money in the salary if they are short on buyouts. In other words with a higher buyout you should have been able to have less salary given. The same goes for overshooting incentive targets. So if you skip the buyout the contract will be flagged and adjusted. You did not hurt anyone but yourself. Warning, repeated violations WILL make you subject to snarky and possibly derisive private messages from the commissioner.
7. Other penalties. Any contract type that contains any kind of option outside of a team option after a team option WILL result in all option years being converted to guaranteed. i.e. Team Option/Player Option or Team Option/Vesting Option. Both of those structures will result in two guaranteed years. Any contract that has a year over double any other year will be voided.
New Rules Here
I think you will all find these much simpler and easy to comply with. I always encourage private messages or posts to the league in general when in doubt. Hit me up with any questions or concerns about these changes.
Contracts and Extensions
* Any player under team control that has completed 4 years of major league service time is eligible for a multi-year PBL contract extension. A one-year contract, strictly to avoid arbitration may be offered at any time.
* No yearly value can be more than double any other yearly value throughout the lifetime of the contract.
Team Option Years
* Any team option year must have a buyout equal to at least 25% of the highest year of the contract, whether that year is an option or guaranteed year.
* Only a second team option year may follow a team option year (in other words, no other kinds of options or opt-out).
Incentive Clauses
The TOTAL value of ALL incentives must not exceed 25% of the average annual contract offered to the player.
An example is that if a player is offered a three-year contract of $7M, $8M and $9M dollars then the incentives cannot total more than $2M i.e. ((Total Value of Contract)/Number of Years)/4 or ((7+8+9)/3)/4 = 2
For both incentives and vesting options, the following rules also apply:
No vesting option can be triggered based on the number of At-Bats of a pitcher
or Innings Pitched of a hitter.
No incentive clauses can be given for At-Bats of a pitcher or Innings Pitched of a hitter.
Amount of At-Bats must be 550 or less
Innings pitched must be 180 or less
Penalties for Illegal Contracts
Illegal contracts involving team options followed player options, vesting options or opt outs will be converted into all years being guaranteed.
Illegal contracts with any years more than double any other years will be voided.
Illegal contracts because of buyouts or incentives will have buyouts increased or incentives decreased as required to bring the contract into compliance.
I bet the title of this post made 1/2 of you groan. "Changes again? You have to be a damn PBL scholar to keep track!" I know I know. But bear with me here.
StatsPlus has a very cool feature that I can use to quickly and easily identify all contracts that are out of compliance. That is how I identified the contracts mentioned here:
paramountbaseball.proboards.com/thread/11811/out-compliance-contracts?page=1
Most of our rules can be configured in this tool. A few cannot. I do like our rules as they are and believe they are effective and fair. But I also REALLY like automation. It is worth the sacrifice of some of the effectiveness to alter the rules so that administering contracts can be fully automated. As a further bonus all of the changes remove complexity. The rules will now be even more easily understood than they were before.
With that in mind. These changes will be applied immediately. I will be happy to debate proposed tweaks for next off season.(Complete rules rewrite is posted below if you want to skip the detail and just view the final result).
1. Remove the two arbitration hearings requirement for signing multi year extensions. The only requirement for signing a multi year extension will be completing four years of major league service. Ideally I would like to make this five years but that complicates players that qualify for super two arbitration. If we force five years teams would not have an opportunity to multi year extend super two players until the other option is losing them to Free Agency. So four it is.
2. Remove the requirement of waiting until the off season begins before signing players to a one year extension to avoid arbitration.
3. Remove the under $10M exemption for if any year in the contract can be more than double another year. Now no year can be more than double any other year for any and all contracts.
4. Previously, the value of all incentives was not allowed to exceed 25% of the lowest annual salary. This has to be modified to not exceed 25% of the average of the annual salaries.
5. Innings Pitched incentives based on endurance cannot be regulated. So the only innings pitched restriction is they cannot exceed 180. I realize this opens a window for abuse but what can I say. Ease and automation outweighs this for me. This kind of goes under the don't be a dick category. If you are going to be that guy that gives your lefty specialist a bonus for 150 Innings Pitched well then, bully for you. Hope that wins you a title . Additionally bonuses are assumed to be paid in your budget forecasting. So all you are doing is hurting your buying power through the season and getting a cash refund at the end.
6. The only penalty for out of compliance contracts due to incentives and buyouts is they will be altered to be brought into compliance (incentive targets reduced or buyouts raised). This is a penalty. It follows that contracts will have to have more money in the salary if they are short on buyouts. In other words with a higher buyout you should have been able to have less salary given. The same goes for overshooting incentive targets. So if you skip the buyout the contract will be flagged and adjusted. You did not hurt anyone but yourself. Warning, repeated violations WILL make you subject to snarky and possibly derisive private messages from the commissioner.
7. Other penalties. Any contract type that contains any kind of option outside of a team option after a team option WILL result in all option years being converted to guaranteed. i.e. Team Option/Player Option or Team Option/Vesting Option. Both of those structures will result in two guaranteed years. Any contract that has a year over double any other year will be voided.
New Rules Here
I think you will all find these much simpler and easy to comply with. I always encourage private messages or posts to the league in general when in doubt. Hit me up with any questions or concerns about these changes.
Contracts and Extensions
* Any player under team control that has completed 4 years of major league service time is eligible for a multi-year PBL contract extension. A one-year contract, strictly to avoid arbitration may be offered at any time.
* No yearly value can be more than double any other yearly value throughout the lifetime of the contract.
Team Option Years
* Any team option year must have a buyout equal to at least 25% of the highest year of the contract, whether that year is an option or guaranteed year.
* Only a second team option year may follow a team option year (in other words, no other kinds of options or opt-out).
Incentive Clauses
The TOTAL value of ALL incentives must not exceed 25% of the average annual contract offered to the player.
An example is that if a player is offered a three-year contract of $7M, $8M and $9M dollars then the incentives cannot total more than $2M i.e. ((Total Value of Contract)/Number of Years)/4 or ((7+8+9)/3)/4 = 2
For both incentives and vesting options, the following rules also apply:
No vesting option can be triggered based on the number of At-Bats of a pitcher
or Innings Pitched of a hitter.
No incentive clauses can be given for At-Bats of a pitcher or Innings Pitched of a hitter.
Amount of At-Bats must be 550 or less
Innings pitched must be 180 or less
Penalties for Illegal Contracts
Illegal contracts involving team options followed player options, vesting options or opt outs will be converted into all years being guaranteed.
Illegal contracts with any years more than double any other years will be voided.
Illegal contracts because of buyouts or incentives will have buyouts increased or incentives decreased as required to bring the contract into compliance.