2015 RULES: Free Agency (Anonymous Bidding)

[Goodell]

In 2013 we implemented anonymous bidding per popular support for that change. We'll look at a couple free agency process elements this off-season before starting up free agency again. First, now that we've had some time with it do you want to continue with anonymous bidding? One reason it was implemented was to limit teams from just following what another smarter GM was doing if you knew who was placing a bid on a particular player. It arguably adds more strategy elements where teams plans aren't publicly broadcast with first bid, but just known once signings happen. Some elements of realism in that also as teams don't have to let the public and all other teams know who they are trying to sign if they don't want. It also focused teams to do what was best for them instead of focusing on what another team(s) were doing specifically.

Some comments that with anonymous bidding perhaps some teams might act differently in secret than if they knew everyone knows who is acting in ways that irritate others in the process. Some may also think it's better for competition to know what another rival is doing.

The league default would be to keep anonymous bidding unless strong support otherwise to change back.

[chiefbrody]

I liked the element that it added to FA last season.

[Ben C.]

I like this, but it might be nice to add a random chance of a bid being revealed or "leaked to the press." Certainly not a priority revision, but could be a fun little tweak to add a little realism.

[stevebarrett24]

I Never did it this way, but it seems to me you go after the guys you want and it shouldn't matter who else is going after them so why would you need to know which specific team is going after a player.

[Jared A]

The entire thing is that we can only bid on 5 players at a time, and players sign after only 24 hours. Those aren't real life rules. So, allowing us to bid on players that will be "steals" allows us to prevent some unrealistic contracts.

[Goodell]

The entire thing is that we can only bid on 5 players at a time, and players sign after only 24 hours. Those aren't real life rules. So, allowing us to bid on players that will be "steals" allows us to prevent some unrealistic contracts.

Yeah, I'm all about the system being setup to result in the fairest and best prices overall. So I'm personally good with guys getting an extra bid and keeping them alive before they get signed to what most would view as an under-market steal of a deal. Good prices overall means system working well to me. Mostly either steals or way over-pays to me would mean some tweaking needed to get better overall results.

No, the 5 bids per day and 24 hours aren't real life rules -- just because we don't have real life players. No real agents. No real players as people to make decisions. No real money. We have to have some guidelines there to artificially SIMULATE real situations. On a computer here, people could click on 53 players one after another and sign a whole team on their screen virtually quick. That's not what happens in reality, though, with real people and those negotiations taking real time. In reality, most of the time teams have to PRIORITIZE their plans around a handful of targets at a time, right? Teams don't go out in reality and focus everything on 25 players all at once to my knowledge. As I view it, they tend to get a game plan around a first wave of a handful of players they have the most interest in. Then they re-group around a next wave of a handful of next batch of players to target depending upon how that first efforts went.

Since we don't have real players and real agents, need some means of a decision being made on the players behalf. Open to different ways to do that, but seemed fairly common sense way when we started was that when the bidding dried up and nobody was willing to bid any higher after a reasonable amount of time that would trigger a decision for the player if a day goes by and no other counter offers given to the player.

So while those aren't real rules, their intent is to simulate realistic situations as much as we can for a simulation league.

[C_dubb]

I like this, but it might be nice to add a random chance of a bid being revealed or "leaked to the press." Certainly not a priority revision, but could be a fun little tweak to add a little realism.

I agree anonymous bidding in FA is better for several reasons, including making the process feel a little more realistic - which is why I also like Ben's idea about having there be a % chance that bids are "leaked". (Just off the top of my head I would think somewhere between a 5-25% chance of each bid being leaked would add another small but interesting element to Free Agency).

[larry linke]

As I just posted in another poll having a GM attach his name to a bid would alleviate a lot of the concerns people have regarding last minute or other actions that some GM's don't like. I never understood why we went anonymous. In real life I would think that an agent would tell a team that so and so is willing to go three years or "x" amount of dollars. There is very little that is secret in real life.

I see no purpose in some bids "being leaked tothe press" and some not. I think that is a leaky can of worms that serves no purpose.

Larry
Minnesota AFFL

[RebelFan]

having a GM attach his name to a bid would alleviate a lot of the concerns people have regarding last minute or other actions that some GM's don't like.

I disagree with this Larry. I place last minute bids all the time and I don't give a hoot in hell if anybody knows it or calls me out for it. We only get 5 bids per 24 hours, sometimes in the early going, I'll be using those bids again just as soon as the 24 hours expires. I hate it for those GMs who have their fragile hopes & expectations crushed by a last minute re-up of their bid, but that's how the system works. And within that framework they have the right to rebid as soon as they have a bid available. Each league has 32 different GMs from all kinds of different time zones, hell, we've got one guy in Africa I believe, so not everyone is going to be working within the same schedule. The 5 bids & 24 hour clock is a brilliant solution that makes it fair for anyone, no matter what their schedule.
The reason anonymous bidding was implemented and the reason it has been so popular is because it eliminated the ability for one GM to mess with another GM by driving up the prices. Division rivalries, payback for bidding on each other players, personal vendettas, keeping rivals from signing guys cheaply. These are all moot points and things of the past now because with anonymous bidding you can't tell who the hell is bidding on who.
It was a great and needed change and I'm glad that it has received widespread support.

[Onyxgem]

having a GM attach his name to a bid would alleviate a lot of the concerns people have regarding last minute or other actions that some GM's don't like.

I disagree with this Larry. I place last minute bids all the time and I don't give a hoot in hell if anybody knows it or calls me out for it. We only get 5 bids per 24 hours, sometimes in the early going, I'll be using those bids again just as soon as the 24 hours expires. I hate it for those GMs who have their fragile hopes & expectations crushed by a last minute re-up of their bid, but that's how the system works. And within that framework they have the right to rebid as soon as they have a bid available. Each league has 32 different GMs from all kinds of different time zones, hell, we've got one guy in Africa I believe, so not everyone is going to be working within the same schedule. The 5 bids & 24 hour clock is a brilliant solution that makes it fair for anyone, no matter what their schedule.
The reason anonymous bidding was implemented and the reason it has been so popular is because it eliminated the ability for one GM to mess with another GM by driving up the prices. Division rivalries, payback for bidding on each other players, personal vendettas, keeping rivals from signing guys cheaply. These are all moot points and things of the past now because with anonymous bidding you can't tell who the hell is bidding on who.
It was a great and needed change and I'm glad that it has received widespread support.

Yet it still happens all the time, so it would be best to put a name to that bid so everybody can see the people who wait till last second to bid even if they don't really want the player they are doing it for one reason only and that is to drive up that bid.