Maximum Years/AAS for Initial FA offers

[Commish Emeritus (Scott)]

Just emailed this to the league...

Guys,
This is not in the rules but I kind of figured most of you would follow my lead, and most of you have. I really did not want huge initial offers on the board when a player is first posted, at least not at the very beginning of our bidding draft.

My hope is that all players would receive an initial offer somewhere in the $550K or $1M AAS range, maybe even a little higher. Then pretty much every owner has a chance to at least get in on the bidding action to begin. Yes some of these players are going to get way up there and will land huge contracts, but I don't want that to happen right out of the gate.

I've been in some leagues where the initial offer must be $1 year, $1M or something like that. I didn't want to make a rule to dictate what these need to be, but to me for our fantasy purposes I don't feel an initial offer of 1 year, $15M or 6 years, $100+M is how we should start things.
Am I wrong? I'm going to post this on the board too so if you want to discuss further, please feel free to do so. I appreciate all of your input.
Thanks,
Scott

[Cleveland Braves (Drew)]

From my perspective (as an owner, not necessarily commissioner), I would rather know sooner rather than later if someone else is going to make a giant offer to a free agent. At that point I can determine whether to move on to someone else, similar to what happens in real life free agency. I am ok starting with larger offers. If you don't have the money, you won't have it later either. At least you know ahead of time this way.

[Deleted]

Not sure it really matters. Once free agency opens up were free to offer any contract we want to these players so the price will rise then anyway. If there was say a .5 million limit on what you could raise a previous offer, that might make it work. But it will also take a lot longer for free agency to finish. Just my two cents.

[Miami Rays (Michael)]

It doesn't bother me either way, but if you want to limit it we should make a rule. Otherwise a high or low offer is a strategic decision, just like choice of players. If someone wants to try to scare off bids for a particular player, that's OK by me if it's within the rules. I could see doing it right out of the chute, or later in the auction when money gets scarce and you want to deplete an opponent's coffers. Auctions take on a life of their own. But if you want to limit the opening bid, that's fine too. Would you limit subsequent bids?

[Deleted]

I'm kind of on the fence. I've looked over the free agents, looked at my needs and available money and tried to come up with a plan of who I would pursue. I'm ok with being more aggressive on the guys I want. At the same I understand the lower bidding initially on free agents.

[Deleted]

I'm on the side that votes you may bid any amount anytime, gets all the non-interested out of the way, saves time and possibly allows another teams to way over pay for a player which in turn eats their salary and helps the other 14 teams. For the record I'm also fine at playing small ball too.

[Commish Emeritus (Scott)]

Thanks for all the comments guys. Really good points by all of you. Since there is enough response here to warrant leaving things as they are with no rule on a maximum amount for an initial bid, I'm keeping current offers and not changing anything.

I will email the league tonight when the offers are opened and able to be raised. I'll likely have to post a bump on each one to begin the 12-hour clock. Good luck and have fun!