The Google Spreadsheet

[Pirates GM (Hollar)]

The spreadsheet has been officially locked for editing. From here on out I will be handling updating it as teams make roster moves. This will allow the league to have an official record of the contracts on a team, making roster and salary cap checks significantly easier. Hopefully it will not make my life too much harder. If you believe there is an issue with your team's spreadsheet, please let me know so I can look into it. All teams still have the ability to view the spreadsheet.

In addition, I will be making two changes to the spreadsheet that I stole from various team's pages while I was doing the recent spreadsheet checks/updates (If you were one of these teams, thanks for the intellectual property). Any contract signing a player for a specific length of time is being marked with a red 'FA' in the year after the last year the player is signed for. This will make it easier to separate the expiring contracts from the players who are still under team protection. Secondly, I will be changing the releases section to simply display the contract the player was signed to. The formula at the bottom of the sheet will then divide this by two. This will making checking the salary owed for released players easier, and involve less math. Win. Players released and then signed by other teams will have their salaries properly adjusted. Click on the proper box if you want to see the formula that is involved. Again, let me know if you believe there is an error, or if you just have a question.

Finally, if I go on a three-week meth jag or something and am not replying to your frantic entreaties to update your spreadsheet, there are other people who have the ability to do so. PB, Mac and Pat also have the edit capability. Contact me first though, as none of them were masochistic enough to ask to do this. In return, I promise to try to not do meth, though of course there are situations where this is difficult (Living in Indiana, for example).

I also promise to try not to move to Indiana.

[Pirates GM (Hollar)]

Two things: First, released player salaries. The rules state that when a player is released, the team is responsible for half of his salary in each year unless he signs a new contract with an AAS greater than the AAS cap penalty of the old contract, in which case the cap penalty is reduced to zero for the years covered by the new contract. I will be treating released players this way. If you have questions or information to the contrary, please let me know. This is taken from the Free Agency post in the league rules, which may be found here pbfantasybaseball.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=officialrules&action=display&thread=6, under the heading 'Releasing a Player to Free Agency'.

Secondly, if you're interested in playing along at home and are wondering what the occasional colored spreadsheet square means, I have cracked my own code. It's going as follows:

Yellow is a contract that has been adjusted. Usually this is simply matching a protected player's salary to Cot's.
Ridiculously neon green is simply for corrected spelling errors. Please check the spelling on your team page for thoroughness' sake.
Red is for a contract (Or contract year) that I cannot find a record of existing.

The proper scale of the spreadsheet is that 1 inch equals one nautical mile.

[Deleted]

May 27, 2013 10:30:59 GMT -8 Pirates GM (Hollar) said:

Two things: First, released player salaries. The rules state that when a player is released, the team is responsible for half of his salary in each year unless he signs a new contract with an AAS greater than the AAS cap penalty of the old contract, in which case the cap penalty is reduced to zero for the years covered by the new contract. I will be treating released players this way. If you have questions or information to the contrary, please let me know. This is taken from the Free Agency post in the league rules, which may be found here pbfantasybaseball.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=officialrules&action=display&thread=6, under the heading 'Releasing a Player to Free Agency'.

Secondly, if you're interested in playing along at home and are wondering what the occasional colored spreadsheet square means, I have cracked my own code. It's going as follows:

Yellow is a contract that has been adjusted. Usually this is simply matching a protected player's salary to Cot's.
Ridiculously neon green is simply for corrected spelling errors. Please check the spelling on your team page for thoroughness' sake.
Red is for a contract (Or contract year) that I cannot find a record of existing.

The proper scale of the spreadsheet is that 1 inch equals one nautical mile.

Awesome stuff. This is something that will help the league survive long-term.

One thought on reduced obligations to released players. If a players signs a new contract for less than the original, shouldn't the money owed be: (old contract - new contract) / 2

Maybe something to consider for next year, as it's not explicitly in the rules.

[Pirates GM (Hollar)]

My concern with this proposal is that, as the person primarily responsible for keeping track of these things, checking up on this would be an enormous pain in the ass unless each team was watching for it for their own players and then notifying me, which seems unreasonable to expect.

[Deleted]

Jun 5, 2013 20:06:43 GMT -8 Pirates GM (Hollar) said:

My concern with this proposal is that, as the person primarily responsible for keeping track of these things, checking up on this would be an enormous pain in the ass unless each team was watching for it for their own players and then notifying me, which seems unreasonable to expect.

I don't know. If they want the money back, they can let you know you about it. That's how we do it in another league. We have a subforum where people post when they're getting cash back.

[Reds GM (Pat H.)]

I had talked to PB earlier about the rule concerning the signing of released players and how it affects money owed. Here it is:

Just want to go over the continued responsibility could be negated in full or reduced.

On the chat box now there was discussion of Pettite. He was originally signed for 6.2M. So the team that released him owed half which would be 3.1M. He got signed to a new deal by another team for 4.6M. So as I see it, that means the original team no longer owes anything for that year. Is this correct? Yes.

If he were to be signed for say 2.1M, then the original team would have the amount reduced to 1.0M. Is this correct? Yes

If the same team that owed the released player were to resign him, in regards to owing half, does the new contract have to be higher in AAS to the amount still owed; or higher in AAS to the original contract? As far as re-signing the player, I think that's worth re-discussing. I think that the new deal has to exceed the original AAS to void money owed, and if it's less, it doesn't take away money owed.


I was going to rewrite the clarifications into the rules, but haven't found time yet.

[Pirates GM (Hollar)]

If he were to be signed for say 2.1M, then the original team would have the amount reduced to 1.0M. Is this correct? Yes.

Is this somewhere in the amendments? From what I could find, the rules specifically say this is not the case.

[Reds GM (Pat H.)]

In Official rules under the Free Agency thread it states:

Releasing a Player to Free Agency


A GM has the right to waive any player to free agency. To waive a player and drop him to free agency, you must post the player's name that you are releasing in a new thread in the board titled "Player Releases". This will make permanent the decision to waive a player to free agency. Once posted, there is no turning back. A GM will still be responsible for half of that player’s salary for the duration of the contract UNLESS that player is signed to a contract by another franchise, in which case, continued responsibility for that player's salary could be negated in full or reduced. If the players new contracts AAS is equal or higher then the previous contract (amount owed after the release), then your responsibility will be negated in full and that player will no longer count against your salary cap. If the AAS is lower, then you will still be responsible to pay half of that player's salary over the life of the previous contract. If said player remains unsigned, you must continue to count half of that player's salary against your cap until his contract expires.

This is not very easy to understand, and it should not be based on AAS, but actual pay per year. We don't want to have to track both the AAS and yearly breakdown for old contracts. It is something that needed clarified and that is why PB and I were discussing it. We will probably need to better define it this offseason.

[Nationals GM (Preston - Old)]

Jun 6, 2013 5:05:36 GMT -8 Pirates GM (Hollar) said:

If he were to be signed for say 2.1M, then the original team would have the amount reduced to 1.0M. Is this correct? Yes.

Is this somewhere in the amendments? From what I could find, the rules specifically say this is not the case.

Reds are correct. I was personally confused with what he said at first thinking it was a different example, but in the Pettitte example in which he would owe $3.1M for the release and then there is a signing of $2.1M, that $2.1M is deducted from the $3.1M for $1.0M.

[Pirates GM (Hollar)]

Wait, that's exactly what I was referencing. That quoted piece of the rules specifically states that if a player is re-signed for less than half the AAV of the old contract, no rebate is given. Am I missing something here? PB, the rules don't seem to have any wording to support your post. More specifically, this

If the AAS is lower, then you will still be responsible to pay half of that player's salary over the life of the previous contract. If said player remains unsigned, you must continue to count half of that player's salary against your cap until his contract expires.

states explicitly that what you're saying is incorrect.