Talking Trade

[Arlo]

With more than a month's worth of games played already, fantasy owners can start to gauge where their teams stand, where their strengths are, and where they need to plug holes in order to compete. With many waiver wire looking pretty barren, the best way to improve your team is often by swinging a deal or two. In the latest installment of Point of View, Chris Weber looks at various types of
trades that can help a fantasy team, and we look forward to hearing about tradiong techniques that have worked for you!

[ramble2]

Great article Chris!

Trades are probably my favorite part of fantasy baseball. If I'm in a league that is trade friendly, it doesn't really matter that much where I end up in the standings. I almost care more about whether I made good trades (almost... ).

A couple of other thoughts on trades:

Don't be afraid to trade a big name or two, or three.

The best trades tend to be the ones that work out well for both parties. Others in the league will notice this and be more likely to trade with you in the future.

If you are in a keeper league, try offering future draft picks, or dollars, or whatever other currency is available in your league. It adds some complexity to a trade, and can help out a team that is in desperate need of rebuilding. At the beginning of this year, I traded Juan Pierre for Vernon Wells. A rider to this trade was that if either player ended up ranked 50 or more places higher than the other in the final Yahoo rankings, that the owner of the better player had to compensate the other owner with a 15th round draft pick. Plus, every 25 spots higher than 50 in the final rankings constitutes one higher round draft pick. So, right now Wells is ranked 11th by Yahoo, and Pierre 86th. That's a 75 place differential, meaning next year the Pierre owner would get my 14th draft pick. I know it's overly complex and roto-nerdy, but hey, isn't that why we play the game?

[fbbgeek]

I get frustrated when no one in my league wants to trade. I see so many opportunities but everyone is so darn lazy.