Trading difficulties if in 1st

[garretterik]

If you are in first place in your league and other teams refuse to trade with you because you are in first - what can you do?
Would you:
A. Dump a top player at a position weak position that you are loaded in (like Catcher) to help your team with the WW.
B. Propose a less favorable trade to get something.
C. Hold on and refuse to budge.

10 person Yahoo league Scoring: Head to head, Max Waiver Moves:40, Max Trades:No max, Min Inns Pitch:10,
Roster Positions: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3OF, CI, MI,Util, 2SP, 2RP, 3P, 4BN, 2DL,
Stat Categories: R, HR, RBI, SB, E, AVG, W, L, SV, K, ERA, WHIP
My Roster:
C J. Varitek (Bos - C)
1B Delgado(Fl -1B)
2B Giles (Atl -2B)
3B Inge (Det - C,3B, OF)
SS Tejada (Bal -SS)
CI L Overbay (Mil - 1B)
MI CFiggins(LAA- 2B,3B,SS, OF)
OF CCrawford (TB - LF)
OF M Cameron (NYM-OF)
OF J Francoeur (Atl-OF)
Util WM Pena (Cin-OF)
BNJ Lopez (Bal - C)
BN CJones (AtL - 3B, OF)
DL T Nixon (Bos-OF)

SP P Martínez (Bos - SP)
SP J Vazquez (Ari-SP)
RP J Isringhouse (StL -RP)
RP B Looper(NYM - RP)
P C Cordero (Was - RP)
P M Mulder (StL - SP)
P A Petite (Hou - SP)
BN D Davis (Mil -SP)
BN B Penny (LAD-SP)
DL Ol Perez(Pit - SP)

[Simulacrum]

I'm in the same situation. I'm in first by... well, by quite a bit

There's lots of bustling underneath me but no one's sending me any offers or entertaining the ones I send out. I plan to just stand pat and let them tire themselves out. If your league is freezing you out, just keep up your team and coast to first. I would try to trade away Varitek or Lopez though to one of the lower place teams at a discount- maybe you could snag a low-tier closer or pitcher for one of them.

Other than that, your team looks good. I would drop Inge and play Chipper at 3b when he gets back though.

[RugbyD]

trade with teams at the bottom. people near you have reason not to trade with you. people that can't beat you have no reason not to try and improve their team to your mutual benefit.

[WharfRat]

trade with teams at the bottom. people near you have reason not to trade with you. people that can't beat you have no reason not to try and improve their team to your mutual benefit.

I find this is the case as well. My few closest competitors are definitely wary of dealing with me, even though our roster needs could be mutually filled by cooperation. It's a very close league too, and my lead is very narrow, which seems to make it worse, since they feel they can stand pat and catch me (which is completely likely). But the guys at the bottom are much more amenable.

[AT]

I haven't had trouble because of that reason. Only thing that keeps me from trading is not finding a suitable, active trade partner. If you have opposing needs you should be able to make a deal regardless of standings position except for your immediate pursuers and I even just made a deal with the 2nd place team in my H2H league.

[jzfran]

Since I got a huge lead in 2nd place (the first place team is finally really flattening out) and especially since I have begun to come closer to first place, no one has been interested in a trade. I was trying to trade either A Jones or C Lee and my best offer was C. pavano (who, just days later was dropped). No one has any interest in dealing with me, but I fear that people are getting too "comfortable" with their teams.

[BigMusky]

I am in first place and the team with everything I want is in 2nd place. I have a heavy hitting team and he has a heavy pitching team. I dont want to trade my excess hitting to him for pitching though because I have always been of the impression that good hitting is much harder to find and I dont want to help him at all. You might be in a similiar situation in your league.

[BronXBombers51]

I'm in a 3 team race (currently in 3rd place) and the other teams are getting deals done. I've won the league two years in a row though, so that's why I think people don't want to trade with me. Which sucks because they are willing to deal to the other teams, so while they improve, or think they are improving, I am pretty stuck. I don't know what to do. I've offered some deals that are ripping myself off, just to lose something I'm stacked in, like power, for some speed, but still nobody bites.

Some offers I made:

Vlad for C-Lee and Izzy

Morris and Hillenbrand for Lugo and Lawton

Vlad, B. Myers and Peralta for Abreu and Rollins

Nobody friggen' bites on these trades. It's amazing.

[rainman23]

If you are in first place in your league and other teams refuse to trade with you because you are in first - what can you do?
Would you:
A. Dump a top player at a position weak position that you are loaded in (like Catcher) to help your team with the WW.
B. Propose a less favorable trade to get something.
C. Hold on and refuse to budge.

Option B is the most sensible option here. The only time A.) might make sense is if you've got the 2nd waiver position, and someone you really covet us is on the other way. Stubbornly refusing to budge at all isn't a good answer either. If a trade will help you, and you have to overpay a little bit, sometimes that makes sense. Obviously you don't want to overpay just for the sake of making a deal, though.

[Pedantic]

If a team is far enough ahead of all teams, they might think about trading for the future, which could mean trading expensive talent for cheaper keepers. That is what happened in one of my leagues -- to my benefit, I might add.