Big Problem in my league

[raygunpunx]

There is a newbie in my league that barely responds to people's emails and trade offers.

I had an offer out to him since monday of this week. I agreed to make a deal yesterday afternoon with the same player and when I went on to approve the deal the other guy had accepted the deal already.

In my league we vote on a trade before it goes through. As soon as I found this out I told the guy the situation and asked him to drop the deal. He said no and the commish agrees with him.

My problem is that we have no rules in our constitution that state that a deal can be pulled back during the voting period. How can you enforce a rule that didn't exist?

[Matthias]

There is a newbie in my league that barely responds to people's emails and trade offers.

I had an offer out to him since monday of this week. I agreed to make a deal yesterday afternoon with the same player and when I went on to approve the deal the other guy had accepted the deal already.

In my league we vote on a trade before it goes through. As soon as I found this out I told the guy the situation and asked him to drop the deal. He said no and the commish agrees with him.

My problem is that we have no rules in our constitution that state that a deal can be pulled back during the voting period. How can you enforce a rule that didn't exist?

The only relavent rule which is to be enforced is offer & acceptance. You put out an offer to him and before you withdrew it, he accepted. Tough cookies.

[BronXBombers51]

If you didn't want the trade, you shouldn't have offered it. It sucks that you changed your mind, but that's the way it goes. Don't propose a trade unless you're 100% certain that you want it to be accepted.

[Eagle Baseball]

You need to clarify what you are talking about for me. Are you talking two seperate deals? One offered last monday and another offered more recently?

In my league most managers withdraw a trade offer if it has not been accepted within a couple of days. When you started talking about a second deal I would have withdrawn the first to save yourself this problem.

ps I think I agree with your commish. You made an offer. You did not pull back the offer. The other manager accepted the offer. Seems like you have a trade to me.

[ukrneal]

I don't understand. You wanted to make the deal and it was accepted. What have I missed?

If a deal you offered was accepted, I can see no reason why it should be recinded. If you made a different deal in the meantime, but this was still outstanding and not withdrawn, I see no reason to annul it barring a vote by the league or such, which determines that this was collusion (or something similar).

[byfrcp]

How can you enforce a rule that didn't exist?

Ummm . . . why don't you think about that one for a couple of seconds . . .

[Matthias]

I think what he's talking about is the following. (Actual players I have no idea, but they're names).

He's Team A.

He offers newbie, Team B, Alex Rodriguez for Albert Pujols. And sends an official offer out via the website.

Team B doesn't respond. Offer just sits there.

Later in the week, Team A emails Team C and says, he'd give him Alex Rodriguez for David Wright (or whatever). Team C agrees.

Team A goes to accept the deal Alex Rodriguez for David Wright only to find that he no longer owns Alex Rodriguez as Team B has accepted the outstanding offer.

Now the Rodriguez/Pujols deal is accepted and pending league approval. He wants the league to kill the deal on the grounds that he wants to trade Rodriguez instead for Wright.

But IMHO he can't. The fact that Team A left the offer sitting there for six days is his problem, not the league's.

That's my read on it, anyhow.

Incidentally, in contract law this is governed by what is known as The Mailbox Rule. An offer is available to be accepted until revocation is communicated to the party who was offered the deal. And applying the Mailbox Rule, the original poster also loses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mailbox_rule

[ukrneal]

I think what he's talking about is the following. (Actual players I have no idea, but they're names).

He's Team A.

He offers newbie, Team B, Alex Rodriguez for Albert Pujols. And sends an official offer out via the website.

Team B doesn't respond. Offer just sits there.

Later in the week, Team A emails Team C and says, he'd give him Alex Rodriguez for David Wright (or whatever). Team C agrees.

Team A goes to accept the deal Alex Rodriguez for David Wright only to find that he no longer owns Alex Rodriguez as Team B has accepted the outstanding offer.

Now the Rodriguez/Pujols deal is accepted and pending league approval. He wants the league to kill the deal on the grounds that he wants to trade Rodriguez instead for Wright.

But IMHO he can't. The fact that Team A left the offer sitting there for six days is his problem, not the league's.

That's my read on it, anyhow.

If your interpretation is right, I agree.

[raygunpunx]

The point is is that a trade dosen't become official until the commisioner process it. He has not done that yet. Why shouldn't I be able to pull this deal back??

[Matthias]

I think most people here would agree that there's a difference between when a deal is official and when a deal is sealed. Once both parties have agreed (and not some mistake that involves Allen Pujols or whatever), the deal is sealed. It still has to go through a procedual review to make sure that there's no collusion or what not, but you're putting it out of your hands.

Similar discussions have come up where two managers agree to a trade and it's pending league approval and then one of them gets injured. And the consensus is that the injury risk falls onto the manager who is getting the player since he's their player, for better or worse.