Questions about Keepers and pre-draft Trading

[princethomas]

We have a keeper league starting its second year. We keep 4 players. We are on ESPN as a keeper league, so all of our teams still have their complete rosters from last year. We were just in the process of determining a date by which keepers must be declared and all the others go into the FA draft pool.

Now one of my Managers is offering Joe Mauer for a 5th round draft pick. Because trading draft picks is allowed. But I looked at his team and realized that Joe Mauer is probably the 5th best player on his team and he is looking to trade someone of value that he won't be able to keep. Suddenly, Im not sure if this is the right way to be doing this or not.

Is this ok?

-Tom

[Curtis Pride]

It is Ok. My league typically has the deadline of locking in keepers 1 week before the draft.

If the guy was able to amass such team talent that his 5th and 6th best keepers are better than the 3rd and 4th best keepers on other teams, then there's no reason why he shouldn't be able to trade them for value.

[princethomas]

Yeah, he won our league. I was just worried about someone selling off talent cheap. But i guess we can still veto anything that seems wrong. Mauer for a 5th rounder is reasonable.

Thanks for the help.

-T

[BoBtheMule]

in the gap where trading is allowed and the keeper date isn't set... talent tends to sell below value. Just part of the market system as the more talented teams try and get something of value for their extra guys and normally the weaker teams will do some deals that are advantageous to their roster. Though a lot of owners tend to forget they need to factor in the cost of cutting their 5th best player into the trade discussion.

[RDD15]

We have a keeper league starting its second year. We keep 4 players. We are on ESPN as a keeper league, so all of our teams still have their complete rosters from last year. We were just in the process of determining a date by which keepers must be declared and all the others go into the FA draft pool.

Now one of my Managers is offering Joe Mauer for a 5th round draft pick. Because trading draft picks is allowed. But I looked at his team and realized that Joe Mauer is probably the 5th best player on his team and he is looking to trade someone of value that he won't be able to keep. Suddenly, Im not sure if this is the right way to be doing this or not.

Is this ok?

-Tom

Of course this is ok. These types of deals can benefit both teams, so where is the problem? It encourages year-round participation and keeps interest high.

[talan37]

This isn't too bad, as long as the team Mauer goes to actually keeps him. Your always going to get this fire sale mentality because people figure getting anything for someone they aren't keeping is better than nothing. However I do think you need to ensure that the pick given is at least somewhat close to the player being given up. You also need to realize that this is basically also a 9th round pick, not actually a 5th round pick, so while this isn't great value for Mauer, its not that terrible either.

[Rich Greene]

I don't allow any team to trade any player they are not keeping (we keep 10). My opinion is part of limiting keepers is to add parity to the league each off season. A few of my owners fought me on it in the first few years (we're entering 8th season now), but I explained it as if you were a real team and only had enough money to sign 10 guys you wouldn't be able to sign an 11th and trade him.

This rule also seems to add more action during the in season trade deadline, as teams are often left with decisions weighing the value of receiving something for a player they wont be able keep against (if they're in the playoff hunt) going for it all. I just think that's more life like.