Offseason keeper trading help

[Team Updog]

I have a 14 team 5x5 H2H keeper league that needs some help developing a rule for offseason keeper trading.

First thing to note is that our league is nearly divided in two with experienced and competitive GMs vs. new and "green" GMs.

Most of our rules are easy to follow, in order to accomodate the different skill levels. Right now we are set up to keep 2 players from your previous year's roster. Keepers may be kept 3 times. Every time you declare your keepers prior to draft day, counts as one of those times.

Now, some people want to set up offseason keeper trading. The biggest debate being over if you can trade a keeper that you can't keep anymore in the offseason prior to the draft. Dealing a keeper you can't keep for another top-end player seems to be like getting something for nothing to some of our GMs.

So, what kind of rules do you guys use in your leagues for offseason trading?
What would you recommend we do, to keep it simple (for the lesser GMs) and still fun (for the advanced GMs)?

[SumG]

I think that players that are traded should be under the same 'contract' they were under before the trade. So, for example, if Player A was traded for Player B and Player A had been kept twice prior to this season, then Player A could only be kept for this season. After that he would have to be dropped. Otherwise I think you'd get some fishy deals.

Personally, I don't like the whole 'player can only be kept x times' rule. I much prefer either 'keep anyone you want as long as you want' or even better 'keep anyone in the round you drafted them plus x rounds'.

[bigmck]

From your message it appears you do not used salaries. Salaries makes the Keeper thing alot easier. == If a player is traded, he should continue to take the number of Keeper Years with him. This is all you need to do.

[Team Updog]

Thanks guys.

Salaries and keeper rules dealing with draft round would make things easier fto handle or the better GMs. Unfortunately, there is the constant concern with keeping things simple enough for the lesser GMs.

Having the "contract" transfer with the deal makes sense. It would be easy to track, too.

What about offseason trading?
I can see how it makes sense in a normal keeper league because they traditionally keep a good sized group of players. The larger keeper pool opens up some interesting quantity for quality deals and helps teams get ready for the coming season.
In our league with only two keepers, I'm not sure if it works.
How does your league go about offseason trading? How should our league go about it?

[bigmck]

We have Off-Season trading starting in January. There are never more than two or three trades, so it is not that big a deal. Just use the same rules for Off Season as you do during the year and you should be good.

[neoforce]

I agree with Big Mack.

With only 2 keepers, I suspect very few off season trades. The only thing that makes sense is if I have One Super Stud, and the other guy has 3 "regular" studs. He can only keep 2 of them, so he trades you two for your Super Stud.

Might get a bit more interesting if you also could trade draft picks. So now the guy with 3 studs trades one of them for a second round pick, or something like that.