Trading future considerations in keeper leagues ...

[quietstorm]

How much money is involved in the league? If it's significant at all, you'll wait to avoid long-term trades, or people will dump all their future draft picks for a few years of glory, then ditch the league with cash in the pocket and having experienced no loss. (And what happens to the draft pick, then? Does the new team in the league inheret the team of the guy who left? Do extra draft picks just get insterted in the years involved?)

It's not a money league. We're all friends and play for pride. I'm not worried about people ditching on the league, as we're a committed bunch.

Then I see no problem with future considerations being traded; just put a reasonable cap on it, simply so it's easier to track, and to avoid any serious problems with somebody leaving before their draft picks have been used. (Even if you're committed, nobody knows if they'll still be playing in 2020 .)

[JTWood]

Let 'em trade future picks away. The catch? You have to have paid your membership for that year before you can trade any picks. So, the guy who wants to trade the 2020 pick will need to give you 15 years worth of league fees before he can make that trade.

[ramble2]

Let 'em trade future picks away. The catch? You have to have paid your membership for that year before you can trade any picks. So, the guy who wants to trade the 2020 pick will need to give you 15 years worth of league fees before he can make that trade.

That's brilliant!

It certainly would make the bookkeeping more palatable.

[red]

I'm in several keeper leagues similar to that, and we also have a contract system in one of them. Yes, we allow trades beyond the current year (I just traded for a 2006 1st and second round pick in football-- not baseball but similar situation); I think the litmus test on this should be forseeable value. I know what a 2006 1st and 2nd round pick is: it is very difficult to know what a 10th rounder in 2010 or 1020 is going to be; or even if there's going to be a league.
If I was in your shoes, I wouldn't mind trading the far-future picks: but maybe only the first few rounds. Make it hurt. then people won't take advantage of it and think they're getting something for nothing.