Friday, September 01, 2006

Too early for trades??

The 2006 NFL season has yet to start, and already I have had two trade offers.

The first trade offer was a large-scale, deal-breaking, convoluted trade offer (involving 6 total players ) that I automatically rejected. I have learned the hard way that these trades usually don't bode well for me and my teams, especially early-on. Generally, trades involving more than 4 total players are not win-win situations.

The second trade offer was simple: I would get Mushin Muhammed and the other owner would get Donte Stallworth. Tempting, really, but I have a gut feeling Stallworth will do well in Philly. I'm hanging onto him for now.



However, it wasn't really the players involved that bothered me or the number of players. I think making trades before the season starts is, about 95% of the time, really stupid. I can only think of 2 exceptions to this rule:

1. You drafted a player who subsequently gets injured in a pre-season game and will be out for at least 4 regular-season weeks. You want to pawn him off on someone else who thinks he has potential later down the line.

2. Your league employs an auto-draft, and you ended up with a mix of players that is insane (3 kickers, 4 QB's, etc).

In my case, neither of the above applied. All players involved are very healthy, and our league had a live draft. One of the trade requests was submitted roughly a week after the draft. I politely rejected it, but wanted to scream "If you didn't want that player, then why the hell did you draft him?"

Making a trade request during the preseason indicates a lack of draft-day preparedness in my opinion. If in week 3 or 4, you need a player I have and Muhammed is the best you have to offer, then we can talk.

Agree or disagree? Let me know.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

2 for 1 trades can be useful. I am in a 12-team league and am trading anquan boldin and thomas jones for tiki barber. Drafting 10th, I was not able to draft barber, but by throwing away a good wide receiver (I have a ton of depth at wide receiver), I can significantly upgrade a marginal running back. As you pointed out, 1 for 1 trades are somewhat pointless unless there is a big status change on one of them, people usually shy away from trading an earlier draft pick for a later draft pick.

In a fantasy league, you should always be thinking about how you can improve your team. If you have good players that you think will be sitting on your bench but could be of value to someone else (if you are like me and drafted for value, not need in the later rounds), preseason trading can be extremely beneficial.

The Fantasy Godfather said...

Good points. Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

I do not like to make moves before Week 3 -other than plucking players from the free agent pool.

Tpyically, a Week One dud rebounds in Week 2 and vice versa.

Trades are OK but not for the sake of trading.

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