The trading deadline has passed in MLB, but that often doesn’t stop the trading from happening in fantasy baseball. In fact, from my experience, the trading deadline in MLB is the last day of July, but in many fantasy baseball leagues, you can make trades right up until the last day of August. ESPN’s Standard Leagues allow trading through August 8. After that, all you can do is move players up and down from your minor league squads.
Many leagues allow for teams to return some or all of its players for the following season. So, just like in real baseball, the contenders might be willing to trade a part-time player or Triple-A up-and-comer for a grizzled veteran that can help you win NOW. Do I hear Derek Jeter’s name being mentioned as trade bait in your league?
One of the things that concerns many leagues, however, is lop-sided deals. At this point, if your team is out of the running this seaon, what is to stop you from trading nearly all of your top players for Cubs’ farmhand Kris Bryant who will top 40 home runs and possibly be minor league player of the year for 2014?
Often, if a trade is too lop-sided, the league votes on it or the commissioner must step in and make a ruling on the trade itself. This puts the commissioner in a very bad situation to have to rule on the viability of a trade. That’s why you need to have well written rules to prevent such shenanigans from the teams in the cellar. My favorite way of writing rules is to pay out for every place so there’s actually a financial incentive to want to stay in 7th place over dropping into 9th late in the season. That way, a manager might be tempted to stay all-in during the last two months of the fantasy baseball season instead of trying to move his attention to the best online casino games that he comes into contact with in September.
