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One of the toughest parts of being the
chick in the pool is making trades. Face it, some GMs won’t make you
any trade offers because they don’t think you know enough to be a
worthy trading partner, and, others will inundate you with trade
offers on the assumption that you don’t know enough to turn down bad
trades (see “Confessions of a Serial Trader” on our site). Either
way, you’re not bargaining from a position of strength here… So,
what to do? First, try to take the initiative. If you feel that your
team has some weaknesses that can be fixed through a trade, figure out
who has an excess of whatever you need. Next, make a reasonable offer
– remembering to ask for just a bit too much so that you have some
bargaining room. NEVER, offer the deal that you actually want to end
up with. This is a bargaining process, not “pick my team clean,
because I just made it too obvious what I need.” And, never offer a
deal that’s so ludicrously one-sided that you’ll be banished to
chickdom for the rest of the season.
Injuries: Often trades need to
be made because a player you were really counting on gets injured
early in the season – say for example, a broken leg in the first two
weeks. Now your immediate temptation will be to dump the bum in the
first trade you can make, but think about this… even if a hundred
point guy plays half the season for you (yes, I know I’ve said this
before) he’ll still get somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty
points. So don’t dump a great player for a forty point plumber –
‘cause that’s all you’ll be offered by the more astute traders
in your league. This is even more important advice when you’re in a
‘keeper’ league and could use the guy next year.
Evaluating Offers: In some
leagues you will get a number of “feeler-offers” (like Saturday
night at a cheap country-western bar). In most cases these should not
be taken seriously… unless the offer will improve your team in an
area that really needs work, don’t spend too much time on them.
These offers will likely sound something like “say, why don’t you
trade me Teemu
Selanne because he’s really not going to produce in San
Jose?” First, you have no idea at this point in the season if
Selanne’s going to produce or not. Second, you don’t want to make
a panic trade just because your team is, say, 62 points out of first
place already. Things turn around and the standings at the end of the
season hardly ever look like the standings in the first few weeks…
and I’m not just saying this because my team’s 62 points out of
first place already this season.
No-Fail Trade Advice:
- You don’t deal a promising young
forward or defenseman for Claude
Lemieux. That is, be very careful before you move good, but
underdeveloped players for old merchandise.
- You never deal Wayne
Gretzky (or a player of his ilk, currently playing in the
League) for Jiri
Hrdina (or a player of his ilk, currently playing in the
League) – some things you just can’t live down (no, that one
wasn’t me)
- Some players start slowly, every
year they’ll have you grinding your teeth and spewing venom, and
every year they’ll turn around and have a great second half…
so be patient.
- Don’t dismiss every trade offer
without looking at it – even if it is from the guy who never
offers what a player’s worth – you never know where trade
talks can lead… just be careful.
- And remember, in the immortal words
of Yogi Berra (Berra, not Bear), “it gets late early out
there” – don’t wait too long to make a trade that will help
your team.
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