Bad trades happen; they do. Sometimes they can’t be helped and, in some weird way, help the overall good of a league. Sometimes even yet, in dynasty leagues, you can’t tell if a trade is terrible until a year or two down the road. Buying on a hot prospect is always a gamble, especially since generational talents like the Mike Trouts or Michael Jordans of the sports world are just that – generational. However, those rare situations are kind of like finding a needle in a haystack. For the most part, a bad trade is just that – bad!
Everyone makes bad trades. They do. I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t made a bad trade. So much so that people almost always remember their bad ones a lot more vividly than the good ones. Because, well, that’s the point. To learn from the trades that didn’t work. One would hope, think, and even pray that learning from a bad trade happened more often than not. Now, for the most part, people do learn and, generally, will be a little more gun shy to pull the trigger in the future when they haven’t done proper research on – unless, of course, it’s a ‘need’ trade more than a ‘want’ trade. Let me explain the difference.
Need trades are just that – needing to fill a gap. These types of moves can put owners in tricky situations, especially in slightly older leagues where the waiver wire/player pool is thin. Learning to avoid these types of problems comes with proper planning. Still, sometimes, especially when you take over an orphaned team that lacks individual skill position players, it becomes a necessary evil.
On the other hand, want trades can become dangerous and usually are the trades that can collapse a fantasy league. The biggest issue with want trades is the idea of ‘selling the farm.’ I’m not saying that this situation always happens, but when it does, someone is usually left ‘holding the bag.’ Now don’t get me wrong, there is something to be said about ‘having your guy’ and ‘making it your team,’ mainly since we talked about dynasty leagues. However, at what price? Does it make sense to overpay just to ‘have your guy?’
Over time, especially multiple seasons – there will be several trades made in every dynasty league. It’s the nature of the game and the whole point of playing the game for many. And, ideally, a dynasty league will go on forever – replacing owners with new owners as needed, of course. But what if an owner walks away simply because he can’t win? Possible because a myriad of bad trades decimated his squad. Likely because of a lack of researching prospects and poor drafting. In the end, though, who’s to blame? And more to the point, whos to blame if/when the league folds because a couple of owners fall into that situation? Do you blame the ‘lousy’ owner(s) for making the bad trades? Do you blame everyone he made a bad trade with for, possibly, taking advantage of his gullibility and/or lack of knowledge? The truth is that’s an unanswerable question but, if what I’ve written here today makes you think twice about the next trade offer you get or send, then maybe, just maybe, this is the answer moving forward.
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