8/14/10
Everything from seemingly harmless trash-talk to underhanded
collusion can cause hard feelings among owners… and even
divide an entire league. Whether you’ve been the accused,
the betrayed, or just an innocent bystander wondering which side
to take, this column is for you. E-mail
the Devil's Advocate with a description of the controversy
brewing in your league (or a potentially unpopular move you’re
about to make), and I’ll give one of those emails an outsider’s
viewpoint in a future column. Maybe you’re right, maybe
you’re wrong; there are always two sides to a controversy.
Both sides will be explored in hopes of finding some middle ground
that helps you, and that any league can use to bolster its rules
and maintain that rogue ownership that makes fantasy sports all
the more entertaining.
The Big Hoard
After a trio of rough articles, where I’m sure I got a little
preachy, it’s time to get back to basics—something based
on logic rather than morality. As fantasy drafts get closer and
closer, a discussion on draft picks seems only appropriate. This
article’s controversy comes to us from a reader who was able
to bolster his team’s future by trading away some of its present:
Teams that have been able to build up a strong
core in the previous season have extra valuable players…which
allow them to [trade/hoard draft picks] …Many in the league
are attempting this, though some not successfully, which has added
to the tension…There are of course both sides to this, one
saying, “all extra players should go back into the draft pool
so talent is evenly distributed next season.” The other is
“why give up the advantage, if you have it, keep it”?
The Guardian Angel
Whether redraft or franchise, the league you’re in drafts
in a particular way and a particular order so that it’s fair
for everyone. Messing with that method not only brings scrutiny
upon you, it makes for a lopsided league and can cause chaos. Just
as parity has brought fortune to the NFL, it also makes the best
fantasy leagues worth playing in. A franchise that abuses the system
in order to found a dynasty will undoubtedly harm a league. After
all, who wants to lay down the cash and involvement when they suspect
there is little chance of a fair return?
The Fallen Angel
Parity, schmarity. Isn’t the point to form the best team you
can? In redraft leagues, that means drafting a solid foundation
and following up with some superb free-agent signings. In franchise
leagues, it means building a core that will last and can be further
built upon year by year. There’s nothing wrong with getting
all you can from your investment. If you aren’t choosing a
free agent or drafting a pick with an eye to his future worth, you’re
not getting his true value. That future worth includes his worth
as trade bait. To trade a player you no longer need for a future
pick takes not just savvy, it takes some guts as well. If a player
is worth a pick, it’s going to be risky letting him go.
Here on Earth…
Most of us will admit it can sometimes take a lot of work to trade
players. Anyone who doesn’t believe that is probably not worth
trading with. Sure, you can easily offer a trade tilted in your
favor. Maybe some owner will even take you up on it, but by doing
so—unless some great act of fortune befalls the player you’re
trading away—that trade partner may be lost for future dealings.
Make a trade that looks bad on paper and you yourself will look
bad. At the very least, owners will not think of spending their
time offering you anything close to a fair trade if they think you’ll
come back with some bad barter. That can easily kill your season
if you find yourself scrambling for a fill-in with a depleted free-agent
market and no one to deal with.
Making a fair trade, however, will cultivate future dealings with
others in your league. Owners will notice when you’ve offered
a potential bargain, even if it’s with a different owner.
And the better owners will notice when you present a trade with
some forethought involved. Better owners usually have better players,
and more of them. Those owners will come to you first in their time
of need, and they’ll be the first to come to you in your time
of need—usually with a good deal, no less.
It takes even more work to trade for picks, and the profit of cultivating
trade relationships is not as distinct since the value of your perfect
trade gets blurred by the length of the offseason. Owners are willing
to trade player for player, in the present, because they can envision
the effect immediately. But very few owners want to trade their
precarious fantasy future away. After all, good football players
are young; good football players make a lot of money; nightclubs
exist. Also, bones break and tendons tear. In order to pull off
a solid trade for a pick, you need the perfect combination of the
player who’s just the right fit for a needful team, along
with the fill-in for your own team after the trade is complete.
You also need a thick skin when dealing with other owners trying
to push your offers in their favor along the way. It’s exhausting.
Now balance those factors against a run you may be making at a playoff
spot. It’s very difficult to come up with that combo often
enough throughout a season, or offseason, to create anything even
resembling a hoard (or horde, if you’re in an IDP league).
The amount of work that goes into making good trades is the main
reason I see little to no ethical problem with gathering as many
good draft picks as you can. If you’re willing to do the work
while others are not, those others should have no complaints. But
complaints or not, the thoughtful owner can still feel hot eyes
at his back as he walks up to claim his second pick in a single
round.
So the question remains: Does hoarding disrupt the draft? The answer,
based on logic this time: No. There are a finite number of picks
in each draft. They are given to each team equally, usually based
on a serpentine system, a team’s finish in the prior season,
or a lottery (okay, change that to “kind of equally”).
No matter how they are spread out, each pick has a value, and each
owner recognizes at least some of that value as they trade picks
for players. Some trades are bad, some are absolute perfection.
But they are all sound in that an owner gets what he believes a
pick is worth.
If one owner is able to sell all his players for future picks, he
does not disrupt the draft. Someone would have picked in those spots
anyway; no one is jumping in line and bumping another owner back
a spot. Does the owner with better picks have a better team that
coming year? Possibly. But in dealing for that team, he has spread
out some quality players to other teams the year prior. Oddly enough,
an owner hoarding picks may actually be creating some parity.
In redraft leagues, things may turn out a little differently. But
each pick and each player has value either way. If both teams are
returning next season and no mafia members toting brass knuckles
are spotted in the immediate vicinity, all should be good. A player’s
value encompasses more than his immediate worth. And you paid for
your players in some way or another. Reap their true value while
you still can. If you drafted well enough to spread the wealth across
two or more seasons, take what’s rightfully yours, and take
it without qualms.
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