h2h Corner ~ The Great Trade Debate

You know how borderline trades can ruin leagues and sometimes friendships? I don’t think I have to tell you. That’s why Fantasy Baseball 101 created the Trade Mediator Service. At its base, fantasy needs to be fun – when it starts to become a drag and people are personally attacking one another, then, well, it has ceased to become a game.

I want to highlight a situation and get my reader’s feedback.

A friend recently e-mailed me about a trade in his long-term keeper league, with great friends from college. It’s a shallow league (8) teams, with 30 roster spots. It is h2h, and 5×5 (they switch AVE for OBP — otherwise standard). There are no quirky roster move rules or anything.

The way they do keepers is you add two rounds to each drafted player for the next year. So Granderson in the 10th in 2009 will be an 8th round pick in 2010, if you so choose to keep him.

So recently, the last place team, which is out of the final play-off spot by 25 games, decided to trade Hanley Ramirez (not able to be kept), Cliff Lee (no reason to keep him), Jonathan Papelbon (no reason to keep him) and Manny Ramirez (no reason to keep him) for Jacoby Ellsbury (17th rounder next year, then 15th rounder, then 13th, etc.), Wandy Rodriguez (24th rounder next year, then 22nd, etc.) and a 6th round pick in next year’s draft to the first place team. The team getting the four players dropped Furcal and CJ Wilson.

This was days after the second-to-last-place team traded Alex Rodriguez (not able to be kept), CC Sabathia (not able to be kept) and Joe Nathan (no reason to keep him) for Matt Kemp (seventh rounder next year, 5th rounder in 2011) and Aaron Hill (24th rounder, then 22nd, etc.).

So what say you loyal readers about the trades? It’s always fun to politely debate (eh?).

Also, sorry for my sporadic writing lately – I know you miss your Katy Perry All-stars, Back to the Future Previews and Red Light Districts. I’ve been moving and Verizon is really killing me with the no Internet thing (does anyone have an in with them?). I’ll be steadier soon (then I’ll be gone for two weeks). Sorry – I appreciate my readers!

h2h Corner ~ Back to the Future, Next Week’s h2h Preview

This column will predict how awesome/bad your team can be during next week’s contest. It will prove invaluable for those of you about to set your lineups in weekly leagues.

h2h Corner ~ Back to the Future, Next week’s h2h Preview

It’s been awhile since I jumped into the DeLorean to tackle how players will perform in the week to come. There was my five-year college reunion and then Memorial Day, which I spent in the company of great friends at a truly awesome wedding.