RosterWatch Doctrine – Fairness in Fantasy Football Trades
Alex Dunlap, RosterWatch.com

“You know a trade is fair when both sides feel a little hurt.”

While we here at rosterwatch.com are proponents of putting yourself in an early position of strength to gain leverage in trades, you will not always find yourself in position to be preying on league bottom feeders.

For one, if a team in your league is a losing team it is likely due to being managed by a uninvolved owner. This causes a couple of obstacles as you try to raid their pantry of elite players. These types of owners are generally hard to reach and negotiate with. They also see overtures from “winning” and/or knowledgable owners as threatening and snaky. They think- “If this player is so good, then why does this guy want him off his team?”

In Byron’s recent article “Last Minute Tips” he made one point that I am going to re-iterate here. It is vital that you know who the good owners in your league are. Know the guys who will give you action on trade proposals. In a best case scenario, you will be able to trade with a good owner from a position of strength if this good owner hits a run of bad luck and goes into desperation mode. That is your jackpot scenario.

But generally, good owners are in contention from the start, and there is little leverage to be gained by having walk away power as a currently winning team. Good owners know that trades are important, and can oftentimes be crafted in a manner that helps both teams roster a better overall squad. But in these types of trades remember our RosterWatch doctrine:

You know you will be getting close to a deal when both sides are feeling like they’re getting a little bit hurt.

To maximize scoring potential, you need points from every position. To gain value across one or more of your weak positions, you will have to give up value in a strong one. So will your trade partner. Think of trade outcomes not as “winning” and “losing”. Who cares? Instead, evalauate whether the outcome makes YOUR roster stonger as an overall entity.