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THE ART OF THE TRADE PROPOSAL
Offering a trade is a bit of an art form. Getting the best of a trade scenario usually involves using a little salesmanship on another owner as they will typically be hesitant to part with their valued players. This can be overcome by using some time tested techniques which we will review in this article. They include:
YOUR STRENGTH VS. THEIR WEAKNESS
Through the process of drafting, some teams have a position of strength and a position of weakness (unless they have used the Draft Pick Analyzer). You should pay special attention to what your position of strength is because that will allow you to upgrade at another position and find an acceptable opponent who will be most apt to trade with you. Quite simply, if you have several strong RBs (never a bad thing) and there is an owner in your league that is struggling to fill his lineup with viable RB starters, try to work out something with him. He may be willing to part with more to upgrade his position of weakness due to his desperate situation. Use this to your advantage by pointing out to him that his RB position needs some help and you'd be willing to part with one of your RBs if he'd be interested. The weaker his RB position is, the better your chance of taking advantage of his desperation. Watch this really closely when there are season ending injuries that decimate a fantasy team. With those owners team depth becomes an immediate concern. This scenario also works well with "The 2 for 1".
THE 2 FOR 1
As you will find by spending some time with our Fantasy Football Tools, acquiring players that have high positive +/- values is critical to Fantasy Football success. A nice trick to upgrade without giving up the farm in return is to do a 2 for 1 trade. What this means is giving up 2 "good" quality players for one "excellent" player. This technique can be used in 3 for 2, 4 for 3, etc combinations as well. The point is that one "excellent" player is harder to find and more valuable than two "good" players. The math works out pretty simple, if I want to acquire Chad Johnson (+/- of 3.5), I might offer Anquan Boldin (+/- of 1.2) and Donte Stallworth (+/- of 0.75). If you can get away with trading one "good" starter and one "good" bench player for one "excellent" starter, you will make out like a bandit. Even if you have to trade two "good" starters to upgrade you may still have a positive net effect on your team's PPG.
PREYING ON THE NEW GUY
Call it rookie hazing if you want. New guys just simply don't typically have a good grasp on a league's scoring system and are normally not good at evaluating trades in a new system (Not subscribers to Dominate Your League!!!). The more abnormal a league's scoring system, the more apt you are to find a new guy that is a bit out of his league. This is particularly true if the owner is new to fantasy football. As the years have gone on, this has become increasingly more difficult to dupe a rookie because of the advent of the 50,000 Fantasy Football magazines sold in the grocery store (which are cooincidentally for Fantasy Football novices).
SHAKING THINGS UP
During the midpoint of every Fantasy Football season there is undoubtedly a few teams that are stuggling to reach their "on paper" potential. If you want to get something going with one of these teams, make the following suggestion. Tell them that you are a little bored with your team and you'd like to "shake things up a bit." Then ask them if they'd be interested in making a trade to shake up their squad too. Sometimes a owner just gets to the point where they are ready to take a chance to make the playoff push. Make them realize that they don't have a top caliber team so they better make something happen. Be their buddy and help them and improve your team in the process.
INCLUDE THE BACKUP PLAYER
A nice way of adding to a trade offer without giving up too much is to add a backup player for a player that the opposing team already has on their squad. This is almost always an attractive feature to a trade since everybody is concerned about injuries ruining their season. If you are doing a 2 for 2 or another even trade, this makes a nice way to balance out the trade. Specifically targeting a team that matches up with your backup players is a good strategy for evaluating who to trade with.
PLAY THE STOCK MARKET
Think of the Fantasy Football season as a day at the NYSE. Players will undoubtedly gain or lose value as the season progresses depending on their performance, matchups, and situations within their teams. The message here is "Buy Low...Sell High". If you have Fred Taylor and he begins the season putting up Ladanian Tomlinson-like numbers, trade him while you can. You know that eventually he will slow down (or get hurt knowing Fred) and his perceived value will decrease, leaving you stuck with an average to below-average RB for the rest of the season. On the ohter hand, when a quality player starts off slow target him for a trade. If Torry Holt were to average 60 yards/game for the first three games this year, go after him! Sometimes a player struggles due to a few bad matchups early in the season or a nagging injury. Pay close attention to these players and jump on the opportunity when they struggle. BUY LOW...SELL HIGH
BADGERING THE OPPONENT
When all else fails, ask, ask, and keep asking your opponents about perspective trades. A team isn't always receptive to your offers but if you ask enough, they might just make a trade with you to get you to leave them alone. Being persistant can pay off. The ultimate goal is to win and in trade negotiations, most owners don't have the patience to stand their ground forever, particularly if they are not performing well. |
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