Trading for FAAB money...

[mjl]

It resets the contract

ah, yeah, what Horns said. Contracts don't reset in RJEL. And even in the other leagues I'm in, the contracts don't reset unless the guy wasn't picked up the first week he was available. So yeah, that's a good point, but it doesn't apply here.

I think it would be fine in RJEL but agree that it shouldn't be invented midseason, though I am all for allowing the Wild West of trade clauses with PTBNLs and all that and I know that's not shared by many others.

[Redbirds Fan]

what's the benefit of that vs just giving me the pitcher? it looks like it just adds variance.

Depending upon league rules, it could make a difference. It can also be a way to add another player to a deal that is already pretty lopsided.

And Horns, there's nothing immoral or fattening about putting together an innovative trade in mid-season. My personal views on Constitutional interpretation are in no intended to bear upon your league.

[Sour Masher]

I'm of the mind that there are all sorts of things not spelled out in a constitution that are nonetheless not allowed. If an innovative soul has the cleverness to come up with a new type of transaction, I think that should be addressed by the league and constitution going forward, but I don't think such a deal should be allowed without such league wide approval, if there is no precedent and no rules explicitly allowing it.

I know this is not an equivalent example, and maybe the RJ consto explicitly forbids it these sorts of shenanigans, but way back when my main league started in the early 90s in High School, none of us thought to exclude all sorts of things from our constitution, which led to several dubious deals. For instance, we had some owners essentially bet on player trades via other activities. Like, our first year, we had one owner basically bet agreeing to a deal in a game of spades--if he lost the game, he'd do the trade. We had another owner do the same on a game of horse. We had another owner include a snickers bar in a trade, because the other owner was on the fence and hungry that day. It was a lawless first year, but also a lot of fun. Of course, these days, we take it all much more seriously .

To this day, if I turn down a trade with one of the original owners, I still sometimes get the tired old joke from the other guy that he'll throw in a snickers bar if I accept the deal.

[Judge Jude]

my league would not allow FAAB money to be dealt if it was not explicitly approved beforehand, for all of the reasons many have stated.

ironically, in April my 34-year-old league voted to allow trading of FAAB money for the first time (fwiw, we only can FAAB players from AL, so months can go by with no action). I am Commish and oppose this, but majority ruled.

not a single FAAB deal has been made all season - although recently one team tried to bogart into the lead at the last minute.

I pointed out that our rule is that FAAB lineup and standings locks in on Wed's at 3 pm - 6 hours ahead of the deadline, so everyone knows what they're up against. ok, a team could make a deal at 2:59 pm, and the other guy has no chance to respond. (worse would be if they do it at 1 pm, and I'm AWOL so the rival doesn't know it happened til too late.) but at least he might be able to read the tea leaves and adjust accordingly.

the relative value of much of FAAB in our league is nearly zero (if you aren't in the top 5 this week, for instance, even with 9 new arrivals you likely can't get anything of real value).

but, we are experimenting.

[Gregg]

One thing that just occurred to me is that it's probably much less problematic in a league like RJEL (mixed, very deep minors) where it's unlikely that a great unowned player is available in FAAB. In a NL-only or a league that doesn't allow minor leaguers, trading for $50 FAAB could be the same as trading for Darvish or Moncada.

Exactly. In my NL only league, I would trade with the player with the most Faab money and own Darvish on Thursday. I use my faab money starting week one. As much as I would like to have Darvish, trading for faab money to now jump ahead does not feel right.

We have implemented some new rules this year to slow down massive dump trading. I think this would fly in the face of that intention.

[Judge Jude]

we are in just this mess right now. Darvish is by far the best AL arrival available, so why wouldn't anyone trade for just enough FAAB to leap ahead at the last second before the deadline? even if I made them post the trade immediately, at some point it's too late for anyone to react.

the FAAB likely is useless the rest of the year, so "sellers" are going to give away the goods. it would help if there was a bidding war, so that the Darvish acquirer gives up something of real value, but I'm starting to see that it may not work at all for a league like ours.

[Hornsby]

we are in just this mess right now. Darvish is by far the best AL arrival available, so why wouldn't anyone trade for just enough FAAB to leap ahead at the last second before the deadline? even if I made them post the trade immediately, at some point it's too late for anyone to react.

the FAAB likely is useless the rest of the year, so "sellers" are going to give away the goods. it would help if there was a bidding war, so that the Darvish acquirer gives up something of real value, but I'm starting to see that it may not work at all for a league like ours.

That's why every league that I'm in has a salary cap, so that nobody can just hoard their money for a a situation like this. All contenders in those leagues are bumping up against the cap, some are right there, some a few bucks away. Another reason to have a trade deadline close to the MLB deadline, IMO.

I may be misunderstanding your leagues situation though...

[Judge Jude]

yeah, no salary cap, no problem - except sort of this. we'll see. thanks for the wrinkle.