Roto Baseball Pet Peeve...

[The Dane]

My peeve is offers where people say 'Look at my team and see if there's anyone you want'. They're soliciting me for a deal but they want me to do the work of figuring out who to trade for who. This I consider to be lazy, obnoxious, inconsiderate and very poor etiquette. And if I point this out to them in a polite way, or plain dont respond at all, then somehow I'm the bad guy. Sometimes I'd like to do away w all trading, like the NFBC, because IMHO people dont do it the right way.

Wow. Interesting. This is exactly how I want to be approached. "Hey, I'm interested in your Player X. Take a look at my roster and see if there's anything you like." I guess I can see why you think this is lazy, but I feel it's better to do this than to send out an offer that you think is fair and the other guy thinks is lowball and trade talks have stalled because he feels offended. We KNOW that we all value our own players more than anyone else does. The scrub on your team is an "upside play" and it would be insane of anyone else to consider him merely a throw-in. And I'm certainly not putting my last-best offer as the opening offer.

Honestly, the best way to set up trades would be for both teams to rank their players on the block in the way they feel about them, HONESTLY. Then swap lists. When this happens, a lot of the time, I can see something lower on the other guy's list that I would put higher and he can find the same on mine. This way BOTH owners feel like they got something. But that's putting all your cards on the table and most people don't like that.

To each his own, I guess, but you send me a lowball deal that makes total sense to you, but I feel ruins me, and we're likely done dealing. You ask me to look and see what it would take to get the guy you want and at the very least we have a place to start.

[rhd]

...And I'm certainly not putting my last-best offer as the opening offer....

I dont expect the best offer as the 1st offer, but I would like something approaching a sensible offer that I can work with. By making a ridiculous offer, I perceive either you think I'm an idiot or you're just not serious and you're wasting my time. Or you want me to do the work instead of you, like I said before. You're not building a relationship w me, you're destroying it.

[swampdragon]

We have a guy who hints, sometimes directly, at an offer but will not take it if you actually make that offer
For example he owns Pollack and sent an email titled strasburg with the body text What do you think of Pollack?". To strasburg owner.
The owner responded. "he seems cute do you think he would go out with me" while offering strasburg for Pollack
Pollack's owner said. I don't want to make that deal, why did you make that offer?
And he does this all the time

[Hammer]

My peeve is offers where people say 'Look at my team and see if there's anyone you want'. They're soliciting me for a deal but they want me to do the work of figuring out who to trade for who. This I consider to be lazy, obnoxious, inconsiderate and very poor etiquette. And if I point this out to them in a polite way, or plain dont respond at all, then somehow I'm the bad guy. Sometimes I'd like to do away w all trading, like the NFBC, because IMHO people dont do it the right way.

This seems a bit harsh to me as well. The best part of fantasy sports is the trading dialogue, the back and forth. theres gamesmanship to it and I am confident enough in my evaluating that I dont worry about others thoughts and opinions. I love when a guy asks me what I am interested in rather than force Player A on me even though we both know the arrows pointing down on said player. Or when someone asks for a guy and immediately starts talking him down a bit, but at the end of the day theyre all strategies and its supposed to be good fun. I get a ton of laughs from the way people do business. The only thing I dont like is a lack of engagement because I dont understand why someone plays fantasy baseball but chooses not to communicate. The point is to be engaged and active to make it fun. By no means do you need to make a bunch of trades but why in the world would someone not wanna talk about baseball?

[Mithrandir]

This seems a bit harsh to me as well. The best part of fantasy sports is the trading dialogue, the back and forth. theres gamesmanship to it and I am confident enough in my evaluating that I dont worry about others thoughts and opinions. I love when a guy asks me what I am interested in rather than force Player A on me even though we both know the arrows pointing down on said player. Or when someone asks for a guy and immediately starts talking him down a bit, but at the end of the day theyre all strategies and its supposed to be good fun. I get a ton of laughs from the way people do business. The only thing I dont like is a lack of engagement because I dont understand why someone plays fantasy baseball but chooses not to communicate. The point is to be engaged and active to make it fun. By no means do you need to make a bunch of trades but why in the world would someone not wanna talk about baseball?

THIS!!!!!!! Some guys in my league make no comments all year in the messages on the league home page. I try to start conversations and discussions, but the same few owners respond.

[DMT]

It seems like some play because they're too lazy to quit.

[The Dane]

I dont expect the best offer as the 1st offer, but I would like something approaching a sensible offer that I can work with. By making a ridiculous offer, I perceive either you think I'm an idiot or you're just not serious and you're wasting my time. Or you want me to do the work instead of you, like I said before. You're not building a relationship w me, you're destroying it.

I think this is where you lose me. I KNOW that you value your players more than I value them, and I value my own more than you value them, that's why they're on our teams and not someone else's. I'll give you an example: Dan Winkler. I was targeting Dan Winkler three years ago before his arm fell off. I waited through his rehab and figured I could get him cheap this year if he looked okay in camp, and I did in several leagues. I'm sure most people think he's just a throw-in, but he isn't to me, because I see a closer darkhorse and have so for three years. I'm invested. For you, he's a fungible middle reliever, but for me, he's a potential gem. This is just an extreme example, but it happens up and down everyone's roster.

This is why I like deals to begin something like "How would you feel about a deal with my Player X and your Player Y, at the core?". This way the essence of the trade is in agreement and from there, we can punch out the details to both owner's satisfaction. It doesn't always work out, but at least we don't have the cold offer that shuts down talks immediately.

But again, to each his own...

[Hammer]

There are some owners that I would never mention the player I am interested in initially because they jack up his price immediately. So I probe a little or ask about someone else and hope he mentions the player I like or veer there at some point.

Its espionage

[Hornsby]

This seems a bit harsh to me as well. The best part of fantasy sports is the trading dialogue, the back and forth. theres gamesmanship to it and I am confident enough in my evaluating that I dont worry about others thoughts and opinions. I love when a guy asks me what I am interested in rather than force Player A on me even though we both know the arrows pointing down on said player. Or when someone asks for a guy and immediately starts talking him down a bit, but at the end of the day theyre all strategies and its supposed to be good fun. I get a ton of laughs from the way people do business. The only thing I dont like is a lack of engagement because I dont understand why someone plays fantasy baseball but chooses not to communicate. The point is to be engaged and active to make it fun. By no means do you need to make a bunch of trades but why in the world would someone not wanna talk about baseball?

This is why I miss ya Pete...you can always come back you know. I think that there may be an opening...

[Hammer]

This is why I miss ya Pete...you can always come back you know. I think that there may be an opening...

I appreciate that brother.

[Pauly]

I dont understand why people get so bent out of shape about borderline bad offers (yes some offers are outrageous and dont apply here). If you look at them as an opportunity to counter or an opening salvo instead of an affront on your manhood or sensibility, you will do a lot better. Often the offer is simply an indication that they want Player X from you and then you can go and take advantage of that with the next offer and so on. I also means you have potentially found a willing trading partner.

In the end, getting bad offers (solicited or unsolicited) is way better than the alternative of getting no offer at all. The owners who are afraid or unwilling to trade are my real pet peeve because they make for a boring league.