Mastersball Fantasy Forum

We all read sites which comment we should bench a player for a while or skip a starters next few starts until he works out some issues. And how often do sites have long articles on trading players who have hot strats but will almost be guaranteed to fall back to earth.

I find these interesting but find my leagues don't allow all this advice to be headed. The NFBC has a no-trade policy. They comprise two of my six leagues. Three of my other leagues will probably end up with no more than three trades each for the whole season. Trades are really hard when you are in a single universe league with no bench. My other is a dynasty league where there seem to be a lot of deals but most of them involve minor leaguers. Plus no one really wants a player over the age of 33 - or so it seems.

As I said, three of my leagues have no bench players. It's pretty hard to rest a slumping starting pitcher. You really learn to have a "grin and bear it" attitude. And don't even talk to me about day-to-day players. All you can do is watch zero ABs.

Love this game

Glad someone else feels that way too....

Listening to the new Sirius Fantasy sports channel there is a lot of Sell that guy high now and get a real stud who is slumping. It is said as if you have a sell high button in your league that you can just press it and pull these trades off. Not sure if they think most leagues are full of idiots who you can just swindle all the time.

And if they are full of idiots really do you want to play in that league? Always more fun to win a challenging league.

I think the bigger issue in sell high buy low lists is the concept of return.

I posted a couple weeks ago I'd be dealing Austin Jackson away if I could because I don't see him as a huge counting stat guy and his BABIP is over .400 and he has no plate discipline at all. I think in keeper leagues you could get some real return for him. But I'd rather ride a guy who's a sell high guy if I can't get anything of use for him.

My leagues are like Viper's, very much draft and hold in nature, but still need to know who the over and underachievers are just for category management purposes. Maybe the industry should re-name these types of lists/analysis.

I've actually made four trades in my draft & hold leagues. It is close to a personal high for my four years in leagues with this group. And all involved impact players. All trades were in AL-only leagues and were made over a four week span. The net effect of these trades were:

League one: I got Carlos Pena/Cliff Lee for Jenks/Youkilis/Simon [lumping together 2 deals]
League two: I got Mariano/Teixeira/Cahill for Bard/Braden/Lester [lumping together 2 deals]

They are 10-team league with the top four getting something back. In league one, I was at 15 points out of fourth when the first deal was made. I am now in fourth with a bullet.

In league two, I was in a 6th/7th battle but I am now in a 2nd/3rd/4th battle and just eight out of first.

Regardless of where I eventually finish in these leagues, the ride has become fun.