The One Thing That Strat's Missing...

[jeffdoh]

I can live with HAL's occasional lunacy.
I can live with not having complete control over all in-game moves.
I can even live with the imperfect draft and salary cap system.
But here's what I cannot live with and I bet on my life that nearly everyone will agree--
As a kid, my all time favorite part about playing strat was trades. Getting together with friends, having trade negotiations late into the evening. Trying to convince my buddy that he needed a "1" at 3B so that I could trade him my '87 Tim Wallach for the defensively "inept" (2!) Wade Boggs.
You all know what I'm talking about, and I think it's time that TSN/Strat did something to encourage trades rather then inhibit them. I don't remember the last league I was in where a trade happened or where I was even offered one deal all season long, by anyone. That's not what Strat is about. We need to do something about this and need to convince Bernie and the higher ups to encourage trading until some deadline date.
One thing that absolutely needs to be fixed is the ridiculously rigid salary cap reqs. Unless a trade PRECISELY matches salaries, a deal is almost impossible to complete. There needs to be some flexibility here so that if one team goes over or under their salary cap, they one day to pick up or drop FAs (WITHOUT a 5%, 10% or 20% PENALTY!) to complete the trade.
TSN can even make a rule that you cannot use your new players until your team roster is under the cap. Similarly, if you trade away 1 player
and get 2 back, you should get a "token" allowing you to drop 1player to Free Agency WITHOUT penalty. The existing rules are too rigid and really take away from the fun of the game. We need to get trading back into strat. I'm sure many of you will have suggestions far better than mine, so please share them, but most importantly, if you agree with me let's make some noise about this. I really think we lose out on half the fun without negotiating and trades. After all, if HAL is our on the field manager, shouldn't we at least be allowed to be the GM?
Jeff

[durantjerry]

Trades are fun, but I think the trading is about where it should be. There was a post a few months ago on the same subject. I see a lot of trading in preseason, but much less during the season. It his hard to trade during the season because it is difficult to find a match which works well for two. Because trading is so much fun and everyone likes it, I think it should be a little tough or a lot of people would be trading just for the sake of trading, similar to gambling on football. I am not discounting your suggestion altogether, as I really like the small, added flexibility gived by the flexible 95%/90%/80% drop. Maybe there is something that could be done along those lines. I just don't see it being hard to make a trade being a problem, more of a control that is needed to keep some from running amok. I don't want to be in a league with guys that are more interested in getting juiced from a trade than winning.

[geekor]

Actually I agree with Jeff. I rarely see trades happening, in vet leagues or autoleagues.

It used to be a least after 2/3 of the season you could trade with people whose teams were also bottom feeders, but now even then they always give a decline and do add/drops instead.

They need to, at a minimum, add in a trading block page, where people can select what players they'd like to get rid of and what they would want in return.

I'm not sure about waiving penatly fees, but maybe giving a +/- 400k flex range when trading could be a nice asset.

[goredsox33]

I dont tihnk the trading system is flawed. I just think the "managers" are FLAWED!!!!!


Seems like no one wants to take a chance and make a trade!!!!

For me the best parts of strato are the draft, waivers, and trades.......

Yet there are very few trades.

[generationm1]

I think trades occur plenty, theres always one or two during the preseason, and in my 80s league two trades just occured during the half way mark, I think the trading system is fine

[jeffdoh]

by these posts. I can't even recall the last trade I've seen, it's so rare.

I really thought most people would be with me on this, but If not, then not.

What most surprises me is durantjerry's sentiment. I'm really shocked that anybody would be bothered by lots of trades in their league. Unless there's cheating going on, who cares what other mgrs do. Why shouldn't players be having fun and trying to improve their team. A guy who is 30-51 probably SHOULD be making major adjustments, and if penalties prevent roster moves, then trading SHOULD be encouraged.

I'm really dissapointed by some of these early posts, but still hope that the overall majority of managers LIKE trading and would like to see it encouraged and made easier to accomlpish....

[markp65]

Trading is like adding value to the game for ourselves. Makes it more interesting, costs nothing. I don't buy the argument about the tight cap requirement being too restrictive. You can always shuffle scrubs to make the money work out.

What about stepping up the drop penalty to something almost prohibative -- like losing 50% of the dropped player's value -- unless that player is injured. Would a 50% drop penalty for non-injured players open up the trade discussions?

[buster j ratt]

I make quite a few trades You have to look at teams like the pros do People make offers to me where I end up with 9 OF and no backup Inf I look at my needs I sacrifice as in real life and get a lot of trades accepted You cant just trade sub 200 hitters and lousy P Use some bait I sometimes draft P that dont fit my park so I have bait You get what you put into this Just traded Pete Alexander for Willie Mays in ATG III a couple of days ago in 6 player deal Other players were the ones I really wanted

[durantjerry]

I just don't want to be in a league where there is trading for the sake of trading. I avoid the wheeler-dealer themed leagues because of that. Like drafting and putting your team together, it's a lot of fun. I think it could potentially shift competetive balance if it were very easy to do. My worst experiences were the one or two times someone traded or dumped their team towards the end of the season. Admittedly, the cap is a lot more difficult to beat in recent years, but I don't want it to be easy for guys who don't care or don't know what they are doing to be taken advantage of by some who do. It is strictly for my own self interest, as I am a "fair" trade player, but in a competetive situation many will take whatever they can get however they can get it. I like that it is hard to pull off a trade and that you have to work at it to make one. As it stands, a good trade can still shift competetive balance, but it most likely doesn't happen because the trade was "unfair".

[MEAT]

I agree we need more trading, and that's one of the essential elements of strat, ESPECIALLY online, where you can't do any in game managing, so your roster and your options are even more important. the salaries do make it a bit more difficult, but overall agree with the above post, it's more about the managers. the majority don't want to take the time to go back and forth several times til you reach a consensus, and many times managers are unrealistic about their talent, or too rigid in taking a chance. as for the vet leagues, unfortunetly, many of the vets are in multiple-multiple leagues, so they don't have the time to be tinkering with individual rosters, let alone reading offers and returning trade talk. the key is for those of us who DO enjoy trading to get in a league TOGETHER.