hotdogcollars said:
Ummm, sportsmanship is great in free Yahoo leagues, but in a big money league, where the level of competition is a known factor, then its all about winning. I'm not gonna taunt him that his RB is hurt, i'm simply going to offer him a solution. Its up to him to take it or leave. If its THAT bad, our commish wouldnt let it go through.As for not wanting to help him...his RB1 is hurt, i want to give him the handcuff for his RB1, having this handucff would help him...a+b=c.
It's not as simple as that.Let's say the most basic counterexample. He trades Peyton Manning for Ladell Betts. His team is not helped, it is hurt. Starter for backup generally hurts a team (although not always).Here's the next counterexample. Let's say that he trades his #4 WR for Ladell Betts. Three weeks later, someone's WR corps takes a hit, and that person would be willing to give up a Frank Gore type for the WR4 in question. The OPPORTUNITY COST of Ladell Betts was a Frank Gore (minus the points that Betts wound up scoring in Portis's absence, assuming Portis even missed any time).Situation #3- you give him Ladell Betts for free, but Ladell Betts puts up a Ryan Leafish performance, running 15 times for 5 yards and a fumble every week for two or three straight weeks. The player's team is hurt again because of opportunity cost- because he HAD Ladell Betts, he left the points his regular RB3 WOULD HAVE SCORED on the bench, and his team was hurt as a result.Trades are much more complex than you're portraying them here. Generally, if you get more than he does out of a trade, especially early in the year, then you have hurt his team because of the opportunity cost of the trade. Now, later in the year it's a different matter, and players will frequently sell off their backups for less than market value in order to upgrade starters for the playoff run, but this early in the season, trading away players who will have a lot of value in future weeks as trade bait is a huge blow to a team's season-long chances. You are most certainly ACTIVELY HURTING THIS TEAM if you rake them over the coals.Again, there's nothing WRONG with actively hurting your competition. It's a strategic decision, and gives you one less team to worry about. I'm just warning you to be careful, because if you burn your trading partners too badly, you're going to wind up burning a lot of bridges. If you're going to burn that bridge, you better make sure that you fleece him in a big way to make up for all of the future opportunity cost as a result of this guy never trading with you ever again (and possibly even several other people in the league doing the same thing).
I've had betts on my team for three years. The Portis owner wont even listen to trade offers from me that involve Betts. Better yet, Betts won me a championship in '04 with his week 17 game v. the Vikings.
That's pretty Bush league don't you think? Try to remember that this is a game. You are supposed to have fun. If you have too much money on the line that you feel you have to rake your friends over the coals or root for someone to have a slow recovery, then it's probably time to reprioritise things.
