Trading draft picks in keeper leagues (1 Viewer)

[mrip541]

An interesting situation can come up in keeper leagues where you give up a pick to keep a player. Lets say you are drafting in the 1 spot and are planning to keep a player for your third round pick, 3.01. Is it a legit strategy to then trade your pick down (either just the pick or packaged in a player trade) in that round for basically free value? Something just doesn't feel right about it to me.

 

[Arizona Ron]

An interesting situation can come up in keeper leagues where you give up a pick to keep a player. Lets say you are drafting in the 1 spot and are planning to keep a player for your third round pick, 3.01. Is it a legit strategy to then trade your pick down (either just the pick or packaged in a player trade) in that round for basically free value? Something just doesn't feel right about it to me.

Seriously?

 

[mrip541]

An interesting situation can come up in keeper leagues where you give up a pick to keep a player. Lets say you are drafting in the 1 spot and are planning to keep a player for your third round pick, 3.01. Is it a legit strategy to then trade your pick down (either just the pick or packaged in a player trade) in that round for basically free value? Something just doesn't feel right about it to me.

Seriously?

I knew there was a good chance this was a completely normal strategy I just hadn't thought of for some reason... Looks like it

 

[GregR_2]

An interesting situation can come up in keeper leagues where you give up a pick to keep a player. Lets say you are drafting in the 1 spot and are planning to keep a player for your third round pick, 3.01. Is it a legit strategy to then trade your pick down (either just the pick or packaged in a player trade) in that round for basically free value? Something just doesn't feel right about it to me.

Seriously?

I knew there was a good chance this was a completely normal strategy I just hadn't thought of for some reason... Looks like it

I don't think it is definitively right or wrong in the way that paying someone cash to make a trade with you is wrong.But you're not wrong to have pause about it. Plenty of people feel that way, including the NFL itself. Al Davis did this some time ago. He had to give a pick as compensation for a free agent or in the supplemental draft, I don't recall which, and he traded it for the last pick in the round in order to improve some other pick of his.

The next year the NFL changed the rules so it wasn't allowed anymore.

This has happened in my keeper league as well (where 1 keeper costs you a 1st, 2 costs you a 1st and 2nd, etc). There was such backlash against it that the owners who did it ended up regretting it I think. Even though it took a couple of years before the rules were actually changed to disallow it (picks now have to be equal to or better than your "normal" pick in the round), no one had tried it after that initial backlash from it. It just isn't worth burning good will in your league. Plenty of owners will refuse to trade with owners who do that kind of stuff.

 

[Iwannabeacowboybaby!]

An interesting situation can come up in keeper leagues where you give up a pick to keep a player. Lets say you are drafting in the 1 spot and are planning to keep a player for your third round pick, 3.01. Is it a legit strategy to then trade your pick down (either just the pick or packaged in a player trade) in that round for basically free value? Something just doesn't feel right about it to me.

Seriously?

I knew there was a good chance this was a completely normal strategy I just hadn't thought of for some reason... Looks like it

I don't think it is definitively right or wrong in the way that paying someone cash to make a trade with you is wrong.But you're not wrong to have pause about it. Plenty of people feel that way, including the NFL itself. Al Davis did this some time ago. He had to give a pick as compensation for a free agent or in the supplemental draft, I don't recall which, and he traded it for the last pick in the round in order to improve some other pick of his.

The next year the NFL changed the rules so it wasn't allowed anymore.

This has happened in my keeper league as well (where 1 keeper costs you a 1st, 2 costs you a 1st and 2nd, etc). There was such backlash against it that the owners who did it ended up regretting it I think. Even though it took a couple of years before the rules were actually changed to disallow it (picks now have to be equal to or better than your "normal" pick in the round), no one had tried it after that initial backlash from it. It just isn't worth burning good will in your league. Plenty of owners will refuse to trade with owners who do that kind of stuff.

Good advice as usual GregR, this is a guy who knows his dynasty stuff, not just about players but running a league.

 

[OddibeMcD]

We had the same situation in my keep 6 league with a similar structure. We went the route GregR's league did. When keeping one in a round, you need to have a pick equal or better than the pick dictated by the team's finish. We have had a little bit more discussion about what happens when more than one player is kept by a team in the same round. At the moment, we have a rule that says when more than one player is kept in a round (for example, I am keeping three fifth round picks this year), only one pick has to be better than or equal to the fifth round pick I ended up with as a result of the 2009 season.

Part of me says this isn't a big deal because the teams that need the most help are the ones that end up with the most desirable picks in each round. If the worst team (picking first) cab add a better pick or two through trading draft picks, they probably need the help any way.

 

[GregR_2]

We had the same situation in my keep 6 league with a similar structure. We went the route GregR's league did. When keeping one in a round, you need to have a pick equal or better than the pick dictated by the team's finish. We have had a little bit more discussion about what happens when more than one player is kept by a team in the same round. At the moment, we have a rule that says when more than one player is kept in a round (for example, I am keeping three fifth round picks this year), only one pick has to be better than or equal to the fifth round pick I ended up with as a result of the 2009 season.

Part of me says this isn't a big deal because the teams that need the most help are the ones that end up with the most desirable picks in each round. If the worst team (picking first) cab add a better pick or two through trading draft picks, they probably need the help any way.

That could vary widely by league setup. I'd even go so far as to say usually it's probably not the case for half of the rounds.Assuming the most common draft order is reverse of previous season standings... and assuming the most common draft type is serpentine... then in the largest number of leagues the worst team would be in the best position to take advantage in the odd rounds... but the best team would be picking first in even rounds, so he'd have the best position in those rounds.

Not to mention that the best team is more likely to be keeping players with his picks than is the worst team. If the worst team plans to use his 1.1 and 3.1 picks on better players than are on his roster, then he can't benefit by trading it away in this fashion.

 

[OddibeMcD]

We had the same situation in my keep 6 league with a similar structure. We went the route GregR's league did. When keeping one in a round, you need to have a pick equal or better than the pick dictated by the team's finish. We have had a little bit more discussion about what happens when more than one player is kept by a team in the same round. At the moment, we have a rule that says when more than one player is kept in a round (for example, I am keeping three fifth round picks this year), only one pick has to be better than or equal to the fifth round pick I ended up with as a result of the 2009 season.

Part of me says this isn't a big deal because the teams that need the most help are the ones that end up with the most desirable picks in each round. If the worst team (picking first) cab add a better pick or two through trading draft picks, they probably need the help any way.

That could vary widely by league setup. I'd even go so far as to say usually it's probably not the case for half of the rounds.Assuming the most common draft order is reverse of previous season standings... and assuming the most common draft type is serpentine... then in the largest number of leagues the worst team would be in the best position to take advantage in the odd rounds... but the best team would be picking first in even rounds, so he'd have the best position in those rounds.

Not to mention that the best team is more likely to be keeping players with his picks than is the worst team. If the worst team plans to use his 1.1 and 3.1 picks on better players than are on his roster, then he can't benefit by trading it away in this fashion.

Should have specified that we do worst-to-first every round, so the worst teams always have the top pick. It would be interesting to see where the switch from serpentine to worst-to-first takes place when it comes to number of keepers. As I said, we disallowed trading back in a round where you are keeping someone. It leads to the least amount of problems.