Would you give trade advice to another team if asked? (1 Viewer)

I was just asked by another owner if I would give my opinion about a trade offer he just received (he didn't give me the details yet).  I refused saying it wouldn't be right although I would be happy to critique the trade for him after it was made.

Have you've ever been in this position and how did you handle it?

I think it really depends on your relationship with that owner and whether you felt he was asking you because he respected your opinion or needed the help and thought he could ask you or whether you thought he had any ulterior motives.

I have been asked many times and try to answer in  general terms about reasons to make the trade or not and not so mu much on assessments of the particular player(s)

Godsbrother said:

I was just asked by another owner if I would give my opinion about a trade offer he just received (he didn't give me the details yet).  I refused saying it wouldn't be right although I would be happy to critique the trade for him after it was made.

Have you've ever been in this position and how did you handle it?

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I've been asked before, and I gave a "Pros and Cons" kind of answer.  Just general things to think about without steering him one way or the other.

Depending on the situation, it can set you up with that owner as a 'voice of reason' when it comes to trades - which can help you with that owner somewhere down the line.

The potential negative of course is that they start coming to you for info on every trade offer.

I always like to. It helps give insight on how people perceive their players and how they value certain positions. Information is valuable, usually let them take the lead and either agree or disagree. 

I do but strictly from a pros and cons, risks and opportunities perspective. It needs to be crystal clear that I'm not involved in the decision. The last thing I need is someone coming back and suggesting I "told them to do something".

habsfan said:

I do but strictly from a pros and cons, risks and opportunities perspective. It needs to be crystal clear that I'm not involved in the decision. The last thing I need is someone coming back and suggesting I "told them to do something".

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Same.   My brother and I talk FF a lot.  Waiver moves and trades come up.   We never give absolute answers but just talk about the players in general.  

If a person respects me enough to ask my opinion, I am happy to give it but am VERY careful not to let personal prejudices enter the picture (i.e., steering him in one direction to benefit me or taking the opportunity to trade with him to counter the trade he is asking about).  It comes down to integrity.

How is this different than having him consult a web site for trade advice?  He is just doing due diligence and is asking for an outside opinion.

Now if I took the opportunity to interfere or try to offer him a "better" deal; I think that would be unfair and against the spirit of competition.  If I just presented my snap assessment of whether or not I felt it would be a beneficial deal for him then I see no issue with it.  I would exercise caution though because if you did cross the line - even unintentionally - it would damage your integrity going forward.

I get the sense that the concern about talking trades you are not part of in a league where you are trying to win, that there may be a conflict of interest. 

That is being very gracious in my view. Good for you guys.

I think it really just depends on who it is and your relationship.

There have been owners who are very much my competition who I talk trades with a lot. Trades in the league that dont involve me and trades outside the league where I am competing.

I do think there have been times where the other owner is doing this to try to learn my opinion about the value of various deals. They are gathering information with these talks.

It depends on the relationship. If I know you I will talk very frankly about these things even with competitors. Hell sometimes some really good shmack talk comes out of these things.

If I dont know the guy well and they are giving me 20 questions I tend to think they are just trying to get information to use against me later, so I get tight lipped about it in this case 

Depends on his record.

habsfan said:

I do but strictly from a pros and cons, risks and opportunities perspective. It needs to be crystal clear that I'm not involved in the decision. The last thing I need is someone coming back and suggesting I "told them to do something".

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yes.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with giving advice.  I don't even see anything wrong with giving unsolicited advice.  But I've witnessed others owners get incensed about it.  They act like it's collusion or unethical.  They act like it's the equivalent of table talk in a card game.  It's not.

Only if he's looking for trade advice in another unrelated league.  

If they were dumb enough to listen, I would be happy to oblige.

 Myself, and 1-2 others talk trades routinely.  WE always have, and we likely always will. It starts to the "do you think I won the trade?, floats to well I had to, I needed help here.......and I improved my team etc. etc"

 We talk enough that we are interested in the better strategy, not who it helps, and in no way does it affect any trades made. We are more interested in the weighing of both sides, and who it helps long term in comparison to their current rosters, and what their needs are. What WE personally would want, and what it would take to get us to move certain pieces.

I know some guys get a bit pissy on this, but we are adult enough to realize you make your own decisions, and you live with those consequences. The guys in our leagues don't let any outside influences affect their trades, and they want to make their own deals..... and either die by that sword, or rejoice in their "smart trades" that helped them win.

 Do you really want to make a trade, and depend on others' outside thoughts on it?  I don't.

Plus my guys are smart enough to know there may be some "false advertising information" thrown about when it comes to other peoples input.

Maybe I'm different, (or my leagues are different) but this is pretty much a non issue for us.

 TZM

I'd give as much good advice as possible so that they knew that they could trust me. And then I'd use that trust to screw them over in a trade.

Always do. 

Trades are incredibly easy for me though. If you show me your team, the league rosters and line-up reqs Ill show you the trades that need to happen. And that is with both teams being satisfied.

I dunno, but there are some FF owners who will fish for commentary.

SaintsInDome2006 said:

I dunno, but there are some FF owners who will fish for commentary.

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We had to put an end to an owner who on draft day would mention the player he was going to take right before writing it on the board... to judge the responses and then switch if he didn't like the vibe. We ended that, but he must have done it for 4-5 years before we called him on it. Wasn't a dumb plan at all though.  I could see people doing that with trade talks as well.

Godsbrother said:

I was just asked by another owner if I would give my opinion about a trade offer he just received (he didn't give me the details yet).  I refused saying it wouldn't be right although I would be happy to critique the trade for him after it was made.

Have you've ever been in this position and how did you handle it?

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Why did the owner go to you? 

Do you see this leading to something for you? 

How would you feel if someone gave advice on an offer you made?

I just ask a lot of questions to get the asker to decide for himself. 

People in our league talk trades with each other all the time 

I'd give advice if asked. Doesn't bother me any. I don't see it as a right or wrong thing. 

I have these types of conversations constantly in my leagues. Keeping open lines of communication with other owners and gaining a reputation for being unbiased, honest, and informed has been crucial to my success over the years. You want to have an ear to the ground in your leagues, know what players are for sale, what feelers are being put out, where other owners stand on players whether the two of you even own them or not. Now I'm not saying you should use the info you gain while giving advice to cut in and steal trades or anything. That would suck. But you want to become the natural, logical first stop other owners make when they want to bounce trade ideas around, whether you are involved originally or not. That has led to so many unexpected deals over the years for me. 

So many people hold their cards close to their chest, don't want other owners to know who "their guys" are, don't want to be perceived as a shark lest owners look too deeply into the players you are trying to acquire just because you are interested in them...in my experience, that's all BS. I play in pretty active and knowledgeable leagues with very active chats and constant trade chatter, so maybe my experience isn't universal--but I've found it's best to assume everyone has all the same info that you have. It's all out there, most of it is free, and if everyone in your league cares, you can't depend on having an information advantage, so there's no need to interact with other owners as if you DO have that advantage. You likely don't if you're in a competitive league. So treat other owners like they're as smart as you are and find deals based around differences in values, roster goals, etc. rather than trying to be the secretive hyper-competitive guy who either tries to play people, or constantly worries about being perceived as trying to play them. 

In most of my leagues this wouldn't come up, but in my dynasty league there tends to be a lot of discussion about trades, certainly after the fact and sometimes before.  I have a few owners who I'll bounce thoughts off of sometimes since I respect their opinions.  There's also a newish (2nd season) owner in the league who inherited an awful team who I've been friends with for 20 years.  I stayed clear last year but he really struggled out of the gate, so we had some good conversations about strategy this offseason and he has bounced a few offers that he's received off me to get my thoughts.  I give him my honest opinion but make sure he understands that our personal opinions of specific players could be very different.

I would be happy to help and I would give an honest answer