Trades
Contents
Managing Trades
You can propose trades and respond to trade offers the Manage Button on the main toolbar, then selecting the Trade Planner Tab as shown below.
When To Trade
Trades are possible after the draft up to August 31st of the sim season. Trades are not possible during September or October (Playoffs).
How to Trade
Once you get to the Trade Planner Tab (see above), click the Create New Offer Button to load the Trade Designer window. The designer window controls will be blank until you select a team from the dropdown control. This populates the lists of eligible players (see trade rules above for eligibility) and draft picks, if your league permits the trading of picks. To create your offer, simply drag players into the Player Fields. If you want to send or receive units as part of your offer, fill those boxes in, too. Then click the Send Offer Button to inscribe your offer.
When making an offer to a 'live' owner it is usually helpful either to send an email or write something in the chat window. You can also write a brief message in the designer window to send as part of your offer. Email addresses for 'live' owners in your leagues can be found on the Main Screen of the software by clicking the Reference Button.
Trade Rules
- Unsigned players cannot be traded in the final transactions event. If you wish to trade newly-drafted players in the pre-season, do so earlier! This rule was instituted to prevent accidental removal of personnel.
- Since you may not hold more than a certain number (this number varies by league) of batters and pitchers on your roster at the same time, be sure you have enough space to acquire all incoming players! The league accepts no responsibility for errors of judgment in this regard and will not return lost players to your roster. If you need to make more roster space, you can remove dead weight by checking the box in the 'Manager Controls' window.
- Once an offer is accepted it cannot be successfully withdrawn. To avoid problems, always scan for the latest activity on your offers before you try to withdraw an offer. The Withdraw feature is subject to removal in the future if it causes disputes or other problems.
- If multiple trades involving the same player are detected, the sim will select one at random and dispose of all others. The acceptable trade etiquette is to wait for either an acceptance or refusal before offering a player to another team.
- If an offer has been sent but neither refused nor accepted, the trade will be ignored at run time. Only accepted offers will transact.
- Players traded away from your team become ineligible to return to your roster until the following season.
- Players on type 5 or 6 contracts are not eligible for trade.
- Depending on the quality and number of your remaining draft picks, you may not be able to trade them away. If your eligible draft picks list is empty, this is probably why. This policy is designed to protect the future of your franchise and maintain parity.
- During the season, trades are transacted AFTER all the games of a given game event are played. Therefore, you may play departing players during the same event in which you plan to trade them.
- When proposing trades to League Owned teams, cash-only deals, multiple player deals, and deals involving draft picks, will be rejected. Use units only to sweeten player for player swaps. See Below for more detailed information.
How the Sim Orders Personnel Adds and Drops and Why it's Important
Roster sizes are absolute and cannot be stretched. There are different roster caps for different leagues, and it's essential to pay attention to this when making trade offers, because the commissioner will not return lost players to your roster. To determine whether you have space to receive more personnel, have a look at the following sequence:
- Waived players are marked by the sim and deactivated so they don`t play and accrue salary.
- Games Run.
- Auxiliary Callups are assigned to the roster.
- Waived/Traded players are removed from roster (or not, depending on owner`s preference as indicated by the checkbox in Manager Controls)
- Trades are conducted (at each successful trade the sim checks to see if it should drop that player from the roster as per 4. above).
- Waiver Acquisitions are assigned to roster.
Trading with League Owned Teams
Beginning in Summer 2020 it is possible to propose trades to league owned franchises. However, to avoid wasting your efforts please attend to the following:
1. You may offer cash (units) to sweeten a deal but you cannot buy a player. Such offers will be refused.
2. League Owned teams are not permitted to trade their draft picks. Any offer involving a draft pick will be refused.
3. All deals must be a single player for a single player. The two players involved do not have to be at the same position. That is, you could offer an OF for a SP, or a 2B for a SS, etc. If you offer a multiplayer deal it will be refused.
4. The value formula used to assess deals is undisclosed. It takes into consideration the following:
- where players rank in their pools
- terms of contract, especially remaining seasons
- relative value of current randomized seasons
- the value spectrum (see below)
- defensive skills
- cash (units) offered as part of the deal
- quality of replacements from the Auxiliary Roster
- depth of rosters (e.g., it may be easier to get an OF from a team with 4 OF, though league owned teams are reluctant to give up superstars)
5. Offers will usually be responded to within 10-15 minutes and you will receive a message explaining whether the offer was accepted or hinting at why it was refused.
6. Any offer that is very "close" to acceptable has a small random chance of being accepted even if slightly undervalued. This is meant to encourage reasonable offers. Position for position trades (e.g., SP for SP or 2B for 2B) stand a slightly higher chance of success.
7. Since League Owned teams are under the financial care of the Commissioner they have little incentive for cash (units). They want to improve their teams like everyone else. It will not be easy to wrestle marquis players from them without willingness to offer something of comparable value.
8. You cannot make more than SEVEN trades per league per season with League Owned teams.
9. You cannot make more than TWO trades per team per season with League Owned teams.
10. Once a team receives its TENTH offer from you it begins assessing the quality of your offers. The sim tracks every offer you make to every franchise. If your percentage of low offers to a given franchise grows too high you might receive a message indicating that a franchise is no longer open to receiving offers from you. Reasonable offers earn you credibility and help offset the impact of low offers. At the close of each season, memory of your offers is cleared.
Defensive Value Spectrum
In sabermetrics, the defensive spectrum is the graphical representation of the positions on a baseball field, arranged from left (the easiest defensive positions) to right (the hardest). Most people say that catcher is the hardest position to play because a catcher has many responsibilities. A catcher has to watch the runners, make sure no one is going to steal, squat for 2-5 hours a game, and has to make the right calls for what pitch the pitcher should throw.
First baseman – Left fielder – Right fielder – Third baseman – Center fielder – Second baseman – Shortstop – Catcher – Pitcher
