5 Advanced Steps to Steal a Deal
I could drone on and on about how you should be continuously looking to deal from a place of strength to fill a positional or categorical weakness in your roster, but since you’re reading fantasy baseball articles to begin with, I’ll assume you’re smart enough to know that already. I prefer not to talk down to the least common denominators among us, but rather speak to the more advanced methods of making a deal. But just like most things, there’s no specific science to this. This is not the art of war, but rather the war of art. It’s time to paint your midseason masterpiece, and if you follow these 5 steps to the letter, you just might steal a deal!
STEP 1) Compile the Keeper List
The first thing you should do is compile a list of your anticipated keepers. (NOTE: If you’re not in a keeper league, skip down to Step 2) This step is imperative and will save you loads of time, effort, and headaches. For example, if your league protects five players, find your five best values and a couple of alternates according to your league settings, and list them alongside their respective rounds or auction values. Literally write them down. If you haven’t done this, open a new tab on your internet browser and go do it right now. Seriously, I’ll be right here when you get back. You’d be surprised at how many managers skip this simple concept. This is an easy reference list that should be glanced at whenever you are either proposing a trade or considering an offer from someone else. It may be obvious to you that Masahiro Tanaka is a 10th round keeper and you plan on protecting him. However, it’s far easier to forget in the heat of the battle that your Anthony Rizzo in the 12th round is your 5th best value. Keep the list handy and be checking for revisions now that Joey Votto might not be among your top values. Know that the names on this list should only be tradable if you receive a similar keeper value in return, you already have a similar keeper value on your roster to slide onto your list, or you’re punting some of your keeper options in an all-out effort to win this season.
STEP 2) Don’t become enamored with one player! Instead, focus on the position or category juice you are lacking.
Far too many times I hear a manager say, “I really want ‘Player X’, what’s it going to take to get him from you?” That’s music to my ears, because at that point, I know that emotion has come into the equation. Don’t be THAT manager. That’s the manager that’s easily duped and makes a decision not based on the facts. There may be one player that you think you value more highly than his current owner, but trying to deal solely for only one player in the whole wide world is a recipe for putting on the blinders and ending up with a perilous deal. Instead, be looking objectively at categories and positions that you want to improve. Now you start looking at other teams in the league that have players they can afford to lose that fit those criteria. If you’re uncertain on how to value Player X on another team, one thing I like to do is to look at some in-season experts rankings that are available on numerous fantasy sites. The fantasy analysts don’t have to corroborate your thoughts on every single player, but if you value Chris Davis as a first rounder but several industry experts rank him outside their top-50, maybe it’s time for you to take a deeper look at that player. Since the great majority of fantasy managers simply don’t have a firm grasp on the entire player pool at any given moment, reviewing some sites rankings before offering a deal will help you quickly gauge some lesser known players. When a manager counters with Jason Hammel, you may find yourself needing more information on him than just his season stat line.
STEP 3) It’s not about your team
Simon Sinek tells us in his best-selling book to “start with why”. So… WHY should an opposing manager trade with you? What do you have to offer them? The fantasy manager that never pulls off trades is often one that solely looks at his/her own roster needs. Trading is all about the other manager and what fits your opponents needs, otherwise you’ll rarely be able to make a deal. See if this scenario sounds familiar:
You own Jose Abreu, Freddie Freeman, and Justin Morneau. You have two utility slots that are currently occupied by your two reserve first baseman. Rival manager then offers you Brandon Moss for your lone 2nd baseman, Brian Dozier.
In a value vacuum you may prefer Moss to Dozier, but you chuckle at such a silly offer because you know that this trade will leave you with four 1st basemen and no 2nd basemen in sight. The opposing manager did what countless managers do, they put the blinders on and only considered their own team needs. I’m going to let you in on something that may not make your socks roll up and down, but it’s true… In a standard-sized league, there will rarely be a specific trade scenario where your categorical/positional needs coincide with more than two or three other managers in the league.
STEP 4) Narrow down those managers to trade with
This is where most people don’t want to do the leg work, but as the great Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own reminds us about baseball, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” After determining your own categorical/positional surpluses and deficits, you then have to do it for the other teams in the league too. This is how I’ve managed to pull off the most trades of anyone in my most competitive leagues by a wide margin. Fortunately, most hosting sites have some nifty tools to help you with this. If you are in a Roto league, this becomes much more straight forward, because you are constantly reminded of your categorical strengths and weaknesses. In Head-to-Head though, things become obfuscated and even seasoned managers can fall into the trap of keeping closer tabs on their win-loss record than on their categorical rates. Many host sites have a tab somewhere titled something like: “Rosters”. Find that page, it’s your best friend. When your Edwin Encarnacion goes out for 2-4 weeks and you need to trade an outfielder for a corner infielder, you can browse the league in one click to find a couple of managers that have a surplus of first baseman on their rosters. That’s where you begin your search. It’s much more difficult to scan and recall rosters one at a time. Categorically speaking, check your overall numbers in your categories. If you have a wealth of power, but a dearth of speed, perhaps it’s time to offer up some of your power for the guy that owns Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton. Ultimately, you must search in-depth to find the perfect trade partner when you have a specific category in mind.
STEP 5) Talk is cheap… but oh so necessary
This step is tantamount to success and is the most important of the 5 steps. I’m going to tell you how to finesse your way into a deal without pissing off the other managers. Firstly, any league where you know the other managers, you need to make sure you have all of their phone numbers. Email is fine if you’re in a public league, but if you know more than half of the league, you can acquire all of their phone numbers easily by asking the commissioner or other managers for them. Now that you have their numbers, it’s time to work on crafting your text message. (I’ve found that texting often works better than calling them, because you can carefully craft your perfect message and it comes across as less desperate than a phone call.) So here’s my list within a list:
- Explain to them in layman’s terms but without a trace of condescension why you reached out to their team specifically.
- Talk about their team more than yours (that’s what they want to talk about)
- Don’t make it sound like a big deal with your tone.
- Don’t ever make an explicit overture towards how you really want a specific player (review step 2)
- Keep it short.
- Always finish it by asking them to counter offer you if they don’t like it. (if they reject it, this puts the pressure on them that you’re expecting a counter… and thus keeps the dialogue going)
- Say the exact same thing in the comment section of your trade proposal, but word it differently. (This reiterates your point of view and well-thought out logic, and if they don’t see it in one medium… they’ll see it in the other)
EXAMPLE TRADE AND TEXT:
Trade offer -> My Sean Doolittle and Mark Trumbo for His Billy Hamilton
“Hey man, I just sent you an offer. I saw that you were a little light in power and only had two closers, but had some speed to spare. I sent you Trumbo and Doolittle for B. Hamilton. Trumbo will be back after the All-Star break and Doolittle can be kept in the 24th round (so you wouldn’t have to look that up). Let me know what you’re thinking on it. If this is not the direction you want to go, then drop me a counter offer.”
Notice I made the entire text message about their team and never even mentioned my own team… trust me, they don’t care! I’ve already looked into the other team’s categorical deficiencies and sometimes other managers will even take your word for granted, even if they aren’t particularly overflowing with speed or lacking in power. The only time you should begin mentioning your team is if a counter offer crops up that’s wildly outside the parameters of your needs, which will happen sometimes (review step 3). All in all, the simple text messages with a little quip about your thought-process behind the trade offer will often subconsciously become their own reasoning. I can’t tell you how many times I do the leg work of finding another teams needs that correspond with my offerings and hear them repeat my words verbatim to another manager in the league after the deal’s done. “I decided to go for it because I can keep Jose Altuve for 2 seasons in the 4th round.” or “I had plenty of starting pitching to spare, but I really needed another power bat in my outfield.” If you feed them those lines without being patronizing, they will often internalize and own them.
Follow these steps to the letter, doctor’s orders, and you just might steal a deal over this all-star break.
Title Photo courtesy of MyTudut @ flickr
