A Word from the Trade Chair

Hey guys. Jeremy of St. Louis and the current trade chair has a few thoughts on trades for the new owners and a good reminder for the vets. Here we go.

Happy 2008 gentlemen! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season. Since we have some new owners with us this year in Habla, I wanted to make sure that everyone's on the same page when it comes to conducting trades.

1) Make sure that all trades are submitted using the following format; for example:

St. Louis gets:
MON #1 pick
$5 cash

Montreal gets:
P Cal Eldred (move to Active, #3 SP slot; P Blaeholdger to AAA)

The format makes it easier for me to evaluate trades quickly and efficiently, plus it helps eliminate any confusion as to a trade's particulars.
Please make sure to include the position of any players involved. Feel free to include any roster moves you need to make as well. Otherwise you need to include them in a separate email to Gary. DO NOT blame Gary when he has to makes roster cuts/moves for your team because you failed to provide them; ever since the aliens abducted him, Gary's psychic powers have gone in the toilet:). Keep in mind that the commissioner is certainly within his rights to refuse to process a trade until BOTH teams have sent in their necessary roster moves. So make sure to send in those roster/lineup moves at some point prior to the next sim.

2) Once both owners have agreed to a trade, it's time for one of them to write it up and submit it. You only need to send it to 2 people: myself and your trade partner. You may certainly email Gary and Nick at this point too, but I've always viewed that as just a great way to clog their Inboxes with needless email messages.
Once I've received a trade submission, the next step is for the trade partner to send in his agreement to the trade details, i.e. his confirmation. Again, you need only send it to your trade partner and myself. Usually an email reply to the original write-up works best, something along the lines of "St. Louis agrees to this trade".

3) Once I've received confirmation from both owners, I will then look it over. Assuming it's approved, I will then notify both of the owners, as well as Gary (who processes it) and Nick (who handles the $ end of things). Only upon the sending of my approval does a trade become binding. If I didn't send an approval, then the trade didn't/shouldn't/hasn't happened.

4) The last step is to announce the trade to the rest of the league. Simply put, this lets owners know. Afterall, it's only sporting of you to allow your fellow owners the opportunity to take your most recent blockbuster trade into account when implementing their master plan for league domination:).
Failure to announce a processed trade within 1 or 2 sims will result in a verbal reminder from me, assuming I catch it. Repeat offenders will seriously begin to mess with my Chi.
DO NOT be a Premature Ejac-Announcer! Please wait for approval before announcing to the league.
Although it's not necessary for both teams to make the announcement, it's encouraged. Especially if it's accompanied by a write-up or update from your team.

That's the process. A big part of being trade chair is to make sure that the newer owners are being protected and aren't getting "hosed" on deals. So be nice to the new guys! The more talent involved in a deal, the more consideration I tend to give to a potential trade. The longer you've been an owner in this league also means that I give you greater leeway when it comes to making trades. When a deal involves two veteran owners, that's usually good enough for me. Not only do I feel you've earned my trust, but I'm disinclined to second-guess someone who's proven to me over the years that they know what they're doing.
Generally I'm LOATHE to meddle, tweak, or nix deals. I will only do so if I think a trade is seriously broken. I'm a believer in free markets, so naturally I want teams to announce their trade intentions as often and as clearly as possible. How many times have you seen a deal come across the league email where you said, "Shoot. If I had known Player X could've been had so cheaply, I would've made an offer"? If I have misgivings about a trade involving Player X, the very first thing I do is make sure that the rest of the league knew that Player X was available in the first place. Assuming that's the case, Habla then becomes as close to a theoretical free market as we could hope for; it gives everyone an equal chance to compete for Player X's services. Ideally, every season the market value for tradeable assets (picks, players, ca sh) is what the league's 28 owners determine them to be. And believe me, market values change from season to season. For example, how hard is it this year to pick up good starting pitching? Compared to last year, I would say much easier. From what I've seen so far in the 2033 season, there are plenty of good starting pitchers who've been made available for trade. However will that pitching glut hold true for next season? Unlikely from my experience.
Suffice it to say that I view any intervention in a trade as something best employed judiciously.
I always ask the same basic question when looking over a trade; "Can you make a reasonable case that both teams are better for having made this deal?" Now admittedly that sometimes means me having to look at a deal from some very different perspectives, but for every deal I've approved, it means I was able to convince myself in some fashion that both teams were better as a result.
By far the easiest role for the trade chair to play, although arguably the most important one, is to serve as the final arbiter of agreement between trading partners. Imagine, without a trade chair you could simply announce to the league that you've traded your struggling backup 2B for Robbie Alomar. Talk about a recipe for confusion and endless flaming emails! Chaos! Anarchy! Thus this vast Habla bureaucracy. . .

So that hopefully offers some insight into how I view the function of the trade chair. However in my view it is NOT the trade chair's job to help insure that you get the best deal possible. Would I like you to? Absolutely. Even though I might think that you could get more cash or a higher draft pick out of a deal (or even a better deal elsewhere), it's not the trade chair's place to tell you so. The trade chair's job is to help facilitate trade between teams, not to nitpick, critique, or otherwise complicate the process.
If you're interested in getting the most out of a deal, I would encourage you to solicit some feedback from your fellow owners. Especially when you've got a big deal on the table. Would they pay that much? Is it a fair trade-off? Is he inflating P Eldred's value? Stuff like that. If you're new and don't "know" a lot of the Habla owners, feel free to ask any of the eboard members. All are knowledgeable guys who would be more than willing to answer questions and offer their opinions if asked. They're a great resource; use them!
Lastly, if ATL winds up owning 15 of the top 28 selections in this year's draft like they did last year, don't look at me; we're all consenting adults. Go Casey! Lol.

Thanks for the time gentlemen. Enjoy the new year.

Jeremy