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But what's to stop two owners from colluding in the process, when they have very different team qualities? Someone about to promote and someone sure to miss the playoffs/about to relegate have very different motives. It's not a stretch in my view that they stack their deal such that it unfairly benefits them both.

That happens in real life, remember the Pau Gasol trade from Memphis to the Lakers? That was an unbalanced trade but it was in the best interest of the two teams.If two members discuss something and come up with a deal, as long as it isn't too ridiculous, then I don't see the problem.

True, but in that real life example, it's very likely that all other teams in the league knew beforehand that Gasol was available, and they had the chance to make a counteroffer, but passed (bringing up one possible refinement to the trading idea - all league managers get to see the proposed trade with a certain amount of time before it is to be executed. If one of these managers makes an offer deemed to be "better" than the original, the initial trade partner must accept that new offer, or nothing at all. Hmm...)

And in real life, the team giving away more than it got is still gonna be a team, with real fans, real expenditures, and needing revenue. Here, too easy for the team go bot, or relegate, and not have to worry about any repercussions of bad trades (now, adding something relating to fan survey and bad trades is an interesting idea - throw that into the mix. You make an unbalanced trade sending off one of your best players, and the fans punish you for a long time, until you surpass your team level at the time of the trade).

Still, the question for me hinges around, "...as long as it isn't too ridiculous"

How, in practice, is that going to be determined. Is it total skill points? Well, nobody thinks going from 8 to 9 jumpshot is the same as going from 1-2 shotblocking (now colossal to legendary, that's a different story. We all know the worth of that is asymptotically approaching infinity.) Salary doesn't work because some managers put, and some positions have, different 'worth' in secondary skills. If you propose something really concrete to address this, I'd love to hear it.

Currently, players are valued based upon what the TL market sets their price at. It's not totally efficient nor perfect, but it seems the most fair way to do it.

well played man, a good soldier like myself knows when to admit defeat. :-)

I do think a trading function would be cool in principle, since there's nothing like a cool blockbuster trade. Well, that and the overanalysis and arguing that goes along with trying to decide who got the better deal. "Herschel Walker for 8 zillion draft picks?" "Randy Moss for a 3rd rounder...WUT" (As a Pats fan, all I can say is, MWAHAHAHAHAHA).

It's just the more I think about it in detail with respect to an online game like this, the more difficult it becomes to pull off.

lol

PS- I believe this marks the first time in my internet career that I have used the lol.

Last edited by somdetsfinest at 6/29/2011 8:33:00 AM

While I appreciate the efforts to find a way to make trading possible without making it easy to cheat, I really have to say that I can’t see it working out, and believe me, I’ve spent more time that I care to admit thinking about this issue. The latest idea, that trading be allowed within a league, I’m afraid has the potential for cheating that would be difficult to catch.

In higher divisions with active teams, I agree that there would typically be enough eyes to assure that there is no funny business going on. The downside, though, is there will inevitably be difficulty at times determining whether some lopsided trades are attempts at loading one team or if there just happened to be a team agreeing to a bad trade. (It happens to the Knicks all the time!)

In lower divisions with lots of bot teams or inactive teams, managers will have a difficult time even finding a trade partner, which will seem unfair to them if other leagues have active trading opportunities (i.e. opportunities for roster improvement) not open to them. And with fewer active/knowledgeable managers in these leagues, it is easier to make a trade without protest from other teams, which means the BB staff has to find these bad trades, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, this is probably not going to be easy at all to catch. And yes, cheating can happen. There could be a team that wants to give up and another manager convinces him to unload players in a lopsided trade, maybe trading good prospects (with low salaries) for old veterans (with higher salaries) so that the trade data maybe won’t get noticed. Maybe two friends sign up at the same time and happen to get put in the same league (I know of this happening at least once before, so it could probably happen more than we think) and they decide to load one team up. Maybe there’s just a really stupid manager who doesn’t understand the game and a genius gets a new team and takes advantage of him. There are probably at least a dozen more plausible scenarios where corruption could happen In short, bad trades can happen, and in a lower division with little policing, it will create many opportunities for taking advantage of the system in a way that is detrimental to the integrity of the game.

It seems to me that we already have our hands full with a pretty good TL system that we can’t police perfectly, but well enough that cheaters do usually get caught eventually, if not right away. Maybe somebody here will strike gold and come up with a way of accomplishing a trade system that will improve the game, and I actually hope it happens, but I’m afraid that I’m skeptical on the prospects of success with this idea, and not for a lack of trying to come up with something that would work.