The 10 Commandments of Making a Successful Trade – Part I

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When I have been perusing the trading forum, I have often noticed people saying, “What are you waiting for!” or, “Are you CRAZY!” The truth is, when we ask a question in a forum of thousands of people, we are looking for reasons to go ahead with or pass on a trade. Not a barrage of “How stupid are you!” comments. I will always ask an opinion of a trade, no matter how good it looks to me. No matter how much you think you know about fantasy football, there is always someone out there that knows more, and additional input never hurts. That is why I wrote these ten commandments of making a successful trade; hopefully, this input will help make your decisions easier.

The First Commandment: Evaluate Your Trade

As simple as it sounds, this step seems to be the most overlooked when making a tough decision on a trade opportunity. It is also the hardest and longest step of the trading process and that is precisely why it is the first commandment.

Let’s say you have a roster full of double digit wide receivers, but you are lacking in the running back position. What should you do? Go after the biggest and best running back out there, in hopes of a yes from the other coach? No. Evaluate who on your league is the least threatening to your team, start there, and work your way up the standings. If team A has two monster RBs and a decent backup sitting on the bench, how will you benefit? Sure, you get a star running back, but you’ll probably have to trade away two of your top WRs to get your hands on him, losing depth in the process. This doesn’t help you. You have now given team A a monster RB, a decent RB, two double digit WRs and depth in the position he was originally lacking! Why don’t you just give him your starting QB as well to seal your fate? You have to remember that you are eventually going to play against the team you are trading with.

The smart move is to look at the bottom of the list and start with teams that are lacking all around. Don’t go after LaDainian Tomlinson or Ricky Williams if either is on the team that is dominating your league. Settle for a Troy Hambrick, or even an Amos Zereoue. These players were usually drafted in the second round or later of most leagues, and they still have the potential to put up solid numbers. You help yourself in many ways by taking this approach. You won’t have to give up your two best receivers, you receive a decent starting RB and most importantly, you’ve given yourself the best possible chance of moving up in the standings without strengthening the top teams in your league.

The Second Commandment: Draft to Trade

This commandment is a little late for most, but there is always next year. So print this out, and post it up on your wall along with this years stats, the latest news and injury reports, and all the other paraphernalia you’ll use for next year’s draft.

It’s late in the draft, you’ve got your starting lineup, and you’re ready to add depth to your roster. But wait, aren’t you forgetting something? Trading power! Sleepers are the best late round additions to a strategically planned season of domination. Let me give you an example. I am in a twelve-team league that allows for nine starters and eight backups. After I had nailed down my starting lineup, I drafted Charles Rogers in the 14th round and Andre Johnson in the 15th. I knew I was taking a gamble nabbing two rookie WR’s, but I was thinking about trading when I did it. I also ended up signing Anquan Boldin after his first week, giving me my original three starters (Price, Conway, and Chambers) and a backup team that could prove to be a huge threat.

What I ended up doing is this: I traded away Johnson and Conway for Steven Davis (trading with the last-place team in my league). My new lineup was much improved. The starters are now:

QB – Peyton Manning (Rich Gannon as backup; another good trade opportunity)
WR – Peerless Price (Anquan Boldin)
WR – Chris Chambers
WR – Charles Rogers
RB – Priest Holmes
RB – Stephen Davis (Trung Candidate and Anthony Thomas)
TE – Billy Miller
K – David Akers (John Hall)
DT – Miami (New York Giants and Washington)

And 1 open slot that hadn’t been filled yet.

So I now have another first-round draft pick in my lineup, having traded away my 7th and 15th-round draft choices for him. I still need depth at the WR and RB positions, so I will probably do some more trading before the end of the season. Draft to trade. If you make the right choices, you have the ability to defeat your opponents on a weekly basis.

 
Dwayne Skiles may be a five-year fantasy veteran, yet he still finds himself learning new strategies and subtleties every day. He might also be relatively new to the Cafe, but now finds himself spending more time here than at his own league’s site, for which he composes Match-Up articles. We can look forward to seeing more of his writing in the future.