Trade Court: Behind the Bar
Oct 08 2008, 07:28 AM
Chargers RB LaDainian Tomlinson is the subject of a highly controversial trade.
Contributed by: Tom Diggs
With the fantasy football season slowly creeping past the one-third mark, the trades have started to heat up and, in some cases, get a bit more difficult. This is the time to either turn your season around or get ready to start planning for next season. If you are doing well so far, make moves to strengthen your playoff push. If you started slowly, stop waiting for players to “break-out” and start trading for guys that can help you now….before it is too late. With that, on to the proceedings from this week:
So sit back anxiously, fantasy enthusiasts, because court is now in session.
Post-Week 4 Trade Decisions
Case #1
Type of league: Redraft league.
Scoring system: Performance
Dispute: The trade involves 2 teams in separate divisions. The first team is named Shrek's Houndogs and their record is 1-3. The second team is named Dan'O and his record is 0-4. Dan'O is the defending champ from last year. The Houndogs are giving Matt Hasselbeck and Larry Johnson in exchange for Peyton Manning and Fred Taylor from Dan'O.
Closing Arguments: Any issues with this trade?
Judge’s Thoughts:
Team One [Shrek's Houndogs] (players receiving and analysis):
Peyton Manning
In FFPIL-type performance leagues, P.Manning is "only" a top-15 QB and is averaging an "Un-Manning-like" 16.1 points per game. Peyton is still throwing for yardage at his old pace (260+ yards per game), he is just struggling scoring TDs (only 3 in 3 games) and has a high turnover rate compared to his typical standards. It will take him a bit of time to round into form, but expect him to bounce back to his top-10 status and eventually approach top-5 numbers again this season.
Fred Taylor
Team Two [Dan'O] (players receiving and analysis):
Matt Hasselbeck
Hasselbeck has struggled so far this year and is currently averaging 11.9 points per game in FFPIL performance scoring formats. Hasselbeck is due to get his two best WRs back this coming week, however. It is important to note that in 2007, Hasselbeck only averaged 2.0 points per game less then Manning and was a top-10 QB along with Manning. Hasselbeck has the chance to rise back up to that level now that he is getting some of his weapons back healthy after the bye week.
Larry Johnson
LJ is up to the #16 RB in FFPIL performance scoring formats right now and is coming off of two huge games in which he accumulated a combined 319 rushing yards and three touchdowns. While his offensive line is still shaky and is without OT Brendan Albert this coming week, LJ is showing signs of returning to form and is primed for a solid second quarter of the season. Over the next four weeks, LJ will face some pretty decent rush defenses, but these rush defenses are still allowing a combined average of 94 rushing yards per game and have allowed 11 rushing TDs in their 16 combined games. It is not out of reason to expect LJ to have a chance to average around 100 yards and a score over this second quarter and that would keep him as a RB1 in a 14-team league.
VERDICT
This trade is pretty close. I believe that Team Two has a chance to get the better end of the deal if Hasselbeck can return to form and approach Manning's scoring average as he did in 2007. Team One is clearly banking on Manning returning to elite form and trying to buy low on a player that is typically a sure thing. At the current time, Team Two is acquiring a total of 28.6 points per game, while Team One is acquiring 24.3 points per game. This is not a huge difference and seems to be a fairly close to even trade. Trade Allowed.
Case #2
Type of league: Three Player Keeper League
Scoring system: TD = 6, RUSH/REC YARDS = .5/10 yds + 2 @100, PASS YARDS = 1/50 yds +2 @ 300
Dispute: I want to know if the following trade is fair: Team 1 gives up: Robert
Standings of teams involved:
Both teams are 0-4
Rosters of Teams Involved:
Team One (Team A):
B Griese, B Quinn, D Anderson, M Bulger
M Barber, T Hightower, R Williams, T Jones, W Dunn
I Bruce, L Moore, S Holmes, B Edwards, C Johnson, R Meachem
R Longwell
J Allen
B Thomas, K Dansby, K Morrison
C Harris, M Adams
Team Two (Team B):
J Delhomme, D Garrard, K Collins, M Ryan
F Gore, M Jones-Drew, C
D Patten,
J
N Rackers
T Cole, C Long
D Ryans, L Fletcher
B McFadden, T McGee
Closing Arguments: tried to give him Thomas Jones and Warrick Dunn or any combo of the four. He wanted Hightower and Williams.
Judge’s Thoughts:
Team One (players receiving and analysis):
Jake Delhomme
In most scoring formats, Jake Delhomme is around the 20th ranked QB. This makes him a decent play, though not spectacular. When looking at Team One's QB situation, Bulger and D.Anderson are not getting it done. Both are outside of the top-25 and both have potential issues with losing their jobs at some point this season. Delhomme should improve now that Steve Smith is back and has the chance to finish around the top-15 if he utilizes his assets properly.
Frank Gore
Frank Gore is a top-5 RB in any format right now. He is racking up the yards at a feverish pace and is currently on pace for 2100 total yards and 12 scores on the year. Gore is clearly the gem of this trade, but Team Two does have Jones-Drew and the Two RBs they are getting back in the deal in order to start for the rest of this year. When you factor in the keeper aspect of this deal, Gore's value goes up even more.
Team Two (players receiving and analysis):
Robert Meachem
Meachem is the very essence of a big-play WR. In the last three weeks since Colston has been hurt, Meachem has totaled five catches for 204 yards and a score. That's over 40 yards per catch! When you also factor in that Meachem has done this despite being targeted only 6 times as well! Yes, that's correct Meachem has made the absolute most of his opportunities. What does this mean? It basically means that Meachem is close to breaking out whenever he can get the playing time and the opportunity to see more balls come his way. While that may or may not be this season, he is clearly a dynamic playmaker in a dynamic offense that could be productive for years to come.
Tim Hightower
Hightower scored in 3 of 4 preseason games and has followed that up by scoring in 3 of 4 regular season games so far as well. With Edgerrin James getting older and being in what will likely be his last year in AZ, Hightower could be primed to step in and be the full-time back as early as the end of this year or next season. If he can keep up his scoring prowess, he can be a poor-man's Marion Barber He is the 3rd best keeper prospect in this deal behind Gore and Ocho Cinco and could really pay off for Team Two in the long run.
Ricky Williams
Williams is still a talented back but is forced to split time and carries with another talented back in Ronnie Brown. Williams is still averaging over 4 yards per carry and will be able to be inserted into Team Two's lineup in replacing Gore until one of their young RBs steps up.
VERDICT
While this trade does not look entirely even, it can be justified. It is my opinion that preventing a trade needs to either compromise the league's integrity and competitive nature, or it needs to show some signs of collusion. Neither of those circumstances apply in this case. Both teams are currently 0-4, but it appears both owners are taking different strategies going forward. Team One is clearly trying to salvage their season and make a run to the playoffs. After this trade, they will field a team of Delhomme, Barber, Gore, Holmes, Edwards, and
Case #3
Type of League - Redraft - 16 teams - 4 divisions of 4 teams
Scoring System – Performance (yardage & td's only...no PPR)
Dispute: Team A: L.Tomlinson/J. Hester for Team B: DeShaun Jackson/L. White.
Standings of Teams involved: Team A: 0-4 (4th place), Team B: 3-1 (1st place...different division)
Roster of those involved:
Team One:
J. Delhomme
L. Tomlinson, M. Turner, J. Hester, K. Smith, C. Taylor
D. Bowe, B. Berrian, J. Morgan, J. Gaffney, S. Smith(NYG)
T. Gonzalez, M. Lewis
S. Graham
Cowboys D, Redskins D
Team Two:
B. Favre, C. Pennington
B. Jacobs, L. White, S. Morris, D. Sproles, D. Rhodes
A. Smith
J. Kasay
Bucs D
Closing Statement: Team A announced to the league that he wanted to trade Tomlinson to upgrade at WR and balance out his team. He initiated this offer with the commentary of " Keep in mind this shoulder injury with LenDale could make this a total bust of a trade for me if it gets worse". After agreeing to the trade, he then proceeded to accept EVERY trade offered to him in an effort to "stick it" to the commissioner and ruin the league (including 1-for-0 trades, giving him nothing in return). His owner’s rights have been suspended, but his trade partner feels the first trade agreed to was a valid offer, was before he tried to "ruin the league" (in his own words), and thinks the trade should stand. The league overwhelmingly voted it down. Please help!
Judge’s Thoughts:
I am going to take a bit of a different approach to this trade offer and simply comment on it as is rather then breaking it down player by player.
It is my opinion that a trade should never be overturned unless there are signs of collusion or it compromises the integrity of the league.
This trade actually does fall into that category.
The owner of Team A may have put out feelers to gauge interest in Tomlinson and attempt to turn around his/her team. The actual trade offer of Tomlinson and J.Hester for DeSean Jackson and LenDale White is really not a horrible deal. At the time of the trade, White had 161 total yards and 5 scores. White is tied for the NFL lead in rushing TDs, and his numbers stack up ok against LT's in a non-ppr league (LT has 354 yards and 4 scores). When you combine DeSean Jackson's yards and scores with those of White, you get 488 total yards and six scores to Tomlinson's 354 and four scores. When looking at it like that, the deal looks like it is ok.
The major problem is what happened after this point. With the Team A owner then accepting any trade (including 1 for 0 trades where they did not get any player back in return and simply gave players away), Team A then obviously began to compromise the integrity of the league. It is hard to tell when this compromising of the league occurred. Did it occur with the initial trade of Tomlinson or did it occur later? Is it right to allow the first trade and say it looks close and then disallow all of the remaining trades? That is opening up a can of worms. While the league has done the right thing and suspended his ownership rights, the best course of action is to find a replacement owner. A replacement owner should receive the benefit of fielding the full-team prior to the Tomlinson trade.
Even if a new owner is not found and the commissioner has to run this team for the remainder of the season, this team should still remain assembled "as-is" before the Tomlinson move. This is the only way to completely rule out all collusion and to reverse the damage to the integrity of the league that this owner has created.
While the owner who offered this trade of White and D.Jackson for Tomlinson is being punished a bit in doing this, it is important to note that so are each and every other owner that made an offer and had their offer accepted by this individual while that owner was trying to bring the league down. Sometimes the integrity of the league is worth more then upsetting an owner through revoking a trade.
It is rare for me to say this, but completely justified in my opinion in this case: Trade Denied!