Trades are a two-way street

Most fantasy leagues have that one player who consistently makes annoying trade proposals. The trades are annoying because they’re always lopsided in his favor, but not blatantly so. Usually this type of deal involves him giving up three or four decent players in exchange for one superstar. The total production of the decent players may well exceed that of the star; nonetheless, it is still a lopsided deal which you would never accept.

Alas, these types of potential trades are not limited to fantasy baseball. Indeed, many fans---especially those of big market teams---like to believe that similar deals could occur in real life. Witness Mets fans consistently spouting the idea of packaging together spare parts that they don’t want (Lastings Milledge, Aaron Heilman, and a “prospect”) in hopes of obtaining Dontrelle Willis. Sorry, Mets fans: the Marlins can do a lot better if they want to trade Willis.

In this piece (cited by ESPN’s Buster Olney), the writer, John P Lopez, presents a logical, reasonable argument for why the Astros should not sign Carlos Lee. He illustrates a tough paradox that the Astros are facing: either they can choose not to sign Lee (probably a smart move) and continue to be called “cheap” or “not committed to the fans;” or they can sign Lee and likely waste a lot of money. This level of in depth thinking and recognition of the complication of issues is unusual for sports-writing.

However, Lopez then suggests that rather than sign Lee, the Astros should trade for Toronto’s Vernon Wells or Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford. He makes the same argument that Mets fans make: let’s piece together several admittedly-pretty-good players Lopez suggests Jason Hirsh, Adam Everett, and Chris Burke) and offer them in exchange for a superstar. After all, the guys we’re giving up are pretty good. Who cares if they will suit the needs of the team receiving them?

I will probably return to this point other times, as it’s a personal gripe of mine, but I will say it once and for all: if you want to trade for a star player, you’re going to have to give up a lot of talent. If you feel comfortable offering a package of three players for a star without hesitation, then chances are this is not even CLOSE to a good enough package. If you really want to pry a player like Vernon Wells or Carl Crawford loose from their teams, you’re going to have to give up so much talent that it hurts.

In order to receive Josh Beckett (and Mike Lowell, the “salary dump” who outperformed Beckett last year), the Red Sox gave up the 2006 NL Rookie of the Year, a rookie pitcher who threw a no-hitter, and another two prospects who struck out more than one batter per inning in the minors. Yes, this is an extreme example, considering how quickly the players the Marlins received became good (as well as how poorly Beckett pitched). However, this is the type of trade “big-market” teams are going to have to expect to make if they want to get stars from small-market teams---especially if those stars aren’t too expensive (this is especially true in the case of Carl Crawford---his contract is affordable by anyone’s standards, even Tampa Bay’s. They have no NEED to trade him).

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing for your team; after all, to get good players you have to give up good players. But you cannot hope to throw together several “pretty-good” players and hope it’s enough to get you one star player. Just like in fantasy baseball, trades don’t work like that.