Being a Good Citizen

In some leagues, the trade deadline brings a complete lack of suspense. First place and fourth place are typically pretty good markers for whether or not there will be a lot of activity at the deadline. If the team in first place has 80 points or more, it's often a good sign that there won't be a lot of deadline movement. While a 20-point gap isn't completely impossible to make up, the odds are quite poor that the teams at the bottom are going to cover all that ground with less than 60 games to play in the season.

Similarly, if the fourth place team has 68 points or more, there's a good chance that the team in 5th is pretty far behind and doesn't even have a chance at sniffing one of the four "money" positions. At this point, the teams in 5th, 6th and 7th might even consider selling off the few chips they have and looking at next year.

In my experience, this isn't an exciting place for a league to be. Even though a 74-point or less winner is more often than not a sloppy squad, it does make for some exciting races down to the wire. The idea of jumping from 4th to 1st on the last weekend of the season makes for the kind of intensity we all hope for from this game (unless you're in 1st by 15 points, which is boring but often desirable).

What if you're stuck, though, in a league where you have 55 points, are in 5th place, and are looking at a 25-point gap? Do you stop looking at your team and ignore all of the e-mails you're getting at the trade deadline?

Nonsense. Regardless of where you are in the standings, paying attention at the trade deadline is crucial.

This is your opportunity to:

• Pick up minor league draft picks or farm players for players you couldn't move earlier
• Grab someone from a team near or at the salary cap, possibly on the cheap, because they have to move that player
• Pay attention to interleague movement and the possibility of sneaking someone decent on to your roster as a freeze for next year. In one of my leagues, the top 3 teams are at the cap or nearly at the cap, and it's pretty much a two-team race for first and a four-team race for the money. Keeping your eye open might very well land you a decent freeze at the deadline.

I mentioned this yesterday, but this is such a significant don't that it's worth mentioning over and over. Do NOT make offers for the sake of making offers. It's one thing to notice that the second place team has a cap crunch. It's another entirely to offer Jesse Barfield for Vlad Guerrero to do a "favor" for the team at the top of the heap.

While you might think you're being clever, you're not. In any competitive league, the teams at or near the top of the heap aren't there because they're lucky. Not only are you wasting valuable keystrokes and time you could be spending thinking of real ways to improve your team, you're also alienating someone who very well might be able to help you out next year. I've got pretty thick skin, and will forget about a stupid offer like that an hour after I receive it. But I can guarantee you that there are owners in every league who will hold a grudge. This year's contender is often next year's non-contender, and vice versa. When all things are otherwise equal, the recipient of a stupid offer like this will make a trade with another owner.

I know it stinks being out of the running. I've been there before. But your goal is to improve your team, not wishcast by making hopeless offers to teams that are in the running. Just remember that your league is like your office. If you're rude to all of your co-workers, you'll find that there won't be any coffee left behind for you except the decaf. The same goes in Roto. Pissing off potential trading partners does nothing except to limit your options in the future, which limits your odds of winning. Never do anything to reduce your chances of winning.