Roto World by Dave Diamond

“I thought we had a deal!” Those were the words of one of my fellow owners when he realized that I was shopping around to other league owners to see whether I could do better in a trade for my stud starting pitcher (Kevin Brown). Now, of course we never had a deal. We had a series of e-mail communications about a possible deal. (I really would rather talk trade over the phone, but he wanted to do it only by e-mail, so what can you do?) I would be a pretty stupid General Manager if I made a deal without even talking to other owners to see what the market would bear. In the end, another owner made me a better offer, and I did the deal with the other guy. But it raises the question: what are the ethics of trade discussions? When is a deal a deal, and when can one owner back out or keep shopping for a better offer?

Of course, to some extent each league and each set of owners is different, and if your group is particularly cut-throat, your internal ethical standards may be “no holds barred.” A trade is not a trade until the owners click their mouse buttons and formally execute the deal on the league’s web site (or maybe when they jointly communicate to the commissioner that the trade is done). But in most leagues, a GM who reneges on a deal after there has been a “meeting of the minds,” is going to get a bad reputation and other owners will be reluctant to make deals later. So, knowing that your reputation is at stake, and based on my experience over the last 15 years of roto leagues, here are a few Diamond Rules to follow.

1. Be up front about your point in the process. If you are in the preliminary stages of investigating a possible deal, say so. Tell the other GM that you are just thinking about options, not really “shopping” your guys. Don’t mislead other GMs into putting in a lot of work on a potential deal only to have it fall apart because you were never really serious. On the other hand, if you are gung-ho to make a deal right away, let the other owners know (without seeming too desperate) that you are actively trying to make the deal and would like to move quickly. If you have other deals under consideration, let your fellow GMs know that also (it may even give you better bargaining power), but don’t fib about it. If your bluff gets called, other GMs won’t believe you the next time.

2. Be clear when an offer is not an offer. There is a difference between saying “if I were to offer you Derek Jeter and I wanted Bartolo Colon, what would you say?” and saying “I’ll give you Jeter for Colon straight up.” The first statement is pretty clearly just an inquiry –a jumping off point for further discussion – and not a real offer of a trade that could be “accepted.” The second statement sounds like an offer, and if the second owner says “yes,” he might well think that the deal is “done.” Make sure you leave yourself some wiggle room. Say that you “would probably” do the deal, or that you “would have to think about it, but you might be willing” or you “think it’s a good deal, but you need to look at it some more.” Neither make an offer, nor accept one until you are really ready.

3. Put conditions on the deal if you want there to be conditions on the deal. Think about worst case scenarios. Suppose you say “yes” to a deal, then that night the player you just acquired suffers a serious injury. You never had a chance to put him into your lineup because your league only makes roster moves on Monday. Can you void the deal? (Tell it to the Blue Jays, buster!) If you want there to be some “out” clause in the deal, or some condition to the transaction, talk about it up front and make it clear. Put it into an email to have a record. If you want the right to void the deal only in the event of an injury – say so. If you want the right to revoke within 24 hours for any reason – put that in the deal. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck. (Many is the time that I’ve called a fellow owner after a deal has been announced and said, “you idiot! I would have given you WAY better value for that guy.”)

4. Verify that the deal is done. When you think the deal is done, verify it either orally or via email. Don’t assume anything. Say, “OK, this is a done deal – Pedro and Manny for Brown and Urbina, right?” Unless you have a co-owner who works with you or lives next door where you can physically shake hands on the deal, try to generate some kind of “virtual handshake” to seal the deal.

5. Report the deal to the Commissioner. As soon as the deal is done, report it to your league commissioner. Even if you have a web-based league with an automatic trade confirmation process, it doesn’t hurt to tell someone “officially” that you have a deal.

But, what if you need to pull out of deal? Is there a graceful way? Suppose you told owner A that you would do a deal with him on particular terms. Then, owner B made you an offer, but you had to accept immediately. Since you hadn’t heard from owner A, you do the deal with owner B. Then, when you check your email, there is an “acceptance” of your offer from owner A – but you already traded away one of the players to owner B. What to do? (This really happened to me, last season, I’ll have you know.) You could try to contact owner B and see if he will voluntarily retract the deal. If he says “no” then you’re stuck. In some leagues, the Commissioner might settle the issue, or perhaps it could be put to a vote of the owners. Either way, somebody is going to be pissed off and you will look foolish.

To avoid the above scenario, you have to do one or both of the following: (1) tell owner A that you have other deals going and that you may be forced to take one of them if he doesn’t make a decision, and let him know that your “offer” isn’t really going to mature into a deal until you give him confirmation that you will accept the deal after he says go. (2) Tell owner B that you have one other deal in the works, and to be fair to owner A, you will accept his deal subject to a one-hour grace period so you can check to make sure owner A hasn’t accepted your offer first. Yes, that seems pretty wishy-washy and overly cautious, but sometimes caution is called for.

Just remember, whatever you do will not be soon forgotten, and if you ever want to deal with the other GMs again, you have to act in good faith and be up front.

Roto Notes

Wins and ERA and strikeouts get the headlines in the papers, but roto players know that WHIP is just as important, if not more so, than any of the “glamour” stats. A starter with a good WHIP is pitching well – even if he’s getting poor run support, poor defense behind him, or just plain bad luck. A starter with a solid WHIP can really pick up your staff, while a guy with a huge WHIP can sink your team faster than an iceberg in the north Atlantic.

So, who are the WHIP studs through the first quarter of the season? A few names in the top five are predictable, but number one and four may surprise you:

		IP	WHIP
2	Pedro Martinez	65.0	.887
3	Kevin Brown	53.1	.881
5	Greg Maddux	61.2	.973
..	..............	.......	.......
1	Rick Reed	67.2	.783
4	Joe Mays	61.2	.923

And who are the WHIP killers:

		IP	WHIP
1	Gil Heredia	41.1	1.911
2	Rick Helling	56.1	1.882
3	Dave Mlicki	51.1	1.851
4	Pete Harnish	35.1	1.840
5	Britt Reames	42.2	1.781

Ouch!