Fantasy Baseball Strategy: Importance of Finding an Ally

Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

At a glance, fantasy baseball would appear to be a horribly individual activity. Sure, you’re in a league with other people, but your success in that league depends entirely on how well the players you bring aboard justify those decisions. I guess you can make a case that you’re in it with the players on your team, but you don’t have much control over what they do. It seems as though all you can do is find a fantasy baseball strategy and hope it works. If it doesn’t, try another next year.

But right here, right now, I’m suggesting that you find a partner in crime. Someone knows fantasy baseball and the in’s and out’s of that specific league is ideal but really, anyone who knows fantasy baseball would suffice. I could go on about how fantasy baseball is a great way to make new friends and this is why you should find an ally. Personally, I think that’s true, fantasy baseball has been a great way for me to make friends and some of those friendships have been started as really nothing more than fantasy baseball allies.

But I don’t think anyone really is coming on to this site for life advice from me. Giving advice on a good fantasy baseball strategy? That’s a different story, so we’ll stick to that.

If you’re looking compete, you have to be active. If you’re going to be active in a competitive league, you’re going to be involved in trades throughout the year. If you’re going to be involved in trades throughout the year, you need an ally.

Now at a glance, this looks fishy. It can be fishy but if done the right way, it’s perfectly fine. So, what’s the right way, and what’s the wrong way?

Scenario 1:

In a keeper league, Team 1 is right in the mix for the championship while Team 2 just hasn’t gotten anything going all year and is really looking at a middle-of-the-pack finish.

But while he is out of contention, he has Mike Trout on his team. So, out of the goodness of his heart, the owner of Team 2 offers Trout for someone like Brandon Belt. He may even try to justify it by saying, “Well, my first baseman got hurt and Belt will be really cheap to keep next year.”

Not good enough. A blatantly one-sided trade that will obviously impact that year’s championship race is never okay, no matter how anyone tries to justify it. It’s a dirty move even if the owner of Team 2 doesn’t care about keeping Trout for next year, and especially if they’ve reached some agreement to reverse the trade once the season ends. The rest of the contenders all of a sudden have to contend with a team that just got the game’s most dangerous overall player without having to give up anywhere near the kind of haul he’d normally go for.

It should go without saying, but weird stuff seems to happen every year in some leagues. Something like that is not cool.

Final Verdict: Wrong Way to use an ally.

Scenario 2:

Here’s a real-life example that happened last year between Nash and myself.

I had a really good offensive team, especially in the power departments but not so much in stolen bases. My shortstop was Elvis Andrus. Nash had J.J. Hardy and offered me Hardy for Andrus straight up. I saw the trade and pretty quickly declined it. The next morning, Nash and I had this conversation over a few texts.

• Nash: Hey, why did you decline that trade?
• Me: My power is great, my steals are struggling. Hardy doesn’t help me.
• Nash: Yeah, but you’re much closer to losing points in Hardy’s good stats. You’re better in homers and RBI, but you’re not that close in steals to the guy in front of you, or behind you.
• Me: Okay. Why do you want Elvis?
• Nash: I’m out of it, but he can help me impact the races more than Hardy can.

I looked it over and low and behold, he was right. Here was an owner who was out of the race, but wanted to stay involved in the season. He found a way to do that and help me in the process. When I rejected his offer, he politely pointed out that I should probably accept it, and didn’t cuss at me or call me an idiot.

Nothing wrong with that at all. I was not only giving up a talented player, but the higher rated one. You certainly couldn’t say that Nash was punting good players over to me for nothing. He just found a trade that could help both of us.

Final Verdict: Right Way to use an ally.

Scenario 3:

This is probably the more common trade scenario and ultimately, the best part of finding an ally. You’re looking to make a trade with another person in the league and want another opinion before offering/accepting it.

A good ally will be honest with you. If I went to Nash in parachute pants asking for an honest opinion on the look, I’d trust him to be honest and tell me that they look ridiculous (though I’ve never worn parachute pants so I guess we’ll never know for sure). Similarly, if I asked him for an opinion on a trade and he didn’t think it helped me, I’d hope he’d say that. If I asked him for an opinion on a trade that would help me but also hurt his chances in the process, I’d look for something like “Man, I hope you don’t make that trade, but it would really help your team.”

Let’s re-visit the Andrus/Hardy scenario above, only this time, Nash wasn’t the one who offered the trade. If I got that offer, my initial instinct would have been to decline it but if I had done that, it would have been a mistake. The right thing to do is to seek out your ally, tell him/her the offer, and get his view.

It might be something like: “Hey, So and So offered me J.P. Arencibia and Bronson Arroyo for Miguel Cabrera and Paul Goldschmidt, lol. Does he think I’m stupid.”

In all likelihood, the response would probably sound like this: “I don’t know why in the world he’d expect you to take that trade” , possibly with some expletives mixed in there. But every now and again, he might say “As crazy as this sounds, I like that trade for you.” Now, that’s obviously an absurd example and I couldn’t think of the reason why that trade would be a good one. But it’s at least best to run it by an ally before declining it. If nothing else, give him/her the chance to agree with you and maybe get a good laugh out of it.

None of this is a problem at all.

Final Verdict: Right Way to use an ally.