Sometimes you just can’t trade a guy in your fantasy baseball league. For whatever reason, the rest of the teams don’t believe in your guy. Whether it’s someone who has been doing well who people aren’t sure if they’re for real (Corey Hart) or someone who has been struggling (Berkman), no one in your league will trade for them. You’ve tried to sell lower than even their value warrants, but no bites. So you go even lower and, before you know it, you’re trading Berkman for a VHS copy of The Secret Life of Desmond Pfeiffer. So what do you do when no one wants to give you any value for one of your guys?
Let’s look at the guys that are supposedly playing above their heads (the Harts). The best thing you can do with these guys is for you to trust in their value. Say you have Jason Bay and Hart, and you’re stuck benching Hart because you just don’t have room. But you really need a starter. You know Hart is worth a starter, but no one’s biting. So trade Bay for a starter and slot Hart into your lineup. In summation, trust in the guys playing well and trade the names.
Next, the guys who don’t have any value because they’re sucking wind like a burro in Machu Picchu, the Berkman case example. There’s two things you can do here. Drop them so they stop sucking the life out of your team. For instance, some might remember when I said I dropped Chipper during the 1st week of the season. I knew no one would trade me anything for Chipper. I miscalculated at the auction and cut my losses quickly. I also knew that people wouldn’t let him sit on waivers. Sure enough, he was picked up and dropped numerous times, i.e., he did damage to my opponents’ offensive categories, not mine. ‘Natch! The other thing you can do with an underperforming player, trade them for a player that someone else can’t trade. Someone who owns Berkman and is benching them would trade you Berkman for a mystery bag of leftovers. Someone can’t stand the sight of Stephen Drew on their team? They might take Berkman for him. Instead of chewing gum, chew bacon!
