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 (Ben Zobrist) or someone who has been struggling (Liriano), 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 Liriano 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 Zobrists). The best thing you can do with these guys is for you to trust in their value. Say you have Jeter and Zobrist, and you’re stuck benching Zobrist every day because you just don’t have room. But you really need a starter. You know Zobrist is worth a starter, but no one’s biting. So trade Jeter for a starter, who will give you value, and slot Zobrist in as your shortstop. Trust in The Zo.
Next, the guys who don’t have any value because they’re sucking wind like a burro in Machu Picchu, the Liriano 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 Carmona after his first start of the year. I knew no one would trade me anything for Carmona. I also knew that people wouldn’t let him sit on waivers. Sure enough, he was picked up and dropped by countless teams in my league, i.e., he did serious damage to my opponents ERA and WHIP, 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 Ben Zobrist and is benching them? They might consider Liriano. Someone can’t stand the sight of Stephen Drew on their team? They might take Liriano. Instead of chewing gum, chew bacon!
