Id, Ego, Jung (Ho Kang) and Dump Trades |

I sort of realize that as I am aging, in many ways I am becoming a cranky old man. This is not easy for me to acknowledge as in general I try to pride myself in being open minded and pretty accepting. Plus, as much as I love baseball, and especially the fantasy avenue of the game, I do try to remember it is a game and not to take any of this too seriously.

But I have noticed, in particular this year, that I might have become one of those guys with whom it might be hard to trade.

I am not exactly sure why this is. Have I always been this way, and now that I made it to geezerhood, I don’t care who I offend, or how?
Is it because I think some whippersnapper might take advantage of me because I am busy thinking about just how good Howie Kendrick was for me August of 2009 thinking I will be happy to take the injured Nat as part of a deal?
Is it because I have become impatient with just how different we all evaluate talent and worth that often I cannot even see a fair deal when it is offered because I have become naturally both defensive, and in a way stuck in my own sense of player value.
I am extremely skeptical of trading, since even in a throwback league, I might have J.D. Martinez, but I still want to finish as high as permits, so I figure why bother if I think Martinez is of more help than perhaps a third-level starter and a closer might be?
I am extremely skeptical in keeper leagues, where I also might have J.D. Martinez, and while the idea of dump trading appeals to me, it never seems to work out when I swap high profile prospects who turn out to be Jedd Gyorko and Jeff Samardzija: Players who are not terrible, but hardly worth the impact of a Martinez. More important, maybe I can simply keep my freezes, draft better, and reacquire J.D. next year anyway and not have to second-guess?

Furthermore, I am just flat out confused by how we all seem to value players.

A case in point is my craze 24-team Scoresheet League. Scoresheet is head-to-head, and we are each allowed eight “soft-freezes,” meaning a team that chooses to freeze fewer than eight players can. It also means that the first rounds of the draft involve those teams with less than eight drafting first and when all 24 teams have that magic number, then the draft at large–37-rounds worth–begins.

We have allowed that owners can freeze a player with rookie status as a 19th round selection meaning technically we can freeze nine players, not eight. But wait, that it not all: an owner can acquire up to three 19th-rounders from other owners so in theory, we can freeze the soft eight, but three prospects, meaning 11 players can be retained by an adept owner.

A side issue is that within the league, there is never enough pitching, it seems. Personally, I rostered eight starting pitchers–Clayton Kershaw, Robbie Ray, and Kyle Hendricks were freezes–plus Daniel Mengden, Mike Foltynewicz to complete my rotation and then grabbed Andrew Triggs, Paul Blackburn, and Joey Lucchesi for my bench. And, that is not enough arms to avoid the dreaded “AAA pitcher taking the hill for me about every fifth day.

Since my rotation is decimated, I get a lot of offers for my arms, but they are for 18th-round picks, and I have not clue what that means any more. In fact, I was offered an 18th-rounder–which somehow has become the current trade standard–for Hendricks this past week, but here are the guys we drafted a few months back in this year’s 18th-round.

Now, I am sorry, but save Soler, none of these players is worth Kyle Hendricks despite the “promise” of an 18th round selection next year.

None of this, however, seems to quell the general indignance I seem to feel with every trade I am offered, be it a fair one, or not, and certainly I was not interested in letting Hendricks go for a chance at Andrew Cashner.

And, I think though this new attitude makes me tough to deal with, I think I get better results with my new crabbiness. But, I also think I rub a lot of owners the wrong way with a terse response to initial offers.

I guess I will try to be more mindful, but in the interim, remember, I do have my own hashtag. It is #iambecomingabesimpson. I guess we all have to deal with it.

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