Power Pros Forum

Have any of you turned off trades at the start of an initial season? Does it cease trades for all or just trades with your team?

Since one of the tough parts of the game is self-policing trades so you don't get unreasonably good unreasonably fast, turning off trades might be a good idea. Also, I noticed that some teams just make really dumb trades - like in my current season, the Tigers traded their star ss and the angels their star closer for scrubs who were also in their last year.

Turning off trades might make it interesting to take an older team on the decline (Rangers?) and try to turnover the roster over a season or two instead of a month or two.

Certainly turning off trades and playing expansion mode would pretty much guarantee a losing record in season 1.

Thoughts?

I say don't. If you have players you really want on your team, how can you get them? Without waiting for F/A.

Precisely. It keeps him from going out and getting all the players he wants so his team doesn't become "too good too fast"

On the video game thing I was considering turning off trades, at least for the first year. Turning them off permanently would be kind of boring because the teams wouldn't change all that much and you'd see the same playoff teams almost every year.

Well Skittles what about guys that are making tons of $$$ and may it may not be good and you want to get rid of them?

I was kinda thinking thinking that turning off trades would also force the yanks, red sox, tigers, rangers into a slow, painful decline with their expensive players. Maybe part of the fun would be thinking about when to cut a player in favor of a rookie, or pick up a FA and cut one of your older guys.

Anyway, aside from it being to easy to UNFAIRLY improve your team, other teams make dumb trades.

On my season, I was having an old fashioned penant race in the AL Central because the Red Sox, Yanks, Mariners and Angels had virtually locked up the wild card opportunities, but them check out this trade the Angels made:

Angels send...

closer Francisco Rodriguez (97 CE SL – five, CB – five, CH – two) intimidator, Dr. K
reliever Scott Shields (95 CE to SF – two, SL – three, CB – three, CH – three)

to the Padres in exchange for...

2b Kaz Matsui (DDDECD), stealing – four, error-prone.

True, the Angels players were in the final years of their contracts, but who trades their star closer in a penant race? Clearly they could've done better than Matsui. Anyway, they've totally stuck in August and September and now it does t matter whether my team is 1st or 2nd - we'll get into the playoffs.

Who is Kaz Mastui?

I haven't played as much as most of you out there, which is why I appreciate all the comments, but I know that if I don't exercise restraint, it's pretty easy to pick up Russell Martin,
Luke Scott, Great Hart, and a whole bunch of good players that become great fast. I'm pretty proud of myself for not taking any established player in a trade, other than Jack Cust, with my expansion team. That restraint resulted in a harder 1st season. I'm now wondering if eliminating trades would simply take that "to the next level."

On other posts, people complained that since season mode only goes 10 seasons, after the 2nd or 3rd year, the draft is meaningless. Do you think that would be the case is you turned off trades AND free agency?

E X A C T L Y !!!

He's on the Astros. In real life, he started his career with the Mets. Yanks get Hideki Matsui; Mets get Kaz. Kinda how it goes!

Luck Scott is a good pickup. Just saying.

Yeah, Luck Scott is a great pickup.

I think you're still missing the point.

In this game, would you rather break every record for homeruns, wins in a season, and most blowouts; or, have a lot of games decided by 3 runs or less, where it's tense and your not guaranteed a win?

It sounds like you'd prefer the former, in which case you want to revamp your team, which will simultaneously strip your opponents teams. You should also set the bat adjustment to "best try" so you can hit lots of homeruns, pitch speed to slow, and while youre at it, set the computer's skill level to "T-ball."

For me, that gets boring, so in my current season, I started at the harder settings that I'd worked up to with my last team, and self-policed my trades more. Had a horrible 1st 2 months, but it was awesome catching up in July and August.

No I get the point, but I was just saying that.

I understand. If I don't limit myself to cheap players that teams have been (mostly) eager to part with since 2008, I feel guilty and/or the team is too good and I quit. But I like having the option available. If I do and expansion mode team, I almost always complete trades for the following players prior to the first draft:

Florida - Anibal Sanchez, Andrew Miller, Matt Lindstrom.
Colorado - Aaron Cook, Ubaldo Jimenez, Franklin Morales.

More frequent trades, but with a small twinge of guilt:

Pittsburgh - Zach Duke, Ronny Paulino.
Cincinnati - Great Aybar, Great Paulino, (sometimes Brandon Phillips).
Yankees - Joba Chamberlain.

Expansion teams usually come with a good enough 3B, C and 1B/DH to get you by, especially if you are tanking on purpose to get the first pick in the next draft. Some of those guys can be be beefed up to something you might keep long term and/or switched to a position of need. As for pitchers, you might get a stud, but more often than not you get a couple of fringe relievers while the rest are are E/D control guys with mid-80's fastballs and no blue abilities.

You should add "Great Hart" to your list. He starts as a rookie in the White Sox minor league system, plays 2 positions - LF & 3b - and his rankings are EBGBFD, I think. He also hits lefties at level 4.

Spillsborgh, the 4th OF on the Rockies is another play I usually go for. Plays all OF spots and rankings are DCDEF - I forget his errors stat, but he also has +4 lefty and clutch.

Anyway, I get your point about self-policing. My 1st expansion team, I didn't trade that much, as I had some decent starting players, and my 2b even won rookie of the year, but my current expansion team started off absolutely sucking, so I traded often. I think no player on my team had a defense or arm as high as C except my catcher, who was my best player at DEECCC, any starting infielder with defense at D had a contact rating or power rating at F, and my third basemen has E arms, which I now realize can get you by, but you'll give up a ton of infield hits when you range towards the line. My OF we're pretty much Es across the board.

Anyway, self-policing may be the way to go, so yu can pull the trigger if you get too frustrated, but answer this, if you can: each season, the computer makes bonehead trades with itself. How often does that wind up unfairly helping you? Like I think I mentioned, the Angels made a horrible trade that led to it losing a lot of games and now I have more cushion to make the playoffs as a wild card. Similarly, the Tigers, who are in my division and have played me really strong this season, traded star SS Edgar Rentaria, making it a lot easier for me to pull ahead of them. I think turning off trades turns it off for everyone so these trades would not happen. Thoughts?