PTBNL trades

[Corsairs]

Do you allow them? A few owners have requested the ability to include PTBNLs but frankly I'm a bit worried that, with the heavy volume of trading in the league, it will eventually become very difficult to keep up with all the various PTBNL dates.

For those commissioners who do allow PTBNL trades, what kinds of restrictions do you use to make your life easier? For instance, do owners have to submit a list of players eligible to be the PTBNL? Are owners responsible for tracking the date their PTBNL is eligible to be traded and notifying you when it arrives, or is that something you handle yourself?

[ifspuds]

In Time Warp Baseball, we've banned PTBNL trades completely. The only time we allow it is during the amateur draft, when the player to be named is a specific pick. We state that all players must be named at the time of the deal.

Some of the problems include: a contender loading up on players in a pennant race by including PTBNL from their end, only to trade some of those players back in the offseason as the PTBNL. It's the rent-a-player taken to the extreme. Not only do you rent, you return him to the team you got him from in the first place. By saying that all players must be named, the trade rules prevent this sort of thing from happening.

There are other issues too, as you say: keeping track as a commissioner could potentially be a nightmare. It's extra bookkeeping for you that often isn't worth the effort.

I'd recommend against allowing PTBNLs unless you're seriously willing to try and close the potentially ugly loopholes and keep track of the PTBNLs. Remember, MLB has a whole army of employees to track these things. You're just one commissioner.

[Kelric]

I've Commished for three leagues and have never allowed it. It's never even been considered. I try (not always succesfully) to keep as many rules from outside the game as having to be implemented. If I can Commish using just the game engine, great. it never works that way though. Someone always tries to beat the system rather than the game, sooner or later.

PTBNL just seems like a hassle.

[mikev]

Originally Posted by Kelric

I've Commished for three leagues and have never allowed it. It's never even been considered. I try (not always succesfully) to keep as many rules from outside the game as having to be implemented. If I can Commish using just the game engine, great. it never works that way though. Someone always tries to beat the system rather than the game, sooner or later.

PTBNL just seems like a hassle.

+1

Plus, there's not really much need for PTBNL trades because the "no trades in a player's first year after being drafted" rule isn't enforced within OOTP.

[Corsairs]

You guys are echoing every fear I had about PTBNL trades. I think I'm going to listen to the voices of experience here and steer clear of them. Giving owners as many options as possible is a great goal, but there's got to be a line somewhere. As ifspuds said, MLB has employees to handle these kinds of things... I'm just one guy!

[Stu]

The only time I allow them is during the Amateur Draft. We start our draft well before it's in game date so I allow teams to trade players that they've already drafted (using OOTPOU). I process the trade immediately, but obviously don't move the players that were drafted until after the draft takes place.

Allowing them full scale would be a lot more trouble than it's worth.

[Another Mike D]

We never allow them. IRL, there are specific rules regarding this, usually a team is given a list of choices and they can be named later. There will always be somebody in an online league trying to game the system.

On a side note, I've even banned re-trades (dealing for a guy, then dealing him back within a few weeks). If you trade for a guy on opening day, he cannot be traded again until the All-Star break. If you deal for a guy after the break, he's yours for the season.

[Corsairs]

We've settled on not allowing PTBNL trades for the all the aforementioned reasons. We do allow re-trades so that owners can, in effect, create multi-team trades (acquire a player in one trade and then turn him right around to another team in a different trade).

The only other restriction we place on trades besides no PTBNL is a 60-day no-trade wait period on players who have just signed a major league contract/extension. Sign-and-trades are almost unheard of in MLB (unlike, say, the NBA), and this rule is intended to replicate that fact.

[Another Mike D]

Originally Posted by Corsairs

We've settled on not allowing PTBNL trades for the all the aforementioned reasons. We do allow re-trades so that owners can, in effect, create multi-team trades (acquire a player in one trade and then turn him right around to another team in a different trade).

The only other restriction we place on trades besides no PTBNL is a 60-day no-trade wait period on players who have just signed a major league contract/extension. Sign-and-trades are almost unheard of in MLB (unlike, say, the NBA), and this rule is intended to replicate that fact.

As is flipping players (nearly unheard of). You rarely see any major leaguer dealt to one team, only to be re-traded in a week. But that's a different conversation I guess

[Corsairs]

Yeah, the flipping is kind of a concession to allow for multi-team trades, which of course do happen in MLB. It'd be so nice if OOTP could handle multi-team trades, but I imagine that would be one difficult feature to code!

[BoofBonser26]

Stay tuned to the league, commish. There just may be one doozy of a multi-team trade headed your way...