Trading future draft picks, revisited

[Kevin]

Alright, I'm thinking about making a rule change this season to allow future draft picks to be traded. I am almost certain I will make this change, since for the first time, I feel we have ten people who are very dedicated to sticking with this league for the long haul. However, to make this change, some details need to be ironed out.

First, I believe we should only allow picks for the next draft to be traded. That would mean right now, you could only trade picks for this year's draft. Once the season begins, you could start dealing your '05 picks. This seems pretty reasonable to me, but let me know if you disagree.

The more complicated issue is regarding how this would affect protecting players. Should any extra picks you acquire count against the 16 players you can protect? Likewise, any extra picks you trade away, should they allow you to protect more than 16 players? If we go this route, everyone will still be at 28 players at the conclusion of the draft, unless they make an unbalanced trade after the roster cuts are made.

The other alternative is to keep the 16 player protection limit the way it is. This would require teams that acquire extra draft picks to forfeit picks at the end of the draft to stay under the 28 player limit. Teams with a shortage of picks would be under 28 at the end of the draft, but could easily use free agent signings to fill their rosters.

I am leaning towards the second choice at the moment, but could easily be convinced to change my mind. I want to hear your opinions.

Of course, if you think allowing future draft picks to be traded is a bad idea to begin with, please speak up as well. This certainly is not a done deal.

[Greg]

As one of the most active trade moguls in the league *coughs* I think it'd be a good idea to open up draft pics for trade bait. I say we start with the next immediate draft, then if that works well we can move onto maybe two years ahead...depending on how people feel about it at the end of the year.

As far as the protection list goes, I was thinking of allowing 16 players (like normal) to be protected, except that includes extra draft picks you gained over the season. I.e. If you have two first round draft picks, you protect 15 players to make room for that extra pick. But, you can only protect a maximum of 16 players/picks...if your team is under that number after that next draft, you can pick up free agents to fill your roster. Did that make any sense at all?

[Nick]

I like the idea of trading draft picks very much. Adds another dimension to trading, which will make it easier to complete more deals and give the bottom dwellers more chances to get better quicker, in theory anyway.

I basically agree with what Greg said ... choice 2 seems like the way to go. I don't have any problems with that set-up.

Nick

[Kevin]

Just for clarification, Greg's idea wasn't exactly choice one or two.... kind of a combination of both. So here are the three ideas we have so far:

1 - Any draft picks acquired during the season will count against your 16 player list, so you could be either above or below 16 players depending on how many picks you have gained or lost. Pro: everyone should be at 28 players after the 12 round draft unless they make uneven player trades after the 16 man roster is determined. Con: If a team were to trade a lot of picks away, they could keep practically their entire team.

2 - You protect 16 players, regardless of what you have done with future draft picks. If you have extra picks, you will need to forfeit picks at the end of the draft to stay under the 28 player limit and if you are short of picks, you can use free agent signings after the draft to fill your roster. Pro: everyone will keep the exact same number of players and we don't have to worry about issues with trades made after the roster cuts. Con: teams may have to forfeit picks at the end of the draft (some might consider this a good thing).

3 - (Greg's idea) If you acquire picks, you need to count them as one (or more) of your 16 protected players. If you give up picks, you will still protect just 16. Pro: nobody gets the advantage of protecting extra players, plus everyone should be able to make all their picks in the draft and stay under the roster limit (unless they make uneven trades after roster cuts). Con: a team that acquires a bunch of extra draft picks won't be able to protect many players.

My vote still goes for 2, in part because it is the only option that does not care if draft pick trades are made before or after the roster cut time. Plus, I don't think giving up 11th and 12th round picks will hurt anybody.

Please continue to post your opinions.

[Nick]

Sorry for the confusion ... I vote for choice #2. I do not think picks should count as one of the 16 protected players, as that would work against the point in trading for them in the first place. Nick

[Marc]

That option makes the most sense to me for the point of trading players for picks. Example: The end of last year both Kevin and Mike were looking for another closer. Say I didn't want Keith Foulke anymore and I dumped him to Mike for his first-round pick, I would virtually lose 2 players (Foulke and the other guy I would have to drop). I'm for the plan of dropping my 12th-round pick or whatever the last round is, having two first-rounders and protecting 16 players.

[Greg]

Yeah, you guys are right....#2 looks like the best option so far. My add-on idea doesn't quite make sense and negates the reason to trade draft picks in the first place, like Nick said.