Some managers make more trades more than others.  I’ve heard some say they prefer to draft their talent; others say they don’t trust themselves and prefer to trade.  So for those in APBA leagues, here are 10 tips to help in the process of trading with other managers.

1.  Know your strengths and weaknesses. 

Before the off-season, before you even think of making trade offers or consider anyone else’s offer, take stock of your APBA league team.  Get a good sense of your team’s strengths and be honest about your weaknesses.  If you’re serious, a depth chart would be nice. 

If your league imposes player limits, then definitely fill out a spreadsheet with your team’s limits so you know what you need to cover positions.  This is a must.  You don’t want to be scrambling post-draft trying to fill positions via trades.  When you are in a position of weakness, other managers know it.

2.  Understand your goal

Some teams are rebuilding.  Others are “going for it”, thinking they have what it takes to make the playoffs, championship, whatever their particular league structure allows. 

With each goal comes a totally different strategy of approaching your team drafting and trading.  That bum B starter isn’t going to be much worth to you if you’re rebuilding and next year, he’ll be a DW.  Consider trading him for high pick.  What about that position player that had a career year?  Same thing. 

And if you’re a top rung team, consider trading a player with loads of potential but little short term value to a rebuilding team for a low risk short term player (see above). 

3.  Know your opponents strengths and weaknesses

Just as important as knowing your own team is knowing the other teams in your league.  In the game of trading, it doesn’t help knowing your own team if you don’t know who you are trading for. 

At the very least, know the other teams’ weak points, strong points, areas of depth and areas of need.  If one team needs a shortstop and you have three, there might be a good match for a trade. 

4.  Make offers that help both teams

It might be tempting to contact a team manager and a say “What do you want for Nick Markakis?”.  If I got that, I might give it a thought or two but no more.  Be more specific.  Like I said in #3, learn your opponent’s team and find out what he needs.  When you come to him with a more concrete deal like “I have Nick Markakis.  Would you give me your #1 pick for him?”.  He’ll at least be more willing to come back to the table and talk.

5.  Leave room for negotiation

Despite what I said in #4, don’t give away the farm.  No one says you have to make an offer that your trading partner will accept right off the bat.  If I made a deal that a manager snapped up without thinking about it, it would certainly make me wonder if I offered too much. 

Leave some room for a little room for give and take.  Don’t be afraid to be flexible either.  If he wants that B* instead of that C* out of your pen don’t dismiss it out of hand.

6.  Don’t burn your bridges

Everyone has ideas of that one big trade that puts one over on the other guy.  But don’t go into trade discussions with that mindset.  If you get the reputation of a swindler, other managers aren’t going to want to trade with you in the future.  Be a fair trader and they’ll come back and more importantly, they’ll have a equally fair attitude toward you.

7.  Discretion is prudent

When you get into a protracted trade discussion over a blockbuster deal, keep the deal under wraps especially if the other manager requests that you do so.  Nobody likes a tell-all who replies-to-all over email.  Some managers have needs or wants that they would prefer to keep quiet. 

This is especially true when other managers confide their draft pick preferences.  For example, I wouldn’t want my buddy Brando to tell the other managers in the IAL that I’m interested in picking David Price with my first pick of the draft (oops!).

8.  Get advice

Ok I know, this goes counter to # 7.  If you’re in the middle of trade negotiations and ready to pull the trigger but just not quite sure, get a second opinion.  If there’s another manager who’s not affected by the deal and whose opinion you trust, run it by them.  Even if their opinion runs counter to your gut instinct, it’s good to get their feedback.

9.  Electronic is good, Talking is better.

In the old days, we in the IAL used to run up phone bills talking trade.  Thank goodness for email.  It makes thing a whole lot easier not to mention cheaper.  I think I even made a deal via texting last year.  That said, if it’s a complicated trade, the novel concept of TALKING doesn’t hurt either.  It removes some of the miscommunications that can occur with email. 

10.  Announce your completed trade. 

When you and your trading partner finally pull the trigger on your deal, announce it to your league.  Your commissioner will need to know, of course.  The other managers will too, if they are interested in any of the player involved in the deal.

Why not have some fun with the announcement?  Sometimes, IAL managers will format their email announcement like a press release MLB-style. 

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These tips aren’t rocket science.  But they’re worth keeping in mind.  Sometimes I think I need to pay attention to some of them. 

If any of you have trading tips, experiences, even trading rules in your league, I’d love to hear about them.  Leave a comment and let us know.

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With the closing of the Geocities web hosting service, YABL has had to relocate their fine website.  You can now find them at http://webspace.webring.com/people/fb/burgda/.  Important not only to find out about their league but for another reason.  League member and webmaster Doug Burg maintains the APBA Baseball Card 12 List and Publication Data web page.  So many times APBA fans ask me if there is a way to identify their APBA cards… to find out what year they are.  I always point them to Doug’s APBA Card 12 List page.  Very handy.

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Not many times can you say that one player remains with the same APBA league team for 19 seasons.  Such is the case with Tom Glavine who has played for my Twin Cities Thunderchickens since 1991.  Glavine pitched his last game for the  Illowa APBA League last Saturday. 

He retires with an Illowa win-loss record of 241-195.  I posted a tearful farewell to Glavine over at the Illowa APBA League’s web site.

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Marc Rinaldi wants us to pass the word about APBA Games’ Facebook page.  Be a fan or something.

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It might be asking the world but Kindle Nation Daily would like to see some Kindle apps based on APBA, Strat-o-matic etc.  I’m not holding my breath.

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The Illowa APBA League, like many leagues, have a player limit system implemented.  In short, we need keep from over-using our players.  And I’ll be doing my best from doing that because there ARE consequences. 

Those consequences are a possible drop in next season’s draft order.  So you can see the incentive in dotting your ‘i’s and crossing your ‘t’s when it comes to players limits

Here’s the short version of our league’s player limits rules:  non-pitchers must not play more than their actual games and at-bats.  Pitchers must not pitch more than their actual games started, games relieved, and innings.  There are some further rules about secondary positions probably not worth mentioning but if you’re interested, check out the IAL Constitution.  One thing that IS worth mentioning… D pitchers have their games and innings limits doubled and straight D pitchers (not D*) can always start. 

So don’t think I’ve been playing my team all season without giving thought to my limits only to be faced with a multitude of limits issues this Saturday.  Our league members all (I hope) keep an eye on them all year.  It helps to calculate the AB/G of the games left in the season That way, I won’t get fooled if Albert Pujols has tons of games left but is low on at-bats.  The same goes for IP/G.

That said, the last series of the season is a bit of nail biter.  Unless we have been really good about resting our starters all season or REAL confident about our limits, it’s touch and go all series.  Not only are we trying to win games but we are trying to keep within our sacred limits.  Normally, we “do our limits” each month.  In our last series, many of us are calculating our limits left after each game especially for the guys on the fence.  And don’t get me started on the last game (“hold on I think this is Parra’s last out.  Let me check, ok?”)

So going into the Thunderchickens’ last series, we look pretty good… as far as our hitters our concerned.  Our pitching situation is tricky though.  I’ll get by ok but I’ll have to keep a close eye on it.

I won’t help our place in the standings but gosh darn it, I’m not losing that first pick in the draft.

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I believe I directed you their rankings last year.  When it comes to trading and drafting within our leagues, I find rankings helpful. and I think they do as good of a job as any.  As I said last year, these rankings are geared towards roto leagues but for the most part, we can glean some valuable info from them.

You can start with Rotoprofessor’s Who Should Be The Third Overall Pick In 2010?, an overall look at both leagues.  They are making a slightly glib assumption that Pujols and Hanley Ramirez would be going 1-2.  Personally, I’m glad have I have ONE of those players (and his initials are A.P.).

Here are the positional rankings by Rotoprofessor:

• Catchers
• First Baseman
• Second Baseman
• Third Baseman
• Shortstops
• Outfielders
• Starting Pitchers
• Closers

I chose Geovany Soto with the very first pick in our league’s rookie draft last year with the hope that he would solve our longstanding woes behind the plate.  Unfortunately, he let me down in 2009.  I’m glad I had a backup in Jason Varitek such that he is. 

I’m heartened to read in Rotoprofessor’s catcher rankings that despite his sub-par 2009, they haven’t quite given up on him yet.  They rank him #9 but don’t write him off either.

Despite his 2009 struggles, Geovany Soto still has to be viewed as a solid option in all formats.

Not exactly glowing words but I have hope.

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Dear APBA Blog,
                      I have been playing APBA Baseball since I was probably 7 years old. My dad passed it along to me and I have never grown bored or tired of the basic game and love just tossing the dice. I like to play my teams from blind drafts and have had as many 12 teams in a league. The problem I face is that every time I want to add teams I can never get my schedule right. Is there a website that I can go to or can you guys pass along schedules via email?
                 Just curious,

Shawn

I’m assuming Shawn is talking about creating schedules that somewhat reflect MLB’s style but with the number of teams that the APBA replayer has chosen to use for his replay.  A tricky endeavor in cases indeed.  I’ve had this problem in the past myself.

One solution out there (which sadly was not available when I needed it) is a freely downloadable program aptly called Schedule Generator.  It’s in version 1.0.8 right now. 

I’ve never used it for a replay myself but I did just download it and gave it a couple schedule tests to see how it works.  After a few tests, it seems to work fine with a few minor bugs which have workarounds. 

The Schedule Generator allows up to 40 teams, two leagues with three divisions.  You can choose the amount of games, a balanced or unbalanced schedule and interleague play and even insert an All-Star break. 

SG outputs into a neat text file which can also be imported into Excel for further manipulation and editing (the program seems to be geared towards those who play Out of the Park, a text-based simulation baseball game as it generates a data file for the game as well). 

I did get an I/O error at times but deleting the existing schedule file from before fixed that. 

You can download the Schedule Generator from Cnet’s download site for free.

This may or may not work for Shawn.  Twelve teams in a league might be tricky but if he puts them in two divisions and chooses “Balanced”, it might work. 

There are more schedule programs out there and probably other ways to generate schedules.  If you know of any or have solutions that work for you, please let us know. 

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Hallelujah! Just in time for Christmas, Steve Guthrie has once again come out with APBA cards for the NCAA.  Above you see secondbaseman Josh Parr who plays for my beloved Illini.

You can go to Steve’s web site to download the cards in excel file format.  Once downloaded, you can print them out to use.

Thanks Steve for putting in the work to make this possible.  Personally, I’m a huge college fan and this is a treat.

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Like #9:

Concern yourself with the end result more than the price. You may think giving up a certain keeper for a collection of players you would never keep is madness. However, if that collection of players would guarantee you a championship it would be a very small price to pay.

This one is a big one that a lot of us in my league seem to face.  Ok sure, in a vacuum, the shortstop you’re letting go is more valuable than the outfielder you’re getting.  But you already have three shortstops and are desperate for outfield help.  Getting that extra outfielder will save you from picking one in the draft and essentially free that pick up to use for something else. 

Maybe for a young prospect.

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Citing lack of time to devote to it, entrepreneur Francis Rose is attempting to unload the periodical dedicated the game of APBA.  AJ, which has been around since I was kid, was a great resource for those who played in leagues as well as solitaire replays. 

a 1979 edition of the APBA Journal

I credit the APBA Journal for getting me into my current league, the Illowa APBA League.  Back when we didn’t have the Internet, email, or online forums, we had the APBA Journal Directory.  It was an annual directory opt-in list of APBA players that came out in the APBA Journal.  The IAL saw my name and cold-called me.  The person that called me??  Teddy Ballgame. 

That all said, the APBA Journal has pretty much been a shell of its former self recently.  The few times I’ve been to it recently, I didn’t really get much out it.  I missed the days that Eric Naftaly edited it. 

According to Rose, here is what’s available for sale if you want to make a go of bringing the APBA Journal back to its former glory:

1) the only known collection of original copies of the AJ – from the very first issue in 1967
2) almost every AJ from 1969 through 1980 in digital format (either JPGs or PDFs)
3) hard copies of all the reference packs sold by the former owner of the AJ
4) unlimited publication rights to all AJ content
5) contact information for customers with a history of purchasing Journal-related products
6) internet domain-name rights for several related web sites

Sound good?  Give a go!

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For the players, it includes playing time including games at secondary positions.  For pitchers, it includes playing time as well as W-L record and ERA. 

One warning:  the list does NOT include rookie players under 125 at-bats and pitchers who are both under 21 games and 50 innings (those are our limits in the IAL).

Hope you find it useful.

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1. Would you find it helpful/useful/interesting to have an online database or spreadsheet that had the pitchers’ APBA grades and ratings for every season that the company issued?  Would you use such a site? 

2.  Additionally, if a wiki-style spreadsheet or database were set up so that anyone could edit the spreadsheet and add pitchers and their grades, would that be something you  would take part in helping with?

I’ve had a couple inquires and requests about web pages with pitchers’ grades and to my knowledge, there isn’t one in existence.  I know my friend Chuck from the IAL has expressed interest in the project. 

But before I go ahead with any major project, I want to gauge the interest in the resulting product. 

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