I need some advice here. Bear with me because there's some backstory.

I only have a half season of experience in HD, but 14 years in fantasy dynasty leagues. And I'm damn good at fantasy baseball. There are definitely some differences, but I have some knowledge, I enjoy HD so far, and am eager to learn how to become really good at it. That takes trial and error.

I joined the 7yankees7 league. They had one team left, so I took it. The team has some pretty high priced older players, some with horrible contracts. The minor league system is bare also.

My plan was to acquire some decent minor leaguers who were ready to be productive ML players so I could compete at a ML level while still reducing salary. I was looking for young (21-25 year olds), controllable players with solid defensive stats and 69-73 OVR levels. Meanwhile, I would max out my international prospect and scouting funds, max out my HS scouting fund (the league average there has historically been lower than college), and look to rebuild the lower and mid minors with some high end talent. I'd have a large surplus of ML payroll that I could also use to purchase more prospects or other players to keep me competitive until I got some prospects developed. All of the above has come from me religiously reading the forums and studying a lot of the top HD players.
So I moved quickly. I set up 5 different trades for my 6 highest salaried players, including one superstar, and in return was to receive 14 players - all but two ranked 69 to 75, with solid defense and OBP skills for offensive players, and good control and stamina for the pitchers. The other two players were lower level, high ceiling, blue-chip guys. Oh, I also had $17 million coming my way.

The league has just turned over. I had to wait two days before I could submit these trades officially (still in the budget phase). I made sure I kept the other owners apprised of who I still had available. Suddenly, the commissioner stepped in on the message board and basically told me I couldn’t honor those trades. He said he had wanted to make an offer (but had yet to do so). I said I had already agreed to those trades.
His words – “As a player with zero seasons under your belt, for the long term good of the league, we as a league need to make sure you are getting the best value for the trades you are making. You have four top flight players that you should maximize value for. Until budgets are finalized, you won’t even know the projected ratings of the players you are trading for.” Additionally: “…as a league we cannot go along with a situation where someone unwisely guts his team and then leaves.”
My issues are these: 1) if I already made good faith deals with other owners, then why should the commissioner encourage me – publically – not to honor those deals? 2) If he is publically saying he is going to make an offer for these same players, isn’t he being a little out of line? 3) He doesn’t even know what I negotiated. So how can judge before the fact if I got a good return? 4) If they are eventually agreed to, submitted, do they not go through the veto process? Isn’t the protest trade framework there to protect against this? And isn't it up to the league rather than an individual?

And finally, 5) his argument is that I am a newbie, and that he assumes I have already made bad, lopsided trades that will give other teams a big advantage. He mentions that I won’t know anything until ‘projected ratings’ for prospects come out. Aren’t these based on Advanced Scouting? I already bottomed out my budget for advanced scouting. Through the forum and some mentoring, I have been taught to evaluate prospects based on year to year improvements of players. ‘Projected stats’ are unreliable. So why is a well heeled veteran player telling a ‘newbie’ that he needs projected stats to evaluate trades when just about every good HD player ignores them?
Look, I get the patient, field 1000 offers and get the best deal thing. But I am someone who historically moves fast to allow myself maximum time to make adjustments. I think every owner should be allowed to do their thing and learn their own methods. I don’t see me dumping a team and creating unfair advantages when there are things in place to prevent such things (such as the veto).
Thoughts?

You seem to have a good head on your shoulders.  You've explained yourself well.  Point number 2 really sticks in my craw.  Sounds like sour grapes to me.

You're doing the right thing with all your research and homework. The commish is probably coming at it from the standpoint that almost all new owners make trades their first year that they regret.
Although point 2 seems odd he may be genuine in his concern.

I'd be very careful trading your first season or two. I know I goofed a few times in my first two seasons and I was similar in that I read these forums and asked a lot of questions.

One last thing, don't put a lot of stock in overall rating. A lot of players who have high health and stamina and are otherwise average will be overated.

After reading through the world chat board (where it looks like it was resolved anyway), it seems the biggest concern was the rush of it all. He and the other owners aren't aware of your considerable experience and devotion to the game - for every 1 new owner with your prep, there are 10-20 who have no clue at all. Using the Projected Budget is a logical tool to use when cautioning new owners, because you wouldn't assume they know the ins-and-outs of a 0 Projected Budget.
Even with your prep and background, being patient is a virtue at this time of the season; there's really no hurry to rush things and miss out on an even better deal.

New owners tend to rush into things.    Their first thought is far too often "I have to burn this down and start over."   Nothing in HBD requires a split second decision.

He should have handled it much differently. End of story.

Add to that, if I was one of the owners who had made a deal, I'd be outraged. Oh well.

As a commish, I would message you those thoughts privately rather than publicly. But I do think those thoughts are valid.

Honestly, I think it's really, really hard to bully anyone on the internet.    You could have responded with "Who the F cares what you think?  STFU!" and what could he have done then?

This would scare the hell out of me as a commish:

sjpoker

Pacifics

2/1/2015 8:26 AM

Louie Ward is available. Its a package deal though, along with Arthur Stairs . I'm not looking for much in return. Willing to discuss anything, so let me know.

Especially coming from an owner with 77 games under his belt.

Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Louie Ward and Hardball Dynasty – Fantasy Baseball Sim Games - Player Profile: Arthur Stairs are not slugs.    In fact, it would take a lot for me to part ways with Ward.

Not talking about that kind of bullying. I'm 6'4 290 lbs so bullying isn't really a concern I have. What I worry about is players interfering with other players. Who knows, maybe they had a newbie previously that made all sorts of trades that other owners took advantage of. Not sure. What I do feel is the way he went about it wasn't really that well thought out and the whole "wait for projected ratings" thing was a fairly ridiculous comment - if in fact projected ratings/advanced scouting really is rubbish as everyone says they are.

"maybe they had a newbie previously that made all sorts of trades that other owners took advantage of." - absolutely. Most worlds have had that problem and that's why he brought it up. That's why it scares Mike (see above), and virtually every other commish out there.

And again, the 'projected ratings thing' - that's a tool to use until you have figured out alternative ways; as a raw rookie, it's logical to assume that you still need projections.

Add to all this that now the message board is flooding with other players from other teams that are similar to mine that are on the block. The early advantage I had for exclusivity is now gonna die.