I'm sorry to have this debate while we're in the middle of a draft, but I am very opposed to the current ruling regarding the trading of draft picks. Every time I think about it, I come up with another reason why it is detrimental to the league. Many problems arise when owners are allowed to trade draft position while still selecting players from their own year. Here are four:
All these problems go away if we instead use my previous suggestion. Keep draft picks exclusive to their original year.
1) Different teams will value high draft picks very differently. One on extreme, the 1886 Detroit squad has no concern for draft position. All the players are exclusive, they can be drafted in any round. At the other end of the spectrum are the three 1927/1928 squads. They are all drafting out the same pool of players, and draft position is of the upmost importance. This all creates great trade imbalance. Detroit is free to trade away top draft picks for any price. He can trade a 1st for a 5th round pick and still draft all the same players. Maybe he receives a nice bench player in return (and trades away a scrub). Meanwhile, at the other end of the deal, the 1927 A’s team trades can trade a mostly worthless extra 2B and receive a 1st rounder, which can be used to pick up a long-term all star. Previously that pick would likely have been for a one-year wonders, not the backbone of a franchise.
2)Draft strategy becomes impossible to predict. In a normal draft, if you have the 12th pick, you know you’ll be able to draft the 12th best player, no matter who picks ahead of you. In our league, under the current setup, you can’t be sure how many picks come before yours. I’ll return to the example of the three 1927/1928 squads. If you have the last pick of the second round, you think you’ll be able to draft the sixth player from the late 20’s era. Now let’s say your rivals each trade up for two more picks in the first round. Suddenly that last second round pick just went from being the sixth best player to the ninth best player. Clubs from years with few rivals won’t have this problem. That’s hardly fair.
3) With the possibility of a trade happening anytime, owners might not get a chance to counter a move from a rival club. Oftentimes the dropoff from the best player in a decade to the second best is dramatic. Say you draft 12th overall and have the highest slot of any club from post 1980. You’re happy because you just landed Barry Bonds. Now image the next time you log on to WhatIfSports, you see a rival has traded up to the 5th spot and already drafted Barry. Maybe you could have a worked out a deal with the club holding the number 4 draft pick, but the first six clubs have drafted and it’s too late. Tough luck.
4) Trades for undrafted exclusive players become problematic. Right now I have exclusive rights to Frank Smith. I won’t be drafting him until my final pick because no one else can grab him. But another owner wants Frank Smith in exchange for his second round pick. I can’t cement the deal until I draft Smith. So the other owner drafts the player I ask him to draft (which is much more awkward than simply drafting him myself). He’s hoping I come through on my end, but there’s no guarantee. A better offer may come along for Chief Bender instead, so I draft Bender instead of Smith and leave the other owner high and dry with a player they didn't actually need. Hopefully we all stick to our word, but there’s no way to enforce such deals.