Q&A - What Measures Can Commissioners Take to Encourage Trading in Stagnant Leagues?

This Week’s Question:

What Measures Can Commissioners Take to Encourage Trading in Stagnant Leagues?

Before I get to this week’s question, I want to thank everyone who has been submitting questions to me so far this season. In order to keep the column coherent, I try to focus on the one question each week that seems to be of greatest general interest to the fantasy football community. But I also consider the “time-sensitivity” of questions when deciding whether to ask them right away or to save them for later in the season. For some reason I have received an unusually high number of good questions in the last three weeks, and I will do my best to feature them in the order that seems likely to do the greatest good for the greatest number of readers.
I want to focus on Evan’s question about trading this week because the timing is right for trades to be happening at a brisk pace (as I explain below):

Our league is fairly active. There are 5-10 free agent/claims every week—with people swapping out their rosters regularly. However, there are rarely more than a couple of trades the whole year. Some owners are trying very hard to trade, while others are very complacent, even at a detriment to their team. We have a veto procedure to challenge, but it rarely gets used. Are there any ways to increase trade activity?

In my experience, trades occur with their greatest frequency immediately following the draft, then fizzle out for the first three weeks of the season when there are no byes because everyone is still in love with their own roster depth. Trades start to pick up again in Weeks 4 through 8, but often fizzle out again starting around Week 9 or 10 because many of the owners who need help most through trades simply give up on the season at that point.
Injuries and the bye week schedule should put sufficient pressure on owners to consider trades, but there are some leagues in which owners would rather make do with the players they have than risk embarrassing themselves by making a bad trade. I am speaking generally here about the various leagues in which I have participated. I cannot say whether any of these observations apply to Evan’s league, but my take on trading is that if it doesn’t happen in Weeks 4-8, it isn’t going to skyrocket later in the season. What advice can FFers offer to Evan and his leaguemates to get those trade juices flowing ASAP?

Last Man Standing Picks (Courtesy of Mark Den Adel)

Last week I got all 3 games correct along with the upset alert as Baltimore rallied for a last second win. For the season I am 10-2 on my picks and 3-0 on the upsets.

1) Baltimore over Denver
Denver got a surprising win on the road at Tennessee, but the Broncos will not be able to pull another surprise right away against the best team in the AFC. Orton has been on fire, but he's up against the top-ranked Ravens pass defense (which is yielding only 119 yards/game to opposing QBs). With no rushing attack, the Broncos will have to rely on special teams and/or turnovers to get the job done in Baltimore.

2) Indianapolis over Kansas City
Even though KC is undefeated and coming off of a bye, I don’t see the Colts falling to 2-3. Manning is throwing the ball well and KC is 25th against the pass. The Chiefs will be able to move the ball on the ground, but Manning's will and focus should be the deciding factor in this one.

3) Cincinnati over Tampa Bay
Cincinnati will recover after a disappointing loss to Cleveland. Tampa’s defensive backfield is terrible (28th against the pass) and if you saw what TO did last week, get your popcorn ready for more of the same from him and Ochocinco.

Upset alert – I try to look for a home dog, so my top candidates were Cleveland over Atlanta or Washington over Green Bay. I’ll go with Cleveland over Atlanta. Both teams are tough against the run and Cleveland is terrible against the pass, so Matt Ryan could post some big numbers. I think Joshua Cribbs will be a difference-maker somehow. Even though the cold weather hasn’t set in, Atlanta is outside and away from their dome.