How often do trade calculators get used in your league(s)?

[Paul Crewe]

New poster here. Curious how often trade calculators are used in other dynasty leagues to formulate/sell/evaluate offers and/or justify/judge/bitch about completed trades. Ours is a Yahoo league, so the Evaluate Trade feature is unavoidable even though its formula is based on redraft ROS projections (wish we could disable it). Just wondering how often calculators like Rotoviz, DynastyFF Tools and DynastyTradeCalculator.com get used in other leagues.

[Dr.Graffin]

Generally, the vast majority (of commenters) on DLF hate trade calculators and will tell you they never use them. They'll tell you they are pointless, display incorrect values (by using the infamous 7 players for 1 player deals), and you shouldn't bother using them.

Personally, I enjoy using them as a reference as they give you a ballpark idea if a trade is fair (as long you're doing close to equal number of player swaps or only a pick or two in the calcuation). Obviously go with your gut and personal preference, but they do have utility if you choose to use them. I like the FFTools and Rotoviz calculators personally.

[Plank]

I always punch the trade in just in case the owner I'm sending the offer to uses them .. If its a deal of a player I really want, I always try to give them the edge in the calculator..

[Kramer]

I tried to use the trade calculator when I first started, but found it never really worked well. I just avoid them altogether now. I think looking at ADP is a good gauge of player values, but ideally you want to get to a point where you can think in terms of replacement value of players as ADP can be weird with different positions involved.

I do like the idea of putting trade offers into one just in case other owners use them though.

[Nanananananana]

What's a trade calculator

[Valhalla]

I sent an offer to another owner. He replied he initially liked it but a trade calculator told him not to do it so he wasn't interested. I thought he was surely joking...

[Valhalla]

BATMAN!

[StableOfRBs]

I've never used one, if I get a trade I do a quick 10 minute google search on every player involved in case there's some news I haven't heard about or whatever and just use my own judgment

[HawkeyeState]

I like them used only for a reference point.

If you get to an owner that likes to use them for themselves, you can exploit the value the calculator gives them by trading assets you don't like as much for assets you do like (even though the calculator says otherwise).

[Paul Crewe]

Appreciate the responses. My line of thinking is similar to Dr.Graffin and Plank. I primarily use them to 1) roughly ballpark the value on both sides before sending a proposal and 2) make sure it's palatable to the other owner in case they do the same.

But they're just tools (based on the ever-shifting consensus of "gurus" whose guesses are often as good/bad as ours). They should never take the place of actual research and gut instinct. Even the better ones are inherently flawed by proprietary rankings (the human element) and/or easily manipulated by extreme quantity-for-quality deals as Graffin mentioned.

In the last few years, however, I've noticed more owners citing them during or after deals, so it's become another factor to consider as perception is reality. At least in my league, they've become particularly popular among the Trade Police™ that like to bitch about deals other owners were able to complete. (Experienced this recently after completing a blockbuster with an owner that doesn't care what a calculator has to say.)

Valhalla's example of a guy saying no to a deal he originally liked because a calc disagreed is lunacy. I could maybe see using it as leverage to ask for more in a counter, but rejecting an offer because Mr. Robot said so?

[skip]

I hate then.
I never use them.
They are pointless.
They display incorrect values.
Don't bother using them.

Thanks to Dr.Graffin for the accuracy of his post.

[maxhyde]

Not sure whther they do or not. Never been told "the trade calculator said" but I have never even looked for one. Don't understand how a subjective thing like value can be calculated without owner bias. Although I guess using ADP is pretty much the same thing and that is pretty common.

[BuckeyeNation]

I hate then.
I never use them.
They are pointless.
They display incorrect values.
Don't bother using them.

Thanks to Dr.Graffin for the accuracy of his post.

This....They're all junk. Of course I did fiddle with them a bit when I first started my foray into dynasty, but that's how I figured out that they're worthless. I guess if there's an owner in your league who uses them than you can put an offer together that manipulates the calculator to make it look like the trade is in his favor when it's really not, but that's about the only use I can think of for them.

Anymore, with the FF/dynasty explosion and the widespread emergence of social media, Twitter has become a very popular tool in the arsenal of owners who seek confirmation on every move they make, and
it's gone a long way in replacing the use of trade calculators and ADP/rankings lists.

[SteveVolk]

I use them all of the time as an aid to formulating trades. (I also use ADP as a way of gauging the perceived value of the players on my team.) I do not bring up the trade calculator, or ADP, usually, but sometimes another owner will accuse me of sending him a "ridiculous" offer. In that case, I might mention the ADP of the players involved or the calculator in the context that: "Well, the guys I was offering you have comparable ADP to the ones I was asking for, so I really wasn't trying to fleece you. But I understand. Maybe next time."
The other owner invariably replies that they reject ADP and trade calculators entirely and consider them a horrible sham. To which I respond as to why I think they are both valuable starting points and we end up in a meaningful discussion and email each other on a relatively regular basis with our thoughts on developments in our league and the NFL, etc. In other words, I've experienced no real downside to using either calculators or ADP—on the contrary, they've led to good conversations and relationships, especially this offseason for some reason—and I think the owners who dismiss either or both are missing an important data point.
—Best, Steve

[Reljac]

The only time I see trade calculators used is when someone is trying to validate a bad trade. Something like: Cringeworthy when someone uses it to validate a 5 for 1 trade where a bunch of has beens and never weres are traded along with late picks for a top draft pick.