Timing of trade question

[Mephistopheles]

I know my league commish is on these boards regularly, hoping he sees this.

Just had a trade go down this AM where:

Team A gave Gerald Everett, George Kittle
Team B gave Delanie Walker.

Team A then inserted Delanie Walker into his starting lineup and picked up Ted ginn to fill the dropped roster spot.

I have questioned whether Team A should be allowed to use Walker this week since he was essentially bought with what should be two "dead" roster spots, also questioned whether he should be allowed to pick up Ginn Jr with the other "dead" roster spot.

I think the trade should take effect starting in week 4 and Team A should not be able to start Walker or fill the extra roster spot today.

Team A has emailed me, calling me names and my "argument" (it's not an argument, it's a question) ridiculous and bizarre.

Curious if I'm off base here? Thanks.

[Dr.Graffin]

Typically players are locked for the week once they've played. The trade should not go through (with the settings most leagues use).

But obviously it went through as your league is not currently using those settings. As you said though, it's like using a player twice for the same week, so it shouldn't fly.

[smbkrypt24]

I know my league commish is on these boards regularly, hoping he sees this.

Just had a trade go down this AM where:

Team A gave Gerald Everett, George Kittle
Team B gave Delanie Walker.

Team A then inserted Delanie Walker into his starting lineup and picked up Ted ginn to fill the dropped roster spot.

I have questioned whether Team A should be allowed to use Walker this week since he was essentially bought with what should be two "dead" roster spots, also questioned whether he should be allowed to pick up Ginn Jr with the other "dead" roster spot.

I think the trade should take effect starting in week 4 and Team A should not be able to start Walker or fill the extra roster spot today.

Team A has emailed me, calling me names and my "argument" (it's not an argument, it's a question) ridiculous and bizarre.

Curious if I'm off base here? Thanks.

Initially, I didn't see what the issue was and then I saw they were for 2 Rams players. This is not allowed in my league. I guess it would depend on what your league settings are, but if it is not covered I think it makes more sense that that player can not be traded after they played for that week.

[Pac_Eddy]

I think most sites lock a player from being traded after the beginning of his game only if he was started in a lineup. He's not being "used twice" if he's never started.

I have no issue with this trade.

[BuckeyeNation]

This is league dependent and there isn't one definitive answer. In most of my leagues, you can't add/drop a player once their game has started for the week, but in the interest of facilitating as much trade activity as possible you can still trade players even if they've already played during that particular week. Of course a player can't be used twice during a week, so the new owner doesn't get to start the player he traded for after the fact when the game has already been played. Personally I see no issue with the trade, but it all comes down to individual league rules.

[moishetreats]

1) What has been done in the past when a player has been traded after his game was played? Or was this the first time that it has happened?

2) Is there already a rule in place dictating that players who have played may or may not be started?

If you have a clear response to either, then that's the rule in place until the off-season, when it can be discussed in full.

Otherwise, if there is no rule and no precedent, then it has to be allowed. No one did anything wrong by league rules. If this is a situation that no one ever considered before, then the Commish can make a ruling beginning in Week 4. But, given that this was an hour before gametime, I don't think that it's right to force these reversals. Had it happened, say, Friday morning, then there would have been enough time to potentially make a change.

In short, absent any clear answers to 1 or 2 above, I think that you let it go this week. No rule, no precedent, nothing illegal. Your commish will need to decide whether to address it in Week 4 or the off-season -- but NOT retroactively.

Sometimes, this is how unintended loopholes are discovered. So be it.

[FiremanEd]

If the team didn't start Everett or Kittle and had an open TE spot to start one this week, what's the issue?

[Tsunami]

Different hosting sites handle this differently. On fleaflicker (which I'm guessing you are using) if you trade a player who starts Thursday for one who starts Sunday you can end up starting both in the same week. This I think is a loophole that this particular site has overlooked, and one of the reasons I'm not too fond of that site. If you made the same trade on Yahoo! it wouldn't make those players active until the following week, which I believe is how it should work. But, if you're on fleaflicker and you don't have a rule stating otherwise you probably have to let it count, and make a rule against this for the future.

[DDT]

There's an MFL setting where you can choose whether guys that have played in a given week can be traded. It looks like your setting is that they can be traded so I see no issue with this. The rules allow it.

I was talking to another commish earlier last week about this very issue. I prefer to prevent players from being traded after they play because it creates issues with setting lineups in MFL (i.e. if you trade a guy you started, MFL will not allow you to change your lineup after the guy is gone because you have a dead spot in your lineup). But it does limit the amount of time that you can trade guys. He prefers to allow players to be traded, although I think that he may have changed our mind after we talked. It's an imperfect situation and commishes need to pick one side and deal with it.

[joeday]

On RTS if two teams played on TNF you can't trade one that was started (ie I couldnt trade Gurley until Tuesday)...but if it is a player that wasn't started they are tradeable (ie if I didnt start Goff and traded him Friday morning). Obviously the team getting Goff (in my example) couldnt retroactively start him after a good game. Unless you specifically have in the bylaws that players from TNF cannot be traded until the following week, or your website locks them then I don't have a problem with this trade.

[maxhyde]

This is league dependent and there isn't one definitive answer. In most of my leagues, you can't add/drop a player once their game has started for the week, but in the interest of facilitating as much trade activity as possible you can still trade players even if they've already played during that particular week. Of course a player can't be used twice during a week, so the new owner doesn't get to start the player he traded for after the fact when the game has already been played. Personally I see no issue with the trade, but it all comes down to individual league rules.

Exactly

[Wile E. Coyote]

I have neither tried nor seen a player traded that has already played his game for that week. In every league that I have played in, players lock individually at the start of their individual game time, can't add, can't drop, and can't move him from his spot on the roster (from/to bench, positional spot, flex, etc.). As such, I had just assumed trading was locked as well. I know there is a setting that all players can be locked at the first game of the week, but I never played in a league with that setting.