My responsibilities as Commissioner only extend so far, and do not include protecting players from themselves.
I'm not going to play God and approve one trade because I think it's fair and disallow another because I think it's unfair.
After all, most trades have an advantage for one side, don't they?
I felt that the Carpenter for A Rod trade gave JL a big advantage, but who am I to make that decision?
Obviously JG doesn't agree with me, or he wouldn't have made the trade.
And where do you draw the line?
It's way too subjective to allow one person the right to allow or disallow a trade based on whether or not they think it's fair.
When I saw the trade the other day between DB and CC, I wasn't happy.
Why? Two reasons.
First, because while I didn't consider CC to be a threat to win, I did think that DB could, and this trade made him stronger.
But I was unhappy for another reason: I was unhappy that I hadn't tried to make such a deal with CC myself.
Hell, I would've offered her Tomko and two guys like Wilkerson or Feliz or Jenkins or Gibbons, and given her close to just as good a deal as DB did.
She might not have accepted it, but, on the other hand, she might have.
So why didn't I?
Not because I felt any compassion for CC and didn't want to take two of her best players, but simply because it never occurred to me that she would accept such a trade.
But I'm certainly not gonna disallow it because I think it's one-sided.
Read my other recent post about that trade. More power to DB.
Now, we could have a set-up where everyone votes, but there's a big problem with that as I see it.
Wouldn't everyone vote based on their own self interest?
Why would anyone ever vote to allow a trade involving the team in first place if that trade made that team stronger?
If we had a set-up where everyone voted, I would have voted to disallow the Carpenter-A Rod trade, because at the time I was battling JL for first place and I felt that the trade made him stronger.
I certainly would've voted against the recent trade between DB and CC as well, because what do I gain by voting to allow it? It can only hurt me, and it can't help me.
As far as the Capuano for Biggio trade goes, as I said, my job is not to protect DJ from himself.
I agree, it was robbery. But is it my fault that DJ hasn't used one of the best pitchers in baseball all season and was willing to trade him away for basically nothing?
When I started writing this post, I had planned to conclude by saying that I would call for a vote on this trade because it was so lopsided, but now that I think about it, it's a stupid idea.
What should I do about the DB-CC trade?
That one isn't as lopsided, but because of the players involved it certainly has the potential to have a lot more impact on the outcome of the league.
Why shouldn't we have a vote on that one as well?
And now we're back to the same problem of why I think allowing league members to vote on trades isn't a good idea.
However, there is a two-day waiting period here, so if anyone has anything to say I'll certainly listen.
