Every fantasy baseball season, I usually save this piece for Kicking Rocks because I tend to write it as my home league is in the middle of some crazy email war where guys are threatening to drop out of the league or lobbying to have trades vetoed. It can be a harrowing time, for sure, and it’s tough to write about without offending someone in my league for being a total jackass. Alas, that league has since disbanded with this as one of the primary reasons. As a result, I feel I can share this sad tale with an objective piece based more in suggestion and hope than anything else.

Here goes…

This is always one of the more contentious parts of a fantasy baseball season. If you’re vying for your title, everything matters. Every injury, every trade and every roster move means something to you and your teams success. If you’re not, nothing matters. You don’t care about league trades, you’re not looking at your starting roster and if your guys get hurt, so be it. It’s passion versus apathy and when the two collide, it’s the ultimate in irresistible forces meeting immovable objects.

With MLB teams still able to make deals, many leagues in the fantasy baseball community set their trade deadline for the first of September. Roto leagues allow you to prep for the final month of the season while in head-to-head play, you’re setting up your teams for the playoffs. The 40-man rosters will expand and replenish your waiver pool so everyone is looking for that one last chance to stack the deck in their favor. The problem is, with half your league not caring, the final month of the season doesn’t come down to whose knowledge and scouting abilities are stronger. It comes down to which team can scam one of the league’s bottom-feeders and make the most egregious dump deal.

Competitive high-stakes leagues have eliminated trading in an effort to squash potential collusion and these types of deals, but your basic home leagues in which you pay an entrance fee and play for a cash prize, probably hasn’t made that move yet. Why would it? After all, you and your friends, co-workers, family, whomever put this league together to have some fun and yes, trading is most definitely part of that fun.

The problem that arises is that once these deals start up, the fun stops. Teams vying for a “money finish” continue to push the envelope and try to squeeze out as much in a deal as they possibly can. If it’s a keeper league, they’re looking for a 3-for-1 for Rhys Hoskins because he’s going to be some beastly home run hitter next year. If they’re trading someone more established like a Corey Kulber, look out! The expected return just might be package of five players, two of whom could probably be considered protectable for next season as well. The expectations for the sellers who have dollar signs in their eyes become downright ridiculous at this time of year.

But in a standard “chicken or the egg” debate, is it the seller who is at fault for trying to squeeze out every ounce of value possible or is it the apathetic bottom feeder who just clicks “accept” without even reviewing the trade in its entirety? We get it. The allure of fantasy football has you turning a blind eye to your fantasy baseball league, but it’s about honoring a commitment you made to the rest of the league. You committed to playing a full season and while your team has become a wasteland incapable of moving up in the standings, it doesn’t mean you give away its working parts all willy-nilly.

In a keeper league, there’s a difference between building for next year and throwing everything you’ve got at Mike Trout. Maybe your potential keepers are considered borderline by some, but giving three or four of them away for one guy isn’t helping you build any sort of a foundation. And if it’s a re-draft league, well, what are you really getting out of this deal anyway? If the players don’t mean anything for next season, the least you can do is take a legitimate look at the deal and work with the other owner to make it fair. Blindly clicking “accept” is doing a disservice to the league as a whole.

What’s more is that you bottom-feeders today could be the ones vying for a title next season. Does that simply make it your turn to pull off one of these egregious dump deals? What if you’re in first, you can’t get one of these deals done and the second place team just traded off two players for six every-day guys to fill all of his roster holes? Suddenly the league is caught up in this vicious cycle where teams are expected to do this at their league’s trade deadline, owners get real aggravated real fast and your league turnover becomes abundant as the frustrated owners depart one after the other when they don’t cash a check.

Many a commissioner has tried to implement something in the rules to prevent this from happening. Some have tried to place restrictions on the number of players traded in a deal, some have instituted a no-trade list of players and some have incorporated a league vote in an attempt to police the more egregious deals. The big problem is that everyone values players differently and most vote with self-interests in mind rather than objectively and with league integrity in mind.

It needs to start with you, the individual owner. If you’re at the top, understand when enough is enough. Of course you want to win, but is it worth throwing your league into a tizzy because you’re asking for the world in return for one player? Show even just a little restraint. If you’re at the bottom, then just pay even the slightest bit of attention. Actually read the trade that comes your way. Put some thought into it. If everyone can get on the same page with regard to objectivity and league integrity, then you’ll have a league that lasts a lifetime.