Worst Fantasy Trade Ever

Blowing My Championship Dreams Out the Window

If you play fantasy sports long enough, and I have, you’re going to end up with a bad trade. It’s inevitable. But sometimes you pull off such an absolute soul-crushing trade, that years later you just can’t get it out of your mind. Well, that and your league mates won’t let you live it down.

This is my plight.

The year was 2007. I believed that I had a team that would be competitive for the big plaque that year (the plaque is the award in our league). I was right. A couple months into the season, I was in 3rd and sittin’ pretty. It was the end of May, and I figured I would just let things ride out until closer to our league’s July 31st trade deadline. Yes, my league has the same trade deadline as MLB. We try to make it as realistic as possible people. We’re just geeky that way. Live with it!

That’s when it happened. One of the horses on my pitching staff that season, Roy Oswalt (before his K/9 rate began to dip), went down with a groin injury. It wasn’t serious, mind you, but I didn’t want to slip from the ranks of the duly paid (our league only forks out the scratch for the Top 4 positions). So I figured I would look to trade for a solid pitcher, with decent matchups for a couple of weeks. Roy O. would then return and all be corrected in my fantasy world without any major hiccups.

Hell of a plan, if I do say so myself. Now, who to dangle as bait? It was at this precise moment that the downright stupid in me spoke up.

“What about Braun?”, it hissed. “Sure, he might be alright when he arrives in the bigs. But he was supposed to be up May 1st. It’s almost June and still no sign of him. And who’s to say that he’ll be better than average, even if you do believe in him? You need help now. NOW, I SAY!”

Looking back on it now, I should taken a baseball bat to my head right then and there. It would have been quick and rendered me eternally retarded (or mentally challenged for those still living in the world of ‘PC’). Plus, it would have prevented me from living through the hell that the “Hebrew Hammer” has put me through; and probably will until he retires.

So I went shopping for a pitcher; blissfully ignorant of what exactly I was dangling out there as bait.

That’s when Doug Davis was thrown before me. Again, the “Mr. Stupid” in my head spoke up. “Davis, huh? Unspectacular, but solid pitcher. Decent K’s, but nothing to write home about. The Diamondbacks have some decent matchups during the next couple of weeks. I need help now. NOW, I SAY!”

I pulled the trigger.

To this day, that trade still won’t be forgotten in my league. One of the ‘axis of evil’ even posted a comment reminding, yet again, of this now infamous pile of crap that I created. In my defense, even the best of fantasy analysts couldn’t foresee the goodness that Braun has brought. Would he be good? Sure. But good to the tune of 71 homers, 203 RBI, 183 Runs and 29 Stolen Bases in just a season and half? No way. Unfortunately for me, what most analysts could foresee (and anyone with 1/2 a brain for that matter) was that Doug Davis wasn’t going to be that good.

He wasn’t. I finished out of the money. Life has never been the same since. If you’ll excuse me, I believe I see a Louisville Slugger with my name on it.

Got any bad trade stories of your own? Leave me some in the comments section. I would love to read them.

Jeremy recently won the 2008 Fantasy Sports Writers Association award for Best Humor Article of the Year. His work can be seen daily here on this blog. You can also find him plying his trade for one of the top fantasy football sites, The Fantasy Football Trader, which can be found in the blogroll section to your right. If you would like him to write for you, please contact him by going to the “About” page in the top header.