Fantasy Baseball: Veto policy, plus expert grades of your trades

More Fantasy Baseball: Prospects Report | Podcast: Buy or sell?

Trading is hard. You have to know how to value players in a vacuum, but that's not all; you also have to know how other people value players. It's not just about objective value, but also perception. 

Let's make it easier. One way to do that is with Scott White's trade values chart. Another way is to look at other moves people have made and figure out what you can get away with. I went to Twitter this week with a simple request:

Now, I'll grade some of those trades, and you can use them as a guideline for your own deals. Simple enough. 

Here's the grading scale:

A - "You committed highway robbery"
B - "You won the trade"
C - "A perfectly reasonable move on all sides"
D - "You lost the trade"
F - "I don't want to be rude, but..."

And if you're trying to figure out who you should target in your fantasy baseball trades, visit SportsLine now to get Scott White's Rotisserie Fantasy Baseball trade chart, and find out which huge name has shot up in the rankings. It's an invaluable tool when trying to pull off a deal. 

I'll start with this one, because it's easy: Don't veto trades.

Or, rather, only veto trades if you're prepared to kick someone out of your league. Team owners should be free to run their teams however they see fit — including poorly. That's a bad trade, but unless you believe the owners are colluding and aren't operating in good faith, you have to let it through. It's not the commissioner's job to hold anyone's hand. If you think the trade is veto-able, that means you believe the teams are operating in bad faith, and they shouldn't be in the league anyway. 

The trade's an F, of course. 

I like the idea of this one, because you truly don't have any use for Mitch Haniger. I buy his breakout to a certain extent, but he's not better than any of your other three outfielders, and you're buying Jose Berrios at a good time. He's coming off three bad starts in a row, but the underlying skill set is still strong. I didn't think he was an ace before the season and I still don't, but he's more valuable than Haniger. 

This is a B for you. 

This is an interesting one. Clayton Kershaw is already playing catch, just a few days after being placed on the DL with biceps tendinitis. This could be a relatively short stint on the DL for him, in which case, it's a huge win for the side acquiring Kershaw. 

On the other hand... Kershaw now has an arm injury to deal with, in addition to the chronic back issues that have plagued him in recent years. He's riskier now than he ever has been, and we've also seen signs of him slipping. Hey may not be the best pitcher in baseball anymore, and if he is, the gap isn't quite what it used to be.

On the other hand, Tommy Pham has his own injury and performance concerns, and at their best, there's no question he's not in Kershaw's class. I think this is a B for the side getting Kershaw, but it makes me feel a little queasy. 

I like the idea of acquiring Madison Bumgarner as he starts to get closer to returning to action, which is why the next three questions are all about him. Trading for him now is a smart idea, because his owner might be antsy about that empty roster spot, and you may only have to live with three or four weeks without Bumgarner. I want to help you find the right range of players to offer for him, because you can still overpay for Bumgarner. 

This feels like a bit too much to give up, however, especially with the format. Gallo is a drain on your batting average, but he gets a nice boost in OPS leagues thanks to his power and willingness to draw a walk. In this format, he might be a positive contributor in five categories — and with the improvements he's made to his strikeout rate and all-field's approach, he might creep closer to neutral in batting average. This is a C-minus. 

This one isn't just about Bumgarner, but he's a key part. Scott White's trade values chart has Zack Greinke as a better value than Bumgarner right now, but those numbers will probably be pretty close by the time Bumgarner gets back. Greinke gets the edge, but probably not by enough to make up for Manny Machado's value — and I don't think Chase Anderson adds much value here at all, given his inability to sustain last year's strikeout and velocity gains. 

This is a big win for you. Not quite an A, but a solid B-plus.

This isn't the the best of the Bumgarner trades, but it's good. If he was healthy, Bumgarner might be Alex Bregman's equal, but in a categories league, I still expect Bregman to be a legitimate five-category contributor, and that gives him the edge. Tanner Roark is probably a bit more valuable than Cozart, so it's a win in both regards. It's a B. 

I like Brandon Belt a lot, but I'm not sure he has much value in this instance. He might be a starting-caliber DH option in Roto, but his better format has always been H2H points or OBP, because of how often he walks. His batting average is being inflated by a .368 BABIP (.335 career mark), and once that normalizes, he looks pretty average in Roto. Carlos Carrasco is, of course, a stud, but he's not as valuable as Freddie Freeman in this or any format, and I'm not sure the existence of Edwin Encarnacion makes it worth the tradeoff. If I'm losing Freeman, I need better than Belt as a second player, especially if I'm losing a useful pitcher like Joey Lucchesi on top of it. Sorry, I give this a D. 

I wanted to get a Jose Martinez trade in here because I find the perception of him fascinating. To be honest, I'm not nearly as high on him as a lot of the sabermetric-minded community because he just hits the ball on the ground too often. I love the plate discipline, and there's no denying he's a good hitter, but it's also no coincidence he just went 18 games without a homer. I like Martinez, but more in the same way I like Yuli Gurriel — as a good source of average and RBI, but not much of a power bat. 

Long story short, I like this trade a lot for you. Sean Manaea has his own regression coming, but his 3.55 FIP and 3.68 SIERA point to very clear improvements he's made. I think he's in the same class as Berrios as a pitcher, and that's a great get for Martinez. This is a B-plus.