Welcome back to the Iron Bank’s trading post where we accept
BB $, future draft picks, startup picks, knights, and squires as compensation.
Last week I went through the first 16 houses summarizing their trade dealings
throughout the year, now I’ll wrap up the final 16 houses and put forward my
nominees for best and worst trade of the year
House Forrester
19 trades- 9 startup, 10 pre/during season
Trade overview: Forrester came out of the gates firing in
this league, trading up for the 1st overall pick….then trading it
away. Forrester drafted quite well in the startup and effectively straddled the
line of good luck and bad luck in deals, never pulling too far ahead or behind
on value.
Biggest Trade: Gave 1.31, 4.02, Forrester’s 1st
for 1.01- I’ve tried to avoid using startup trades whenever possible, but when
you deal for 1.01, it’s your biggest trade. As mentioned, he didn’t keep it
long, flipping it with the 5.31 to move down 10 spots and get the 4.05,
continuing to set himself up with as many elite assets as possible in the
startup.
Best Trade: Gave Tyrod Taylor, Theo Riddick, and Richard
Rodgers for Carr, Langford, Stark 3rd – Cashed out of 3 asssets at
the near peak of their value for a QB on the rise, a valuable handcuff, and a 3rd.
Very solid upgrade
Worst Trade: Gave DeMarco Murray, 9.31 for Kelce, 12.32-
that’s right, he gave Murray and a 3 round upgrade to Tyrell to get Kelce. I
can see that making sense in TE premium, but I don’t think we’re playing that
format here.
House Targaryen
9 trades- 6 during startup, 3 pre/during season
Trade overview: A reserved trader, Targaryen only accepted
deals with a clear purpose. In the startup, he moved around to gain 2 1st
round picks, to maximize his picks in the top 150, and not surrender his 2017 1st.
In season, he bought 2 lotto tickets and cashed his 1st in for a playoff
push. All in all, he was able to be the top scoring team in the fire conference
while maintaining a few long term assets
Biggest Trade: Gave Jimmy Garoppolo, Tevin Coleman,
Targaryen’s 1st for Big Ben, Tyler Gaffney- his all in trade to add
a 2nd premium QB in a playoff push. The overall value will depend on
how healthy Ben can be over the next 2-3 years or what return he gets when
flipping Ben.
Best Trade: Gave Phillip Dorsett for Tyler Boyd- very well
timed deal, flipping a blocked WR asset for one with a clear path to
productivity.
Worst Trade- Baratheon’s 3rd for Karlos Williams-
a roll of the dice for potential production, but due to taxi thievery, likely
must keep him on his active roster while this he serves his suspension,
limiting his ability to make other moves
House Swann
8 trades- 3 during startup, 5 pre/during season
Trade overview: Swann didn’t really trade much. Yup, there’s
that deep and amazing insight you all read for. But with only 8 trades, and
none for core pieces, Swann has decided to bet on her ability to draft rather
than her ability to time a market. Considering her run to the Fire conference
finals this year, it’s tough to argue with that.
Biggest trade: Gave Yeldon for Simean- Swann’s Achilles heel
for most of the year was not being able to run a 2nd QB out in her
flex. This deal filled that hole just in time for the 2nd week of
winter
Best trade: Gave Egen’s 4th, Bank’s 5th
for Pierre Garcon- say what you will about Garcon, but he’s currently the WR32
aka a WR2 this year. Getting that production for a 4th and 5th
is a price most will be willing to pay.
Worst trade: Gave Rawls for Yeldon, Egen’s 4th-
At the time, people were running out of patience and faith that Rawls would
return to his previous role with Seattle. Clegane took advantage of this doubt
to pry him free for an underperforming Yeldon.
House Fell
7 trades- 5 startup, 2 pre/during season
Trade overview- Fell didn’t trade often, but when he did, he
traded down. All 5 of his startup trades were focused on moving down from the
most valuable asset in the deal, except for one where he sold a pick for a 2017
2nd. His in season trades helped acquire assets for his draft
warchest
Biggest trade- gave 7.25 for 8.28, 10.28- who cares who the
players are, seriously this is the trade with the highest priced assets that
Fell did this year. I’m getting nothing from this team….
Best Trade- Gave McCown, Fell’s 3rd for Bara’s 2nd,
BWOB’s 4th, and Wode’s 4th
Worst Trade- traded 11.29 (Jamison Crowder) for Baelish’s 2nd-
Crowder might be worth a bit more than this today
Oldtown Maesters
65 trades- 21 during startup, 44 pre/during season
Trade Overview: Maesters’ trading style this year was akin
to a pendulum. In the startup, he focused on moving down and adding 2017 picks
(primarily 1sts). After the startup, he shifted to being a buyer swapping those
hard-earned picks for target players before any football had been played. In
season, he served in a clearing house role, willing to deal any member of his
team for the right price. After the dust has settled, he has 4 potential
starting QBs, youth all over, and still a few picks for the 2017 draft. Time
will tell how fate treats the maesters and their chain adorned with yellow
gold.
Biggest Trade- Gave D. Henry, Egen’s 1st,
Hightower’s 2nd for Corey Coleman- in a vacuum, comes out as a 2017
1st and 2nd and 1.10 for the 1.02. Definitely in line for
a price paid in a rookie draft next year, but probably the largest exchange of
capital maesters made last year.
Best Trade- Gave Booker for Crowder- very very nice cash out
on Booker, and shockingly Crowder held no grudge from being traded away in the
first place
Worst Trade- Gave Baratheon’s 1st, Egen’s 2nd,
Brandon Wilds for Devin Funchess- again this is with the benefit of hindsight,
but funchess hasn’t come close to fulfilling his preseason expectations
House Tyrell
19 trades- 11 during startup, 8 pre/during season
Trade overview: Game of Thrones lore has made two prices
very well known to us- The Iron Price (paid through conquest) and The Golden
Price (paid through money). This league has introduced a 3rd price,
The Tyrellian Price. This price includes the players Tyrell likes at his values
for them or you are either “out to lunch,” placed on the no trade list, or
subject to mockery by the league. This stinginess helped preserve his team’s
value, in many cases improving it at critical times, which has led him to the
title game.
Biggest Trade: Lewis, Murray, Rawls, Jones, Thomas for
Manuel, Zeke, Riddick, Cruz, Inman- spawned an emergency podcast and league-wide
reaction. Zeke and Inman have been critical players to carry Tyrell to the
championship
Best Trade: Gave Kelce, 12.32 got Murray, 9.31- mentioned it
earlier, I know, but just can’t get over the 3-round upgrade. Alrght, moving
on.
Worst Trade: Gave Cousins, Terrence Williams for Michael
Floyd- sometimes the Tyrellian Price doesn’t make lot of sense, but we all make
mistakes…
House Tarly
2 trades-all during startup
Trade overview- Not much to see here, Tarly made 2 connected
moves, moving from 4.20 to 4.26 to improve an 8th round pick, and
from 4.26 to 5.02 to improve a 9th round pick.
House Hightower
42 trades- 29 during startup, 13 during pre/regular season
Trade overview: Hightower was moving around like Ali during
the startup, logging the most startup trades I’ve seen thus far. Post-startup,
Hightower sat back making only small deals with his core until the time was
right to buy in the market. He’s maintained a young core and has positioned
himself well to compete in 2017 and beyond.
Biggest Trade: Tannehill, DGB, Stark’s 2nd for
Cousins, Riddick- Cousins has turned into one of the premier QB assets while
Tannehill seems to be having the offense taken out of his hands for his team to
have success. DGB’s ability to develop will determine how this trade balances
out, but paying up to get a QB1 makes this Hightower’s biggest trade.
Best Trade: Gave Kessler & Chris Moore for Garoppolo,
Funchess, Rodgers, and starks 4th – gave a QB that has an outside
shot of being the browns starter next year for a QB with an outside shot of
being the Browns starter next year, a young WR with good metrics, a fringe TE
and a 4th. A win no matter how you slice it
Worst Trade: Gave Cameron Meredith, Malcolm Mitchell for
John Brown- John Brown has had an epic fall from grace. A preseason darling who
was picked to be the next Antonio Brown, to a player on a snap count due to a
sickle cell trait. In exchange, he surrenders two wrs who have had breakout
years (a WR2 for Meredith since week 5 and a WR1 for Mitchell since week 11)
The Faceless Men
10 trades- 5 during startup, 5 pre/during season
Trade overview: Startup focused on trading down and
acquiring more picks all in small, discrete moves. His 1st big move
was recovering from a rough break at QB to make sure he could field a weekly
lineup. His other big deal was to sell out of an aging asset that didn’t belong
on his team (Gronk) for the pieces to help him build his team back up. He is
also one of the finalists for the best trade bait in the league.
Biggest Trade: Gave Agholor and Dez for TyGod and Diggs – Shifted
Faceless from a likely Castemere candidate to a weekly contender.
Best Trade: Gave Gronk, Starks for Jeffery, Floyd,
Targaryen’s 1st, Egen’s 2nd – After having Gronk on his
trade bait for the majority of the season, he was finally able to unload him to
a team making a playoff push. Thanks to nice stretch of TE1 overall games, he
was able to garner the offseason price for Gronk and reposition himself for the
future
Worst Trade: Gave DuJuan Harris for Keyarris Garrett- The
week after Harris puts up 20+ points he gets dealt or a player who wasn’t
drafted and isn’t on a roster?
Brotherhood Without Banners
15 trades- 13 during startup, 2 pre/during season
Trade Overview: Really only count his startup trades, as his
2 post startup trades were fringe players for 5th round picks. He
prioritized top 100 picks, strategically moving later assets as needed to get
his target players. He ran into some trouble with the Bridgewater injury, but
still picked up enough games to show some hope for his team next year.
Biggest Trade- Gave 1.29, 2.04, and 3.29 for 1.11 and 2.18-
a combination of two deals where BWoB paid a pretty penny to move up and get
obj, one of the top assets in fantasy. But considering AB was the 1.15 (his
intermediate 1st), and Evans was taken in the range of 1.29, was
this needed?
Best Trade- Gave Hightower’s 5th for Lorenzo
Taliaferro- tossing a 5th round pick for Taliaferro, who has shown
well in his limited time as the starter.
Worst Trade- Gave a 4th for a shit ton of picks
in the last 5 rounds but didn’t end up making about half off them
Iron Bank of Braavos
70 trades- 21 in startup, 49 pre/during season
Trade Overview: Iron Bank was one of the more active traders
in both startup and in season. His team transitioned from a win later depth
play, to a consolidated group of studs, to a tweener which missed the playoffs,
and back to a productive struggle. His favorite trade format was the
sweepstakes, which in some cases turned out well for him, in others, put him in
a tough spot of trading a stud for less than his worth.
Biggest Trade: Gave Kevin White, Sammie Coates, Night’s
Watch’s 1st for Antonio Brown- patient zero of his transition from
productive struggle to consolidation. Pairing AB84 with Julio put him in a
position where not going for it was illogical, and led to many more deals.
Best Trade: Gave Glennon and Hogan for Crowder and Enunwa-
Crowder’s accomplishments have been well documented thus far and Enunwa has
been very productive as a fill in WR. Hogan has been hit or miss, this deal
will come down to where Glennon lands
Worst Trade: Gave Simean for Free Folk’s 4th –
locked in a profit from 5th to a 4th, but sold out way
too soon.
Sand Snakes
23 trades- 13 startup, 10 pre/during season
Trade Overview: Sand Snakes has his style best described as
small moves, and trading only when necessary, nothing more than that. This
philosophy allowed him to make small, calculated moves to improve his team
above both the Iron Bank and Santagar, who were far more active traders. As
mentioned, he eschewed the larger blockbuster deal for small adjustments in the
draft, which allowed him to build up a strong warchest of later draft picks,
which he was able to draw upon during the year to get the fill in players he
needed to win key weeks.
Biggest Trade: Siemean, Wheaton, Snakes 1st,
Santi’s 3rd for Palmer, Stanton, Walker’s 2nd – his
biggest adjustment, reinforcing my point about small moves rather than major
adjustments. This was a tactical swap to grab a QB without a week 11 bye- the 2nd
week of winter- and his handcuff, allowing him to hang on to win his division
and the #1 seed in Fire.
Best Trade- Gave McKinnon for Charles Sims, Gillislee- Was
able to cash out on the hype/promise of McKinnon, who failed to impress in his
debut with the starting role, for another highly regarded PPR back, and a very
useful TD vulture/handcuff in Mike Gillislee.
Worst Trade- Gave Don Jackson for Brent Celek and Reed’s 5th-
one of the hotter names as a waiver wire add that amounted to nothing. In the
end, not an impactful deal, but you have to think he could have pried more
value elsewhere from a GB fan or a Lacy owner panicking about their injured
core piece.
Night’s Watch
24 trades- 10 during startup, 14 pre/during season
Trade overview- If a big name wasn’t moving as part of the
deal, don’t waste his time with the conversation. This led to a lot of home
runs, a lot of strikeouts/bad beats, and a very interesting roster going
forward.
Biggest Trade- Gave Adams, Crowder, and Ri. Matthews for
Hopkins, which was given for a 1.01- Hopkins is arguably the biggest name Night’s
Watch traded for, so he’s got to be the biggest trade. What was interesting was
the follow on move selling him for a 1.01. This has been a widely lauded class,
but is there a D-Hop in this year’s class, or is this a temporary acquisition
of the asset to flip again?
Best Trade- Gave Alshon, Cruz, Doyle for Bernard, Adams,
Crowder, Ebron- Gave the biggest name, but hindsight shows he got the better
haul back, especially considering he was able to flip about half of this haul
for D-Hop and eventually the 1.01
Worst Trade- Gave Agholor, T. Williams, Forrester’s 1st,
Night’s 2nd, Night’s 3rd for C.J. Anderson- A lot of
value going out for Anderson, who is in a backfield who loves the timeshare.
This deal looks better now than it did earlier, with no other Denver back
seizing control of their opportunity.
White Walkers
12 trades- 3 during startup, 9 pre/during season
Trade Overview: Walkers is the first contender reviewed
(well, champ at this point) that didn’t load up on trades during the startup. 3
small adjustment deals were all he pursued in the startup, with his attention focused
on sticking and picking. Post -startup, he enjoyed a special relationship with
The Maesters of Oldtown, executing almost half of his deals with him.
Biggest Trade: Gave McKinnon, Snead, Santi’s 2nd
for Demarco, Teal Julius- The kind of deadline deal that helps put a team over
the top, and it did in this case. Grabbing the newly acquired Murray from
Stark, allowing him to keep pace with some of his high scoring competition this
postseason.
Best Trade: Improving his 1st, 3rd,
and 5th round picks for free- 3 separate swaps with Maesters where
he gave his pick in each round for another pick in that round. As league champ,
this turns into his favor in each
Worst Trade: Gave K. Davis, Walker’s 4th for
Jesse James- James was one of the hotter names as the rising Steelers TE. At
this point, he seems destined for the waiver wire. Not a major loss, but one
nonetheless.
Free Folk
18 trades- 12 startup, 6 pre/during season
Trade Overview: Focused on the startup for most of his
activity, attempting to compete with some very strong teams this year in Ice.
Led to a strong PP, but lineup trouble caused him to miss the postseason and
adjust his approach. The strength of his team still saw him crowned Tourney
champion, a crown for which he will receive no prize but pride.
Biggest Trade: Gave Fitztragic, Geno, J Matt for Goff: His official
transition from playoff competitor to long term planner. Cashed out of Fitz at
the right time and bought Goff at a diminished value. Goff’s learning curve
will determine how this trade shakes out at the end of the day.
Best Trade: Gave Bara’s 4th for Reek- 4th
rounder for a top 10 WR this year. Who says no?
Worst Trade: Gave Hightower for ASJ- Miring away with legal
troubles and on a depth chart where TEs go to die, for a player who annually
contributes near the end of the season.
Children of the Forest
11 trades- 3 during startup, 8 pre/during season
Trade Overview: Children did well to extract value with well
timed/placed deals. While he struggled to move target pieces at times, he was eventually
able to get fair value for them, as well as pick up additional draft capital in
the process. He’s well positioned to be a major market leader this offseason.
Biggest Trade: Gave up DT, got Moncrief- Was thrilled to
finally move DT off his roster, Moncrief is great value back. He’s performed
well with Luck in stints, but has not taken over as the WR1 he was supposed to
be according to draft pundits. Next year very well may be his make/break year.
Best Trade: Gave up Foster, got Malcolm Mitchell- If Foster
didn’t retire this week, he did the week after this deal. Getting an emerging
weapon for Tom Brady for that is a heck of a coup.
Worst Trade: Gave Paxton Lynch for Derrick Henry- QBs are gold
in this league, especially starting QBs. Henry was a 1st round pick
equivalent in our startup this year, but is well blocked on the depth chart
with Murray still looking like a workhorse.
With trading re-opening around now, I'm excited for the fast/furious to return. I'll be back later this week with my nominations for best/worst trades of the year.
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