Things Learned

After a season of playing through the experiment that was a world devoid of trading, I reflected on how things went, and what effect the rules seemed to have. Here are some things I noticed...

1) This world is definitely not for "marshmallow now" people.
You know, marshmallow now? The experiment where they give kids the choice to eat 1 marshmallow now, or they can wait and eat 2 marshmallows later? If you can take satisfaction in knowing that you're building a team for the future, while hopefully improving your ML squad through free agency, this may be the world for you. If you antsy and just have to make a move via trades, you're going to get bored or frustrated. Gotta be a "marshmallow later" person.

2) Free agency is HUGE.
Free agency has become a much larger part of the game. Knowing you won't be able to trade for a piece you're going after in free agency, do you stay in the bidding war until the end on the prized free agent, or do you bow out and take the next player down the list so you don't miss out altogether? It also makes those guys who may have been marginal players before appear valuable as 24th and 25th guys on the ML roster.

3) Waiving high-contract players...not so smart now, but what about next season...
As we saw with Hutchinson, waiving high contract players didn't work out so well in season 1. But as we move forward, what about players that got bid up in free agency in previous seasons? Will it make sense to waive him before free agency to use that money on 2 or 3 other players?

4) World chat is pretty slow
With no players to offer up and no one-sided trades to argue about, the world chat is relatively slow compared to other worlds. This may not be a bad thing...just something noticed.

5) IFA and draft simply can't be ignored
I may not have done anything different for the draft, but I definitely felt added pressure to make sure I got the right guys in the draft. I also found myself drafting a little more for 'need' and not solely on the 'best player available' since I know I won't be able to move excess for need.

6) After all the dust settles...
I still LOVE the idea!

I hope you've enjoyed this regular season, and I look forward to seeing how the playoffs pan out, as well as future seasons to come.

Commish