Trades in Sports Games

[LaParkaMarka 0]

So everyone who plays sports games usually tries to take advantage of bad AI. However, some games just do some weird stuff completely on it's own.

 

I was playing a custom draft ESPN 2k5 franchise. In this mode, every player becomes part of a draft pool, and every team is basically rebuilt from the ground up. The Miami Dolphins had the 2nd pick, and took Tom Brady. Fast forward to a year later. The Dolphins missed the playoffs, and I notice that they traded Tom Brady to the Titans...for a guard. What?? First week of the season, Brady throws 4 TDs. Nice trade, Miami.

 

The next week, the Chargers traded Mike Vick for Jamal Lewis, and Larry Fitzgerald for a tackle. They now have Marques Tuiasosopo starting at QB, and Rod Gardner/Dennis Northcutt starting at WR. Bluh?

 

Anyways, anyone else see the computer make some insane and horrible trades?

[Ced 0]

As the Arizona Cardinals in Madden 2004, starting the campaign by dealing an aging Emmitt Smith to the 49ers for either a 1st or 2nd round pick (too hazy to remember which).

 

Signing over-the-hill vets from the FA list with no signing bonus then turning around and trading them for talented rookies and/or draft picks made it too easy to build up an uber-squadron in a matter a season or two.

[the max 0]

It's too easy to stockpile picks in the NHL series. Simply sign players from the free agent pool and trade them to crappy teams for good picks. It's the fast track for rebuilding.

 

Probably the stupidest trade I saw recently was Jarome Iginla for David Legwand/1st/2nd.

[Der Kommissar 0]

The Legwand trade reminded me of one from an NHL game a few years ago. Apparently, the programmers must have REALLY hated the Blues in the game because you always count on the Blues to make a stupid trade in the game. I was playing as the Predators once and I see this trade offer window pop up. "The Blues would like to trade you Pavol Demitra, Barrett Jackman, & Jamal Mayers for Scott Walker." Now, Walker was having a great season, but he was expendable to me. He was aging and not that fantastic overall, and I would gladly take a first liner, defenseman of the future, and a decent 3rd/4th liner for him. Of course, I took the trade.

 

As fate would have it, I checked on the Blues about a month later to see how my former player was doing. I found out that the Blues basically gutted their entire team for a bunch of not so good players. They even traded Walker off to Tampa Bay for two players who had zero chance of ever achieving anything near stardom. Meanwhile, Demitra was a dominant first liner on my team for a few years and Jackman was a top pairing defenseman after about a year. The Blues sucked, naturally.

 

In Madden 2005, that player personality addition led to some fun trades for me. My favorite was when LaBrandon Toefield was mad because he was my backup RB and wanted to start somewhere. This puzzled me, seeing as I was the Super Bowl champion and he was backing up Fred Taylor, who was injury prone and had one year left in him. Anyway, I decided to check the market for him. I immediately discovered that he wasn't good enough to start on any other team in the NFL. After spending a minute damning the stupidity of this new Madden feature, I decided to trade him to the worst team in the league for a TE and a 4th round pick.

 

The trade worked out fine for me. The Tight End became a three time pro bowler for my team in the five years he was on it, and the 4th rounder was a serviceable LB, but that's not important. You see, after Toefield's contract ran out, he signed with Oakland to be the number three running back there. I couldn't figure out the logic of this one at all. He wanted to be leave my team because he's too good to be a backup on a Super Bowl team, and then signs to be the number 3 RB on some shitty Raiders team. It made no sense whatsoever. I thought he wanted to start somewhere. Of course, he did nothing for the Raiders and was cut after one year.

 

One of my recent favorites happened in NBA 2K6. For some odd reason, the computer likes recent draftees about as much as the Phoenix Suns do in real life. They are willing to pay me to take them off their hands. I decided to make a trade with the Pistons for their recent first round pick, a decent enough Lithuanian SF. I trade a backup PG for him and the Pistons first round pick next year. I thought nothing of it at the time. The Pistons were a good team, so I thought it was going to be a pick in the low 20s, which was more than enough for my trouble. I never thought that the Pistons would suck that year, but they did. They were so bad that they had the second worst record in the league. This meant that the trade ended up with me trading a backup PG(75 overall) for a decent shooting SF and the fifth overall pick in the draft(who ended up as a franchise Center for my team.) I don't think I'll ever top that one.

 

 

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

It's not trade related, more job related.

 

I started a game in Football Manager 08 as unemployed (with lots of leagues turned on), was offered the Montrose job (shit time in the Scottish 3rd Division) and in 2 seasons had taken them up to the Scottish 1st Division with back to back promotions. Come the Summer and I was offered a new job, not surprising I had built a reputation in the regional area... it was the England job. Er, yeah.

[Vampiro69 0]

On Tecmo Super Bowl the Final Edition on the SNES a trade went down where the Falcons traded Bert Emanuel for Jerry Rice.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Earlier I was simming through franchise mode in MLB 2K7 with the Braves. Year 1, I gutted the team by July 31 and ended up below .500. By getting rid of the Joneses, Smoltz, Hampton, and Wickman, I wittled down the payroll from $97 million or so to about $43 mil and started over. In 2008, I won 98 games. Here's my opening day 2009 lineup.

 

SS Hanley Ramirez

RF Nick Markakis

3B Alex Rodriguez

1B Miguel Cabrera

C Brian McCann

CF Alex Rios

LF Jeff Francoeur

2B [CPU-Generated SS Prospect, 85 overall]

Pitcher

 

The my rotation is Tim Hudson, Justin Verlander, Scott Kazmir, Andrew Miller, and a prospect. The closer is Huston Street. My bullpen and bench are made of of uber prospects and various emerging talents.

[MrRant 0]

What does that have to do with bizarre trades?

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

In Madden '06, I was trying to move the San Diego Chargers to LA or Anaheim. I was having no luck while the computer controlled New York Jets moved to Boston and became the Boston Beans.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I remember two from MVP 2005 that really stand out. Both with the Blue Jays, I had St. Louis offer me Chris Carpenter straight up for Chris Woodward and I had Baltimore offer me Brian Roberts for Howie Clark. I gladly accepted both.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

What does that have to do with bizarre trades?

 

I got lots of good prospects/developing stars for overpaid old guys that I didn't want. One example being I traded Smoltz in his free agent year to Detroit for both Verlander and Miller. In my Yankee franchise, I traded Pettitte and Posada for Santana and Mauer.

[Failed Bridge 0]

In last year's Madden I started a franchise mode and the first headline on that newspaper was "Deion Branch not being paid enough; might hold-out". My reaction? "Wow, if its in the game then it really is in the game!".

 

The NBA 2K series use to be horrible at trades...I dunno if its changed in the past couple years but I remember being offered Shawn Marion for Vin Baker and then watching a Chris Bosh for Spreewell deal go down.

[Steviekick 0]

The worst trade I ever saw was on NBA 06. Dallas traded Dirk to Milwaukee for Michael Redd, which doesn't sound too bad at first.

 

Unfortunately, the computer never adjusted the rosters, using Redd as a PF that would continually get perpetually abused, to the point of Dallas not winning a single game for the remainder of the season.

 

My most insane trade was on NBA Shootout 98, trading Greg Ostertag for Shaq.

[Brett Favre 0]

NBA 2K7 improved a lot on trades. Franchise players usually stay with their teams.