Trade rumors are becoming a bigger part of baseball every year. Once games resume following the Mid-Summer Classic, the rumors start flying. Teams that have no chance of making the playoffs realize that it is sometimes pointless for them to carry $10 million players when their season can't be turned around. Financially, it is a great move for them. Trade a slumping star to a contender for a 20-year-old farm system stud who would make only warrant the league's minimum salary.

These same trade rumors are great for Fantasy baseball. The best thing about Fantasy baseball are the strategies involved in making your team a winner. Anyone can draft a great player, but those who can build and rebuild will find the most success. We drafted Mike Lowell into our farm system this year knowing that he had no chance to start for the Yankees at third base this year. The way that Scott Brosius is playing may keep him in Triple-A even longer.

A good move for a team like the Yankees would be to go after disgruntled pitcher Randy Johnson and offer a future star like Lowell. How much more does he have to prove himself in the minors? It's pointless to keep a guy at Triple-A because you don't have room for him.

Our trading deadline is the same time the major league deadline is, but after that we are still allowed to trade with teams that are equivalent in the standings with us until August 31st. I think this system works great. It creates a really intense time around July 31st. Every team gets on the phone with every other team, trying to see who is available and what they want in return. Last year, we struggled the whole night trying to unload our big salary players who were slumping, and it was great when we pulled off a deal just five minutes before midnight.

The rumors of Mark McGwire going to Saint Louis last year caused a team in our league to trade him for less valuable players. This is because a player in our league is lost once they go to the National League. The best you can do is reserve them in the hopes that they come back to the American League in the off-season. It was a gamble that both sides were taking and that guessing is what makes Fantasy baseball great. You don't know the future!

Fantasy baseball should be as much like the real game as possible. Those leagues that don't have a trading deadline like this just aren't playing the real game. These rumors make it more important to know your players and the Major League teams that they are on. Isn't that what Fantasy baseball is all about?