Every once in a while someone really hits a home run in giving advice on trading. Last week Lenny Melnick, on his daily podcast, went over what we felt were the basics of trade negotiation. This was an absolute home run and well worth discussing.

There is a reason why Lenny Melnick is one of the most respected experts in the industry. He has a deep reservoir of experience at the highest levels of competition in this game and this experience gives him an unchallenged foundation for his wealth of knowledge. Last week he addressed the basics of trading, and his discussion was so succinct and valuable that it served as an excellent primer. So here are the basics of negotiating he laid out.

1. No mass mailings. This is one I have espoused here . The long and short of it is that by doing this your potential partners have no obligation or reason to respond. So why would they?

2. As a corollary to rule 1, always make a phone call. The reason is that in an email anyone is free to bad mouth your players and blow them off. They are far less likely to do this in a phone call. Plus a discussion, as opposed to email exchanges, makes negotiations far more fluid and flexible, and who doesn’t want that?

3. Praise the other team. One of the items we discussed in the Fantasy Roundtable was the fact that many owners do not even consider what the other team needs when addressing trades. The way to ingratiate yourself is to praise the other team, and ask them how you can help them. There is no reason to tout your team or point out what a great job you have done with your team, the focus should be on them. Think of it as if you were talking to a woman.

4. I thought this was the best rule, and one that virtually every fantasy owner violates, myself included.  You do not have to “win” the deal to be successful. What matters is not whether you get the most value in a particular deal but whether it helps your team. An example might be trading a better player like Chone Figgins for Bengie Molina when you need help at catcher.  There are obviously hundreds of scenarios that illustrate this rule in any fantasy owner’s career. Worry about whether your team is better off, not whether you “win.”

5. Consider etiquette and ethics. I am sure this one will engender lots of controversy, but I agree with my friend at Baseball Geeks, Rob Reed, who, in addressing “rip-off” trades said: For me, this is the fantasy equivalent of stealing a base when you have a 12 run lead.  Purely bush league and a mistake in principle.”

When you are dumping it should be obvious that you play the role of kingmaker. Do it fairly and think about the integrity of the league. If you play in high stakes leagues like I do this is an even bigger issue, since you can be taking multiple thousands of dollars from someone’s pocket out of self interest. If you consider how you would react in the same position you will have a better sense for what is ethical.

Last year I wrote quite a bit on fantasy ethics both here and at the Hardball Times Fantasy Focus column. I am a firm believer that league integrity should be an important consideration, though others vehemently disagree.

6. Don’t make a deal too large or complicated. This is another consideration I have written about before. There are a few reasons why large deals should be avoided. The main one is that you generally lose out when you do it since you will do far better by trading piecemeal. Another that Lenny pointed out in the podcast is that you make it difficult to determine what to do, for both parties. There are far too many variables to consider and it just becomes too unwieldy. Frankly, in my view the main reason why guys make large trades is laziness.

So there you have it, the basics of trade negotiation form one of the best experts in the game. The merit of these rules should be immediately obvious and discernible, and I would bet that most owners, myself included, could benefit greatly from incorporating these basics.