I always try to do trades that will help both teams and often overpay for the right piece. The teams that are playoff competitive and trade alot tend to be successful because they work at it. Do all trades work? Absolutely not but it is nevr for lack of effort. I too had B. Mueller on a team a year ago and could not give him away for a modest FA upgrade. That kind of event is more of a fluke than not in my opinion but there are many non-competitive teams that remain so because they make no effort to improve.

Re Tim's message: he has many teams and once again, in most cases, only the competitive and creative teams will take the time to look his roster over and submit an offer. Other teams are more specific and spell out what they are looking for or willing to deal but the non-competitive managers cannot be spoon-fed. You just have to hope they will make a greater effort to do a trade to help themselves because there is always a possible trade out there.