[OldFatGuy]

FWIW,

After fleecing every game I've ever played, I've found with OOTP if I just set the difficulty to Very Hard (and I change the emphasis-Vets/Prospects/Normal randomly after each season) that you really can't fleece the AI. Or at least if you have a House Rule of No Cash involvement, you can't. And mostly I use Shop A Player to initiate a trade.

Now a word of warning. Set at Very Hard, trading is, in fact, very hard. You will find if you shop most of your players around that most will get no offers back. So if you like making 3-4 trades a year, this setting probably isn't for you. But I've made trades when I really needed to, and felt like (for the first time in my bb sim experience) that I wasn't just fleecing the AI. In fact, when the AI proposes trades to you, there is where you'll see the fleecing. The AI is trying to fleece you! It'll ask for the young, sure fire Hall of Famer on your team and offer you a has been and a never will be. I think I've ever only accepted ONE trade proposed by the AI.

But it really gets me wondering when I read thread after thread and they all seem to say set difficulty to Hard. Am I really the only one setting it on Very Hard??

Give it a try in a test league. If you don't like it, go back to Hard and just give yourself some House Rules if you have to.

It's your game, play it your way!