[Leo_The_Lip]

A few things for your consideration.

I play fictional with the league set-up you use and have found it excellent for the recent versions of OOTP. You haven't said how many seasons you've simmed so far, but I would recommend fast simming for 20 seasons, then starting up by taking over a team. This gives the game time to balance out talent and avoid what you are complaining about. That said, I have never found draft talent to be low for more than 2-3 drafts at worst.

Players develop over time. There will be low round sleepers of solid quality, however they aren't apparent yet. 'Talent bumps' are big part of the OOTP engine and you will learn this.

I go with a 30 player draft with 32 MLB teams simply to allow enough of these 'Talent Bumps' to occur. I commend that to you.

As to trading, your are experiencing what the vast majority of OOTP players have asked for over the years. Hard and Neutral means you can't trade your leftovers for either cooked Beef Wellington or the raw fillets.

Over time you will notice that if you shop your players, certain teams will consistently respond. Keep trying until they make a decent offer, then go to the trade screen and try to really hose them. Works for me.

The short answer is the game is not supposed to be easy unless you drop the settings down.