The Average Joe’s Trades

How trades are graded

Every trade in The Average Joe’s since the startup draft, graded on what each side actually got out of it. Same rules for everyone, applied by a script, refreshed every week after Monday night.

The short version. A trade is won by whoever got more PAR: points their new players scored in your starting lineup, above what a free-agent-level player would have scored. Everything else on a trade page (raw points, value, flips) is context. The arguments start below.

The numbers

PAR (points above replacement): the grade
For every week a player started for you, his points minus that week's replacement level at his position. Bench weeks count zero. A bad start counts against you, because you'd have been better off with a replacement player.
Starter points
Points while in your starting lineup, with no replacement adjustment.
Raw points
Every point scored while on your roster, bench included. Simple, but it rewards hoarding and stashing over actually using the player.
Value
Dynasty market value from FantasyCalc, snapshotted weekly. "Value now" is today's value of what you received (a drafted pick counts as the player). "Value at trade" only exists for trades made after 2026-11-07, because there's no reliable history before that.

Why PAR and not just points

Raw points make every QB look like a superstar. In this league (1 QB, half PPR, 4-point passing TDs) the 2026 replacement-level QB scored about 18.9 a week, while replacement RBs and WRs scored about 6.6 and 6.5 (TE about 5.9). Twenty points from a QB is barely above what's on waivers; twenty from a WR is a league-winner. PAR puts every position on the same scale.

How replacement level is set: every week, the script fills every team's ideal lineup league-wide with that week's best scorers: QBs, RBs, WRs, TEs, K and DEF first, then the three FLEX spots with the best leftover RB/WR/TE. Replacement level is the best player at each position who didn't make that cut. It moves week to week with byes and injuries.

Who gets credit, and when

Flips: what you turned it into

If you trade for a player and later flip him, the main grade stops counting him the day he leaves. That's on purpose: the grade answers "what did this trade produce for you?" and every trade gets graded on its own.

But "I turned him into something better" is a fair argument, so trade pages also show an Including flips view. A flipped asset gets a share of what came back in the later trade, and that follows chains (A → B → C) all the way up.

Splitting a package. Most flips are packages of 2–5 pieces, so the hard part is deciding how much of the return belongs to the one piece being tracked:

  1. Only piece sent: it gets all of the return.
  2. Flip made after 2026-11-07: split by each piece's FantasyCalc value on the day of the flip. That's the market's own read at the time, so no hindsight.
  3. Older flips (no value data): split by points above replacement each piece has scored since the flip, on any team, never below zero in a week.
  4. Unused picks haven't scored anything, so they hold an even share (1 of n) until they're drafted. Then they switch to the drafted player's points.
  5. If nobody in the package has beaten replacement yet, the played pieces split evenly.

Each flipped asset on a trade page shows its share and which rule set it. These shares update weekly as players keep scoring.

Splits we tested and threw out

Why flips don't count in the standings: a flip's return would be counted twice, once in its own trade and again in the original trade's rollup. The standings stay on the main grade, where every point is counted exactly once.

Unused picks

The leaderboard shows every pick each owner holds for the next 3 rookie drafts (2027–2029). A full set is 12. If you've been selling points now for picks later, this is where it shows. Picks that haven't been used can't score yet, so they never move PAR.

Colors

Every owner keeps one color everywhere on the site. Eleven colors can't all be told apart (two pairs that have traded with each other are close), so every chart line is also labeled with the owner's name, and the second side's line is dashed.

FAQ (complaints department)

"I won a title with that guy and it says I lost the trade."

PAR only counts weeks he started, compared to replacement, and the other side may have gotten more. Check the raw and starter points on the trade page, and the Including flips view if anything got flipped. Playoff weeks do count.

"I flipped him for a stud. Why doesn't that count?"

It does, in the Including flips view on the trade page. It doesn't count in the main grade or standings, because then the same points would count in two trades.

"Why is my QB worth less than his RB?"

Replacement-level QBs score 18.9 a week in this league. Your QB has to beat that to earn PAR. See Why PAR and not just points above.

"My 2027 1st shows nothing."

It hasn't been used, so it hasn't scored. Its current market value shows on the trade page, it holds an even share in any flip split, and it's counted in your unused picks on the leaderboard.

"Why does my guy only get 20% of that package?"

The flip box under each asset says which rule set the share: market value on the flip date, points above replacement since, or an even split. If the other pieces have out-produced him since the flip, they get more of the credit.

"Why is 'value at trade' blank?"

Value snapshots started 2026-11-07. FantasyCalc doesn't publish history, so older trades only get today's value.

"This is rigged."

It's a script. It treats everyone the same, including the guy who built it. If a rule is wrong, make the case in the group chat; changing a rule regrades every trade at once.

Put it on your phone

iPhone
Open this site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
Android
In Chrome, tap Install when prompted, or the ⋮ menu → Add to Home screen.

It opens offline with the last data you viewed.

Credits

League data from Sleeper. Player and pick values from FantasyCalc.