Selling ownership on a trade

July, 25, 2011

7/25/11

1:03

PM ET

By Jim Bowden | ESPN.com

I have a piece up today on ESPN.com that outlines the many steps a general manager must go through before making a trade. One of the key elements of that process is convincing the owner why that trade needs to be made.

What a GM will often do is create what's called a "trade sheet," which is basically a summary of why he wants to trade a certain player (or players), and an explanation of the players he is trying to acquire in return. Since the owner is not as well versed on the quality of players in other organizations, this is an easy way to distill the information.

Using Carlos Beltran as an example, here's what a hypothetical trade sheet might look like:

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

Jim Bowden

Bowden, who served as the senior vice president and GM for the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals, is an analyst for ESPN.com. In 1992, Bowden became the youngest GM in MLB history when the Reds hired him at age 31. The Reds finished in first place twice during his 10 years as GM, and he was named MLB Executive of the Year by Baseball America in 1999. After working for ESPN in 2004, Bowden became the first GM of the Washington Nationals when the franchise relocated from Montreal to Washington, D.C., in 2005, working in that role until the 2009 season. Bowden co-hosts the "Inside Pitch" radio show on Sirius XM satellite radio. Follow on Twitter: @JimBowdenESPNxm.