Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Joey Gathright

The Devil Rays demoted speedster Joey gathright in order to make room for Rocco Baldelli. This news was a punch to the gut for all his owners - Gathright's that is not Baldelli's.

After an off-season in which Gathright was touted as a mega-SB player and then making the team, his draft value was where estastablished mega-SB players values are - in to $25+ range for auction leagues and top five rounds for draft ones.

For keeper leagues, his salary as a minor league draftee or free agent pick-up was likely under $10 - creating $15+ of extra value.

All that is down the crapper now. Teams have two choices. To either pay $30 of value for a SB player or take the hit in the SB category. Neither choice is attractive.

But consolation is available. Losing Gathright means losing an everyday hitter who has been killing your team AVg to the tune of .201 and the players available as a replacement with guarantee more HRs and, given 10 ABs per week, at least as many RBIs.

What may hurt more are the refused trades that all the Gathright owners fielded/offered.

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