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Written by Bob Taylor
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Tuesday, 22 December 2009 20:54 |
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Should Major League Baseball even bother to play out their season next year? I suppose they should, but only for roto purposes. For if not for fantasy, they could likely just award the Yankees the 2010 World Series trophy right now and save everyone a good deal of time. It's bad enough that the Yanks write out whatever sized checks are necessary to snare the free agents they want. (New York's luxury tax payment this year: an astounding $25.69 million. They've been taxed a total of $174 million since 2003 for overspending.) But, in addition, they're now fleecing other teams of under-contract talent to bolster their already formidable roster. First there was Curtis Granderson. And today the Atlanta Braves shipped stud SP Javier Vazquez and change to the Evil Empire for OF Melky Cabrera and change. So they traded the guy with the 2.87 ERA and 238 Ks in '09 for the guy who posted a .716 OPS and .331 OBP. Simply amazing. Of course, Vazquez will be, like, the #4 starter in New York. If I was a girl or in an awesome metal band, I'd be asking you to hold my hair while I puke.
With that out of my system, let's break this down from a fantasy perspective. Vazquez's value drops significantly. Coming off a career year, he was going to be overvalued in 2010 drafts, anyway. Now consider that he's returning to the American League, where his ERA often hung around the mid-4.00s in 2004 and 2006-08. And he'll be facing AL East hitters in that pitcher's-horror-show of a ballpark. No, thanks. I'm passing on Javy in all leagues this season.
Melky becomes available in NL-only leagues where you might need to draft him. But you don't have to be happy about it.
The trade also means that only one of Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes will earn a starting spot to kick off the season. Drafting either of them before Joe Girardi makes that decision comes with significant risk.
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