I realize a league-wide vote brings into play teams making decisions based on the owners involved, but I’d rather give eight owners the chance to voice their opinion than one owner. Also, to be clear, the voting criteria should be, “if player A and player B were free agents, which one would you select first.” Or, “if both Melky/Hairston and Arodys/Cunningham were in the upcoming SOT draft, who would you take first.” Based on that, I’d vote for Arody’s over Melky, and Cunningham over Hairston.

I’ve been consistent all along, I’d prefer the unknown upside of players like Arody’s and Cunningham over the 4th OF types like Melky and Hairston.

Let me know if you want an official league vote here.

“A 26 year old OF making under 3M carries a lot more weight than some 19 year old pitcher yet to pitch above rookie ball.”

First of all, Melky is making $3.1M, and had the same numbers as Hairston last year. Melky isn’t a projectable “tools guy” who’s expected to really take off at age 27, that’s never been said about him, just from you. And Arodys did pitch above rookie ball, but are you suggesting young pitchers have no value?

So if Casey Kelly, Martin Perez, Alexander Colome, Michael Ynoa, Matt Moore, Mike Montgomery, or Casey Crosby were in the Melky trade, JV would’ve still been awarded to Si7? All of these guys were between 18-20 (except Ynoa) and pitched in A ball at some point during the 2009 season. All of these guys were also rated by BP as 4 or 5 star prospects, and all of these guys will be Top 100 prospects in Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus.

I’d be surprised if there’s one owner in this league that would take Melky over that group, and Arodys is in that same group, whether you know who he is or you don’t. There was a mistake made on that trade, and at minimum should’ve gone to a vote.

Peter, I didn’t suggest a league vote because Mike said it was his call and Si7 would get access to JV, no vote. It should be noted that Mike also had no idea who Arodys was at the time of the trade, although I’m not sure he’d admit that.

It’s my preference that all of these go to league votes, and if everyone agrees that Cunningham is more valuable, so be it. But when the JV deal didn’t go to league vote, and now Mike says this one should, that’s my issue.

Precedence talk was related to Melky vs Hairston, not Cunni vs Hairston. Mike set the precedence by stating that Melky was more valuable. Yet when the same type of player gets traded a month later, for a LOWER RANKED prospect, Mike decides that type of player is no longer valuable.

Why all this ‘precedence ‘ talk? Precedence is irrelevant when talking about two different players. Cunni and Hairston are NOT the same player so precedence goes out the window I would think.

If this goes to vote I’ll give it its due dilligence (sp)

A 26 year old OF making under 3M carries a lot more weight than some 19 year old pitcher yet to pitch above rookie ball.

Ask yourself and the rest of the league which player you would want on the roster going forward, I believe it’s Cunningham. If you feel this an error please ask for a league vote.

In 2009, Cunningham’s last year with “prospect” status, he was not a top 100 prospect. In 2010, Arodys Vizcaino will be a top 100 prospect. So let’s add this up…

Two similar players (Melky & Hairston), Arodys the higher ranked prospect, but somehow the team with Cunningham gets first choice. How you can take the unknown of the young guy in one trade, and not in another, is baffling. I said you were wrong in the Melky decision, but clearly you set precedence, which is what SOT is all about (see end of 2009 season – Mazzaro/Floyd situation). Somehow precedence gets thrown out the window in this scenario. Typical DMB I guess.

My reason for choosing Cunningham is simply age. Hairston will be 30 this year and doesn’t appear to be a regular going forward. While Cunnigham may never play everyday. To me they are very similar, but I’ll take the unknown of the young guy verse the 30 year old 4th outfielder.

I’m not sure how the league wants to handle this. I’d be a lot more comfortable going with a league vote on this.