Analyzing the Remaining Pitcher Trade Market

Over the past couple of days we have given Kenny Williams a hard time and lauded the efforts of both Josh Byrnes and Billy Beane. Well, how are we able to do this? Real estate agents use something they call comps. They determine the value of your house based on similar houses in the area. They look at similar floor plans, square footage, neighborhoods, and sometimes even break it down based on the improvements to the home. General managers and agents will do the same thing with pitchers. We are starting with the trade market, so agents don’t figure as much in at this point although if a pitcher is close to free agency, the recieving team will consider who the player’s agent is. In this case, we take a look at recent performance, performance over an extended period, and how much club control the team has. At this point in the offseason we have seen three major trades involving starting pitchers and there are three potential targets left that most would consider highly sig...