With these prices Buchholz better be playing elsewhere on August 1st...Cashner might actually be a worse pitcher this year.
This is fascinating to me. When we talk about moving Buchholz, we think that there's basically no market for him. But all of a sudden, Jeremy Hellickson, of all people, might fetch 3-4 prospects? Let's compare Hellickson with Buchholz.
Hellickson
2013 - 174.0 ip, 5.17 era, 4.22 fip, 1.35 whip
2014 - 63.2 ip, 4.52 era, 4.15 fip, 1.46 whip
2015 - 146.0 ip, 4.62 era, 4.44 fip, 1.33 whip
2016 - 125.2 ip, 3.65 era, 4.17 fip, 1.12 whip
TOTALS - 509.1 ip, 4.56 era, 4.26 fip, 1.30 whip
Buchholz
2013 - 108.1 ip, 1.74 era, 2.78 fip, 1.03 whip
2014 - 170.1 ip, 5.34 era, 4.01 fip, 1.39 whip
2015 - 113.1 ip, 3.26 era, 2.68 fip, 1.21 whip
2016 - 85.2 ip, 5.99 era, 5.78 fip, 1.47 whip
TOTALS - 477.2 ip, 4.15 era, 3.73 fip, 1.28 whip
Clay's ceiling is much higher than Hellickson's. Hellickson is signed through the end of this year, so he's purely a rental. Clay has a team option at a reasonable price for 2017, so he's not necessarily a rental (though if he sucks, it costs just $500k to decline the option). I get that Hellickson has been better so far this year, and I'm ok with him even having a better market than Clay. But Clay has like no market while Hellickson could fetch three or four legit prospects?