Most of the time a team, or more commonly, it’s fanbase overvalues their own players. We see this all the time when people try and make "fantasy" trades. For example, a Yankee fan would probably think Melky Cabrera for Carl Crawford is a fair trade, because well, Melky Cabrera is a NEW YORK YANKEE. As Rays fans, we are no different, but sometimes there is the rare occasion when a player is both undervalued by the rest of the league as well as his own fanbase.
Go ask some of your friends, both Rays fans as well as other teams fans, if they had one choice of the following names, who they would pick first for their team? Carlos Zambrano, Mark Buehrle, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Andy Sonnanstine. You’d probably see a lot of votes split amongst the first three, but pretty much none to Sonnanstine, after all Sonny is just a 4/5 starter at best….to the charts.
Here are the averages for all four over the last 2 seasons
| 2 yr average | K/BB | FIP | tRA |
| A | 3.54 | 4.09 | 4.54 |
| B | 1.78 | 4.41 | 4.67 |
| C | 2.63 | 4.10 | 4.56 |
| D | 2.08 | 4.13 | 4.80 |
Based on the numbers they Rank :A, slightly over C and D slightly over B. Now by name that would be: Sonnanstine, Buehrle, Matsuzaka, Zambrano.
When thinking about Sonnanstine's value, the majority of fans(R.J) severely underestimate him. He's better than Jon Garland and Oliver Perez, and both are looking at multi-year deals around $10 million a season. He's better than Gavin Floyd, who was recently rumored to be in a straight up swap for Brian Roberts.
This is not to say Sonny is a #1 starter or he will be down the line, but most people don't even think of Sonny as a #3 guy. They also don't think of him in terms of a 4yr/$40 million guy or a having a lot of trade value. However, if he puts up a season in 2009, similar to his 2008, then maybe they should.