[hiaspire]

Difference of opinion is what makes the world go round. Best of luck to you building your team around a decaying Barry Bonds if he's not in jail. You can make Matt Holliday the center of your team instead of Lee, but if it was me I'd trade him from our team tomorrow as an over-valued asset worth more in trade than keeping. He's a .262 hitter away from Coors Field in his career with .315 OBP. Stand up and cheer for that coming to a non-Coors stadium near you! Several of those guys mentioned are also massive injury risks who routinely miss huge chunks of the season. But that's no concern, JD Drew can probably still endorse his checks even if his shoulder blows out - best signing ever! We have very different ideas of what makes a player an attractive asset for a team to invest in.

You can like Nick Johnson all you want on the very rare moments he consistently contributes to a team dependably for a season, but if it would cost you an arm and a leg to acquire him then it doesn't really matter to anyone except his actual team that pays his doctor bills. All that matters to teams looking to make a move TODAY is what is AVAILABLE. Nothing else. I'm not sure why you prefer to ignore that perspective in favor of something far more general and often irrelevant to decisions today.

There is sometimes a huge difference between the numbers on paper over a 3-year period of time (where Barry might look good where he didn't on the field last year) and the demand most teams would have for a long-term investment in a player considering a multitude of factors.

Are most on that list readily available today. If not, it means nothing then. You don't have to from the stands, but every team MUST and can only be concerned about their own situation and how they can improve today with available alternatives. That's all. Everything else related to that is totally irrelevant to your needs and objectives today.