Valuing Anibal Sanchez

June 10, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Anibal Sanchez (19) reacts during the second against the Tampa Bay Rays at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Anibal Sanchez has been asking for 6 years and $90 million dollars. He’s 48-51 over his career thus far, with a 3.75 ERA (mostly played in a pitcher’s park in the National League). Nobody will claim that he’s an ace – but he (at least over the past 3 years) has been a consistent middle-of-the-rotation starter. He will turn 29 in February, which makes him relatively young for a free agent – and that will of course make him more attractive on longer term deals. The free agent pool for starting pitchers is also – as is usually the case – pretty thin, so many analysts have Sanchez ranked as either the #2 or #3 starter on the market (Zack Greinke is universally accepted #1).

We like how he pitched for the Tigers down the stretch. Ilitch liked how he pitched down the stretch. It’s no surprise that – despite not exactly needing another starter – Sanchez has been on Dave Dombrowski’s offseason to-do list. The question is: how high do you think Dave Dombrowski should be willing to go? We’ll do this in TWO polls – one for contract length and the other for annual value. When it’s all said and done we’ll average up all of your responses and come to a crowdsourced solution for the Tigers’ maximum offer.