As I read Dayn Perry's assessment of the Vernon Wells extension on FOXSports.com, I was struck by the penultimate sentence:
It caused me to cringe in the memory of the last bubble free agent market where ARod got $252MM, Jeter got $189MM and Manny Ramirez got $160MM. It has been five years, and no one has matched those contracts.
I read Mr. Perry's article after doing some preliminary work on a trade proposal for a $33 Wells in my AL-only keeper league. I do not have a player at tthe same salary so I needed to examine his 2006 season in context of his career numbers. Like Mark DeRosa (to the nth power!), Wells enjoyed a career-season in 2006. In fact, his previous two seasons were of the .270AVG/single-dgit SB variety. Not something I'd try to acquire at $33 in exchange for players $10+ dollars cheaper.
Point? Sometimes fantasy baseball owners need to wipe away some of the hype and act more rationally than the real world conventional wisdom.