Ranking best destinations for Shane Victorino’s trade value

If you’re following the trade deadline as closely as we are, you have no doubt heard that Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino may be on the move. Earlier today, ESPN’s Jayson Stark gave a listof possible places where he may go.

While he may not be scary good, this is still a substantial player who’s trade could have great significance in the world of fantasy baseball. So, let’s take a look at those possible landing spots and see what’s best for Victorino and his owners.

Reds

Victorino would provide something the Reds have hoped they had in Drew Stubbs, a table setter. Victorino can certainly get on base and has proven this season that he can still light up the base paths, already nabbing 22 bags in 2012. For Victorino to be a top of that lineup once Joey Votto is healthy could be pay dividends to fantasy owners. Now, one might wonder if the move from Philly to Cincy would halt him on the basepaths?

Phillies rank 8th

Reds rank 25th

However Drew Stubbs does just fine (20 this year), so maybe the top of the order still gets the green light more times than not.

Dodgers

If the Dodgers make this move, it will mean they are primed to make a run at the postseason this year with an eye to winning once there! Most of the time we focus on players as simple stat machines that we use in our mathematical chess game called fantasy baseball. However we need to realize they are in fact humans, and better yet MEN!  That was weird, sorry.

Yet the point remains, men love to compete, and men know when it is show time. Pairing up Shane Victorino with Matt Kemp and the newly acquired Hanley Ramirez would create a SCARY good trio! It appears that Hanley will be asked to protect Kemp and Andre Ethier for now so Victorino could be the table setter for Dodgers right away.

Pirates

Victorino to the Pirates would probably table the Marte Partay, just came to me, sorry for those of you who nabbed the Starling Marte as soon as you saw his homer on Sportscenter. We’re talking about Shane Victorino here, the flyin’ Hawaiian. He’s a professional hitter, you don’t trade for him to sit him on the bench half the time for Marte. With the hitter friendly PNC Park, Victorino might be in line for a little power surge, which would be good for us Crackerjacks because we projected him a little higher in the home run department. We thought he’d  be hitting more at 5th than up top, give us a break.

Giants

Although Dixon and I would both like to see more of a legit slugger as a trade deadline addition for the Giants, Victorino would be another REALLY tough out to an already great free swinging bunch. Victorino also possesses the skill set to bat anywhere in a lineup so he would be able to move around to protect Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval or even lead-off.

Ideally I would think the lineup might look like this: Melky Cabrera, Ryan Theriot, Buster Posey, The Kung-Fu Panda and Shane Victorino, but I’m not Bruce Bochy.

Ultimately Victorino will most likely lead off where ever he goes, and he will be in a better lineup than he is in now. If I had to say best to worst situations it would be:

1. Reds
2. Giants
3. Dodgers
4. Pirates

Worst case scenario for fantasy owners is that Shane stays in Philly, where he continues to bat all over 1-5 as  are in and out of the line up. He has been stuck at batting second with Chase Utley back and Jimmy Rollins hitting in front of him. But don’t hold your breath on those guys healthwise. Victorino is a pretty good player to have on your squad come September as he always seems to provide good power and speed balance!