Over-priced guns to avoid early in BBL12

Are they worth it?

Making a Supercoach side is not always as easy as it seems.

There are heaps of big name players to choose from. These fan favourites are not always cheap and fitting them into your side can be a tad tricky.

As you start to compile your side, you will find that we cannot put all of the big guns into our side and press save. The sneaky thing called the salary cap will limit us.

There are two important things that Supercoaches will need to consider when putting together their team for round one.

Our fearless leader (Mr Tim Williams) is always banging on about finding value when putting together your side.

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Points are definitely the most important factor in my own opinion, however, there is no doubt that considering value also plays a vital part, especially in the early stages of the season.

Players can be under-priced and can be great selections for your side, whilst they also can be over-priced and this article will investigate nine players that could potentially be overpriced to start the upcoming BBL season.

With price changes occurring after each round from the start, it can be handy to avoid players who start at a large price and under-perform early.  

Even though we will outline some players who could be over-priced based on their initial starting price, there probably will be some players on this list who will be in my starting team because their schedule will be too hard to ignore.

They are listed in in order of starting price.

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Ben McDermott $211,800

Ben McDermott was opening the batting last year and had one of the most remarkable double game rounds where he scored back-to-back hundreds and owners were rejoicing.

Even though I was not an owner it was hard not to sit back and watch him compile those remarkable innings.

As we know with pure batters, there can be some very low scores from time-to-time and last year McDermott was no different, with four scores under ten runs during his campaign.

There are other wicket-keepers and batters available who could score big.

In particular when having a quick look at the wicket-keeping position, there are many other options who look value compared to McDermott’s extravagant starting price.

In an ideal world he has a couple of poor scores and we can pick him up at a cheaper price when the schedule allows.

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 Xavier Bartlett $208,100

Bartlett was a shining light for the Brisbane heat early last season. Whilst the team’s performance was disappointing early on, Bartlett was anything but from a Supercoach perspective.

The Heat would lose early wickets and he got plenty of chances with the willow in hand last year.

The Heat on paper seem to have a batting line-up that looks pretty solid, so you would think it is unlikely that he would replicate his batting exploits.

He had some not-outs to inflate his average to an unbelievable 65 runs per innings and he did have some scores above 20 with the bat.

His primary role in this team is as a bowler and even though he did take 11 wickets in seven games, he was routinely expensive with ball in hand.

This even led to him being dropped during last tournament. The Heat also should have Michael Neser back playing more regularly this season as well. He is a massive price and does not seem to be great value heading into the season.

Matthew Kelly $201,600

Matthew Kelly is a quality bowler, there is no denying that. Unfortunately as we have alluded to on the podcast, he plays for the Perth Scorchers who have unbelievable and almost unfair depth with their fast bowling stocks.

He would comfortably be selected in the majority of other BBL franchises. He only played six matches for the Scorchers last year and was really impressive in just about all of his appearances.

He had 14 wickets in six matches and he is the type of bowler who bowls in the right times in the innings.

The other thing that is valuable from a Supercoach perspective is that he can take a bag and have a huge score on his day, as evidenced by games where he took four wickets (twice) and three wickets (once) last season.

An awesome player, but you just cannot select someone with that price tag who is not guaranteed selection in their team each round.

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Matt Short $197,500

Short had an unbelievable BBL tournament last year. For most of the season he had almost the best role in Supercoach. He opened the batting and was aggressive.

It definitely worked for him and he amassed 493 runs at an expressive strike-rate of 156!

He was also consistently bowling overs and was economical. He took eight wickets with a very respectable economy of 7.15.

I think I can even remember him bowling death overs in at least one match last season!

His initial starting price is over three times more compared to his starting price last season.

It is really unfortunate that the Strikers have an opening round double game, because it could be hard for us to know if he will have the exact same role as he did last year.

Will they play another spinner alongside Rashid Khan (Boyce?) and reduce the need for Short to consistently bowl overs?

Will the addition of an all-rounder like Colin De Grandhomme change the number of overs Short will bowl each game?

Will his new opening partner Chris Lynn have any sort of impact on the way Short attacked the powerplay last year?

A quick team list analysis will be needed when the Strikers announce their line-up for their first match.

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Jason Sangha $177,200

Sangha was someone who I wanted in my side, but I could never actually bring him into my side last season.

He was super, primarily with the bat and finished clearly as the Sydney Thunder’s leading run scorer with 445 runs at an average of nearly 50.

He was not explosive, but just seemed to compile runs and attempted to accelerate at the end, once his eye was well and truly in.

He also occasionally bowled last year and picked up some Supercoach points with the odd wicket.

There is some speculation and intrigue whether he will bowl more this year so due to an injury to his namesake.

If he did ball more often, it could be argued that he has more points scoring opportunities.

However, if he does not bowl as much as we think he may (signing of Usman Qadir) and gets less batting opportunities (moving to number four to accommodate Rilee Rossouw), it could be hard for him to replicate his amazing season and Supercoach scoring from last season.

His current domestic form is patchy (he even has been dropped lately) so that is something that must be considered.

Cameron Boyce $171,400

It was great to see Boyce back playing cricket for the final few matches in Renegades colours last year.

He was very productive with ball in hand and captured 10 wickets in four games including five for 21 in the Renegades final match.

He has moved to the Strikers this season and it will be interesting to see whether the Strikers decide to play both him and Rashid Khan in the same side, or if he will be used as the primary spinner once Rashid leaves early.

Either way, he looks a big price to start with and there are other spinners or bowlers that looked like better selections based on their current starting price.

Spin bowlers like Zampa, Mujeeb or Swepson come to mind straight away.  

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Henry Thornton $163,900

My mate Maxy has been pumping up Thornton on the podcast recently and whilst I am considering him a tad more, he still seems a large price to me.

He was productive towards the back end of last season when the Strikers found some form.

He captured 13 wickets in seven games and was certainly a strike weapon.

I thought he bowled a real mixed bag and got a tad lucky on occasions. His economy rate was a bit on the expensive side conceding 8.3 runs per over. The Strikers do have a few different bowling options such as Conway, Agar, Siddle, Boyce and Khan so I am not totally convinced he will play every game.

Tom Rogers $163,000

Tom Rogers was awesome last season and was a real surprise packet for the Hobart Hurricanes.

He has rightfully earned a deal at the Renegades this season. He bowled some great spells as a death bowler and had a great ability to land yorkers.

He picked up three wickets on four separate occasions last season. However, the big question mark will be whether he can back it up at his new franchise this season.

The Renegades too have Kane Richardson and we will need to see what his exact role is in his new side.

Hopefully he has a few quieter games early and we can pick him up at a heavily reduced price once the schedule suits.

Brendan Doggett $145,300

Perhaps a surprise inclusion on this list, but considering the Thunder have the double-double early on I think it is worth noting the price of Brendan Doggett.

He only played one match for Thunder last year and picked up no wickets in that match.

This is in stark contrast to the season prior where he played more regularly for the Thunder and picked up wickets in every match including 4 for 22.

Even if he is selected for any early Thunder games (which looks tough considering the pace bowling options available at the Thunder), he looks over-priced and there are far too many options that are better value.

Which players do you think are over-priced to start the season and who will you be avoiding based on their price alone?