Burgoyne
Recent history: 20/85.2, 21/82.2, 21/79.9, 15/99.5, 9/80.8
There's no doubt that Burgoyne has been a quality Midfielder in his day, recording a 115.2 season back in 2006 with Port Adelaide. In recent years he has been spending most of his time in Defense, with the occassional on ball rotation. This year he seems to be getting more on ball rotations, which has seen him score 5 100+ scores in the first 7 games, 2 of those 120+. The question becomes, do we think those scores can continue? I have a theory, and it is only a theory, that Burgoyne doesn't cope with a tag too well. I think that is part of the reason why he never got close to replicating his 2006 season (his next best season is 104), and also why he slowly got shifted towards the backline. With Mitchell gone, and Burgoyne in form, I can see Burgoyne getting a lot more of the opposition Coaches attention now. If my theory is right, then we will see his scores start to decrease from here. Will they hold up to a level we'd be happy with from a D4/6? That I'm not confident in, so I will be avoiding him. The main reason is, he is now priced at 98/game and I'm not sure he can return that from here, and I really want to concentrate my trading on players that will outscore (hopefully) their purchase price. Outside of my plans, I can see why some Coaches will take a punt on him. Even if he becomes tag affected, he could potentially return 100/game from here, which of course, is more than acceptable.
Hodge
Recent history: 20/96.7, 8/85.9, 19/106.5, 21/116.5, 19/91.4
There's not a lot that needs to be said about Hodge, you all know him well, and how he scores. He's currently averaging 92 with a red vested 34 and a missed game in there. We can safely assume, I believe, he will score at an average of around 100 in non-affected games, and he is currently priced at 96/game. It comes down to this, how many more missed games and red vests will he have this season? I think he is a chance for a red vest or two late in the season, even without injury, just to "save" him. I think he potentially misses another 2 games, and gets 1 red vest. If we assume he averages 100 from here in non-affected games, his PIT65 scoring from here looks like this:
12.5 x 100 + 2 x 65 Rookie replacement scores = 1,380, => 92/game PIT 65 return.
If you have faith he won't miss more games, or get red vests, he's probably the safest Mitchell replacement.