Hi gutsroy,
nice work, as usual, and I think your summation is pretty close to the mark. I have been running a similar exercise through my head, since the incident occured. I actually came up with a 3 week scenario being around the 150 mark, which is in the ballpark of your bottom Mitchell figure. Let's split the difference, and call it 140.
Now put the whole thing aside, and imagine this scenario.
If VS (the people who run SC) offered you 140 points to sacrifice one of your trades this week, would you take it?
The simple answer is, you'd be crazy to take it! It's not full value for an early trade, and it's a lost opportunity that potentially reaps a lot more than 140 points, at some future point in the season.
The counter argument to this is two fold.
If you are someone who is cautious with your trades, and don't usually get yourself down to 2 left by Round 18 or 19, you can probably afford throw a trade at this situation. Of course, that statement is counter-intuitive, because the really cautious traders are probably a good chance to hold Dangerfield anyway.
Secondly, the risk of holding him has a double jeopardy attached. If you hold him through these 3 weeks, and injury/suspension causes him to miss another 2 or 3 weeks or more, you have been further anchored. Yes, you can trade him at this second occurence, but undoubtedly those that trade him now would hold a big advantage over you. Dangerfield has only missed 6 games in the past 10 seasons, prior to these 3 games, so the odds are on your side, that he gets through this season with 18 or 19 games. Against that, he's pretty much 31 now, so is more open to niggles and problems. To my mind, if you hold him, anymore than 2 more missed games between Rounds 5 and 23, and you've lost on the decision.
It's this 2nd part that is weighing on me most heavily, in my hold or trade thinking.
Two weeks, or four weeks, were easy decisions in my mind. Three weeks feels damned if you do, damned if you don't.