Major League baseball player Chris Capuano is a middle of the road pitcher, a one-time All-Star, and a frequent visitor to the disabled list. He has one thing that he does really well, and that is picking off runners at first base. With a runner on, he's often able to pull outs out of nowhere, which have saved him from sticky situations on many occasions. Several people, including his teammates, have said his pickoff move is illegal, yet he rarely gets called on it by the umpires.

Andy Johnson also has a pickoff move. He wins penalties, and lots of them. Unfortunately for Johnson, in the past could of years referees have begun to agree that his falls in the box are not legitimate, and his penalty totals have dwindled accordingly.

With news stories popping up that we may put in a bid for Johnson, there has been plenty of discussion on the message boards. In the meantime, we went out and signed Bobby Zamora from West Ham. The move was highly unpopular at first, but was met with reluctant acceptance once the deal was made official. Zamora isn't a bad player by any means, but fans were hoping for a bigger name. Perhaps an international for a high-profile footballing nation. Someone like Andy Johnson. Going by the rumors, it would likely cost over £10m in transfer fees to land the Everton striker, while Zamora's cost was about half of that. Is Johnson twice the player that Zamora is?

Since 2003/04, both players have spent three seasons in the Premier League, and two in the Championship. Good, this makes them easy to compare:

At first glance, Johnson does seem quite a bit better. More goals, better shot percentages, better strike rates. But look at all of those penalties! Fact is, they haven't been a huge factor since the 2004/05 season. Since then, his numbers have been fairly average. Let's compare the two again, this time ignoring penalties:

Suddenly, the two look very comparable. Taking into consideration Zamora's other advantages - size, ball-winning ability, other non-goalscoring attributes, and of course the magic that are INTANGIBLES - I'd even go as far as to take Zamora for the same amount of money.