on wednesday, the new york yankees signed free agent starting pitcher c.c. sabathia to a 7-year, $161 million contract. despite being interesting, i rarely care about (non-twins) hot stove moves. this one, though? i like it. here\’s why… first, as a twins fan. sabathia pitched (amazingly) for the brewers during the second half of last season, and he was on milwaukee\’s short list of offseason targets.
the brewers obviously lost. additionally, the oft-injured ben sheets rejected milwaukee\’s arbitration offer last week, making it incredibly unlikely that he would re-sign with the team. this leaves the following rotation for milwaukee in 2009: suppan – bush – parra – mcclung – gallardo. this is assuming milwaukee doesn\’t sign any new starters– which, to be fair, is an unlikely scenario, as they\’ve shown interest in randy wolf, jamie moyer, and others. regardless, even if they add a starter, they\’ll still need pitching to seriously contend next year. and, who has an abundance of young pitchers? yep. the brewers also have a shortstop named j.j. hardy who would nicely fill the gap in the left side of our infield. hardy\’s 26, averaged 25 HRs and an .804 OPS for his first two major league seasons, and won\’t be a free agent until after the 2010 season. there are no indications that the brew crew have put him on the table, but you have to wonder if they\’re going to start thinking about SP needs for next season and have some hard decisions to make. speaking of hard decisions– if it were an option, who would you give up for hardy. f-bomb and baker, obviously not. perkins or blackburn, to me, would be easy decisions. so it comes down to slowey. it would certainly be milwaukee\’s right to ask for a pitcher of his caliber in exchange for a young, dynamic infielder. would you deal slowey for him? i\’m actually not sure if i would. secondly, the sabathia signing makes me happy as a baseball fan, or, better put, as an anti-yankee fan. this is not going to go well. exhibit a: c.c. is listed at 250 lbs, and i\’d argue that 280 is more like it. with a few notable exceptions (david wells, anyone?), players that big have a limited shelf life because of the strain added by the extra pounds. does anyone expect his knees to last fifteen years? ten? exhibit b: in his 17 games with the brewers, c.c. averaged 111 pitches per start, eclipsing 120 pitches four times. he also pitched on three days\’ rest four straight times (!) in september. while i don\’t completely buy into the \”limit the pitch count\” philosophy, this is dusty baker-like abuse of a pitcher seems like a bad idea. (i\’m guessing mark prior, kerry wood, and matt clement would agree.) finally, exhibit c: sabathia needed to be talked into moving to new york when he clearly-preferred to stay on west coast, going to the yankees for monetary reasons only. c.c. has the reputation of being a decent human being, far from a mercenary, which makes me think this is a decision he might come to regret. i wonder if he talked to randy johnson before deciding to go to new york. guessing not. this can only be made better if (when?) the yankees also sign any / all of sheets, jake peavey, and a.j. burnett. they\’d better hope the trainer\’s room at the new yankee stadium is spacious.
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