Sabathia: Good Move or Bad Move?
Jul 7
The Brewers just acquired Cleveland ace C.C. Sabathia (3.83 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 122.1 IP in 18 games), trading away four minor-league prospects (including their top prospect) to get what in all likelihood will amount to a rental player for the rest of the season (Sabathia is an unrestricted free agent at year end).
I’ll put the question to our baseball-fan contingent: Good move for the Brewers?
#1 by Ted at July 7th, 2008
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Bad move. It’s abet-the-farm (system) on one shot at the playoffs. I’d think the success of the Rays (and the relative failure of the Mets) would be enough to dissuade the Brewers from making this move.
#2 by tgirsch at July 7th, 2008
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I’m cynical of the move as well, but they are pretty deep with minor league talent. I prefer the long view, but at the same time, when you’ve missed the playoffs for 25 straight seasons, I can understand the desire to make some moves to win now.
I suppose a lot of it comes down to whether or not the Brewers can keep him (probably not), or even Sheets (I tend to doubt it).
#3 by Ted at July 7th, 2008
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My thoughts exactly.
#4 by Big U at July 8th, 2008
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Not sure of the depth of the Brewers farm system but based on what I have seen, it sounds like they are ranked at or near the top of all systems. If that is the case, the deal is a good one. And if the get to the playoffs and win, it will have been an excellent one because of the excessive jump in income from tickets and merchandise sales.
#5 by digglahhh at July 8th, 2008
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I’m not sure what the Brew Crew is going to do after this year, so they may just be saying, eff it, bankroll on black, let it ride!
I think if the organization is prepared to at least make a real go at resigning him (even if they are ultimately unsuccessful), it’s an okay move. LaPorta will hit, btw, I’ve been assigned some of his games over at MiLB.com, and he seems to always does some sort of damage. The kid’s got over 30 homers in about 110 career minor league games.
Anyway, the Brewers have a substantial payroll now, around 80M before prorating C.C.. They have some money coming off the books: Gagne 10M, Cameron’s option won’t be picked up at 10M, Mota, Counsel, etc.
But, they also haven’t paid any of their young studs besides Braun (48-55M through 2015 figures to be a steal). Fielder hasn’t been locked up, and he’s Boras client. Hart hasn’t gotten a big payday either. You’ll also have to open the checkbook (though not as wide)to retain Weeks and Hardy at some point. And, of course there’s the issue of Sheets; (I wouldn’t want to be the one to have to make that decision.) Oh, and once you dump Gagne, you need to replace the closer. Though, if Torres holds the job, he has a club option for about 4M for next year.
It’s going to be interesting to see who they try to keep and who they let go in the next few years. Here’s a crazy question: what if they aren’t planning on re-signing Sheets, not wanting to roll the injury dice, and they’ve figured Sabathia is a better bet, and they plan to use their Sheets money to retain Sabathia?
It’s just hard for me to evaluate the move without knowing their long term plans.
Too bad Gallardo couldn’t stay healthy, or else they’d be really scary right about now.
BTW, Corey Hart is one of the most underrated players in the game.
#6 by tgirsch at July 8th, 2008
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digglahhh:
I think you might be right about the Sabathia-as-Sheets-replacement possibility. And you’re definitely right about Gallardo. As for the other Brewers you mentioned:
Fielder: Keep if not too expensive
Hart: Keep
Weeks: Dump
Hardy: Keep
Gagne: Dump
Sabathia or Sheets: Keep one, let the other go
I don’t think the Brewers are in that bad of shape, payroll-wise. It ranks 15th out of the 30 teams, so I think they’ve got room to play. And they rank 11th in attendance as a percentage of ballpark capacity (83.3% on average, in line with last year’s 83.5%), so they ought to be able to afford some moves.
Big U:
The Brewers are said to have one of the best farm systems in the majors, so their depth should be pretty good down there.
#7 by digglahhh at July 8th, 2008
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I’m with you on all the keep/dump decisions, TG. It’s gotta be tempting to try to resign both Sheets and Sabathia though. It would figure Sheets does this this year.
It’s like Teri Hatcher on Seinfeld, “They’re real, and they’re phenomenal!” And then she walks right out the door…