Sabathia To Brewers Trade Official

More specific: the Indians are holding a 12:30 ET press conference. The Brewers are holding one at 11:00 CT/12:00 ET.

Who would have thought we would see a day where the Brewers make a big deadline deal to bring in an elite player, and then we hear that "surrisingly", the Yankees were involved.

The Brewers can afford CC. They will offer him more dollars per year than anyone. It will just be a matter of 4 years or 5 years or 6. If CC accepts 4, the Brewers will lay the cash, at least 20mm/per.

sabathia may just be a visitor, but milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. the french missionaries and explorers began visiting there in the late 16th century.

Over/under on CC's 2012 weight if he somehow signs a multi year extension in Milwaukee? 310?

MO Boiler, actually , it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land." :)

“The Brewers' trade for ace pitcher C.C. Sabathia is official. As a reminder, the Indians will receive Matt LaPorta, Rob Bryson, Zach Jackson, and maybe Taylor Green. Paul Hoynes says Michael Brantley could end up the player to be named later instead of Green. Ken Rosenthal suggests Lorenzo Cain may also still be possible.”

As a Tribe fan I’m stoked. LaPorta is exactly the type of player we not only needed, but knew they would be able to get (so much for all those trying to say he is a rental and wont command a true-stud).

And I’m guessing that the PTBNL is actually probably an Indians option between the three of Green/Cain/Brantley if different people have heard those names. We’ve seen it before when teams wanted to get a deal done fast, but didn’t want to make a choice too quickly. I’m actually thinking that it might be for Green but the Indians wanted to see if how he reacted to AA real fast before making him their choice ~ if he looks overmatched then maybe they take one of the others. That’s speculation though, and I guess we wont know for sure for a little while still…

Lastly,
“Rosenthal has details of other teams' attempts to acquire Sabathia. He says the Dodgers wanted the Indians to package Sabathia with Casey Blake.”
…I knew the Indians obsession with Blake would hinder things. I bet they’re hashing out a new 3-year contract with theChin right now… ***sigh***

I bet the Twins are kicking themselves for not holding onto Santana until this year's deadline.

"But I think its probably safe to assume Kemp wasn’t included, if he was then the two probably would have talked quite a bit more. Besides, it doesn’t make sense for the Dodgers to trade Kemp at this specific moment in time; being down Jones and Pierre makes Kemp too important…"

I agree with you. Hell, I don't think Ethier should be traded either, especially given his recent surge, all around game and popularity with the fans. Other than Martin and the injured Furcal, Ethier is the most heavily cheered Dodger and his jerseys are everywhere at the stadium. Even considering Jones is back, he hasn't hit well at all in the small sample size we have since he came off the DL, and Kemp's all around contribution makes him too valuable to trade anyway.

This non-deal was really the best thing the Dodgers could have done. The pitching has come around as have the bats and they are but a half game behind the D'backs. They can sign C.C. next year without giving up any players and still have a formidable pitching staff.

"the Brewers aren't done - they want to add a late-inning reliever as well."

And therin lies the key. Good thing is the Brewers minor league system is still stacked despite the loss of LaPorta

“Darkstar: I would be shocked if Brantley or Cain were on the list of potential PTBNLs.”

Actually, to recap what he said:
~ “Lorenzo Cain, who I thought was going to get traded ended up getting promoted”
~ “The next client I thought could get dealt was Michael Brantley, but I was told by good sources that I trust that he was not ever up for discussion so problem solved there.”
~ “Taylor Green. An absolutely special baseball player and even better person has been the focal point of almost 99 percent of the trade rumors”
~ “Nothing, because if the Brewers drop the PTBNL bomb anyone can go including Taylor.”

…So, I take that its unlikely to be Brantley since he hasn’t been talked about, but Cain or Green could very well be the guy because with “the PTBNL bomb anyone can go” and he thought both those guys were included at one point or another.

Did want to slightly alter my first post though as I had the promotion to AA confused for a moment. Since Cain was the one who was promoted, then its possible its Cain that the Indians are looking at on the AA level and will take Green if they don’t like what they see as far as the adjustments against the higher level of competition. Considering he thought Cain was in the deal until he was promoted, and said promotion could have been on the behest of the Indians ~ well… Like I said, speculation; but I think you have to admit it makes so sense…

“Hell, I don't think Ethier should be traded either, especially given his recent surge, all around game and popularity with the fans. Other than Martin and the injured Furcal, Ethier is the most heavily cheered Dodger and his jerseys are everywhere at the stadium.”

…Yes, the fans love him ~ but do remember that his jerseys being all over the place has more to do with the fact that you could get them at 50-75% off at the Team-Store late last year. I myself even have a #16 jersey; think it cost something like $60-$70 instead of the ticketed $180… ;)

“If it were not about the money, CC would already have taken the Indians best offer. By all accounts, he likes it in Cleveland and likes playing for the organization”

…He didn’t take the CC offer because their offer was only 4-5 years in length and he wants 6 or 7.

"The Brewers need a late-inning reliever"

What would they give up for Billy Wagner? He'd fit right in with their bullpen...

"…Yes, the fans love him ~ but do remember that his jerseys being all over the place has more to do with the fact that you could get them at 50-75% off at the Team-Store late last year."

Too bad I missed that deal ;-). Still, the fan support is something the Dodgers don't take lightly, because they have a very big park to fill and do a very good job of it, despite not having a bunch of the ancillary junk a lot of places do to attract people. I am sure the A's have been trying to find a way to get Ethier back since they traded him to the Dodgers.

Darkstar:

In re my earlier comments about the agent's comment:

I was basing my statement of Brantley not being in on his comments in the trade thread at Brewerfan.net moreso than his blog post.

He said on at least 4 occasions (including once today around noon) unequivocally that Brantley will not be in nor will Cain.

I'd put the odds like this:

Green: 90%
Somebody Else: 5%
Cain: 4.99999%
Brantley: .000001%

Hope I'm wrong.

I really hope it's Cain (even though I like him). The Brewers' farm depth is significantly better in the OF than 2b-3b, even though Lawrie is a 3b regardless of what our FO might say. He's also a minimum of 3 years away.

Despite the fact that I really hate to see CC go, I like that Shapiro managed to get 2 good prospects for him (trusting him on the PTBNL) and addressed the organization's most pressing need: power.

CC ain't signing with the Indians. The DiaTribe (great indians blog had an analysis of pitchers with 5+ year mega contracts, and none of them worked out (Johan being an exception as its too early to tell how that will end up). The Tribe is a smart front office, they know this, and that's why they offered 4 years.

CC's agents are smart, they know some sucker will give them 6. He'll get his Zito money, and will probably be great for at least 3 or 4 years of the contract. But those last 2 years, at 20+ mil per... Cleveland won't do that, and that's why CC won't be in Cleveland.

Don't forget--this is a business, its always about the money.

“Well, I guess I should've checked out his blog before I made the previous post. He updated it at 6:00 Central, and stated that it's either Green or Brantley.”

…hehehe…

Anyway, actually dawned on me that the Tribe might be waiting to see who they bring in otherwise before making a decision. If they trade for a 3B then they might not want Green. Maybe this holding off is an indication that another deal is possibly going down… Ahh, whatever ~ we’ll see…

Otherwise, the Brewers were a great team to trade with ~ we said we were going to trade him and within a week it seems we did. No complications, no "he's untouchable" crap, or dragging their feet to try to lowball the other team. Brewers seem like a pretty cool organization, they see what they want and go get it without all the BS...

Its not C.C. anymore now its CC