Brewers Will Make Offer To Sabathia

I cant see the Brewers going over 5 years/95 million maybe 100 million

I think the Brewers may be the darkhorse in the Sabathia sweepstakes. I think he might be willing to accept a shorter-term deal (3 or 4 years) to stay with the Brewers assuming the contract length allowed for him to get another big pay day before his career is over. It looked like he genuinely enjoyed playing for the Brewers and he thrived in the NL. It's likely to Sabathia's advantage to hit the market again before age is an issue so if he's not sacrificing in annual salary as a form of a discount to the Brewers, it's plausible that he could remain with them.

Personally, I believe C.C. will go elsewhere because I think C.C. thinks that he can get more money and more years than what Milwaukee will offer...

Can you spell...it is impossible to read that.

I don't think it would be smart for CC to resign with the Brewers (on CC's part). Braun, Fielder are not guaranteed to be around for that long which how much they should cost once they hit the open market. And after Gallardo, that rotation is pretty bad.

C.C. Sabathia won't resign with the Brewers. First of all, the Brewers are kinda cheap. Second of all, He wants to be on a playoff contender. The teams C.C. would probably get the money he wants are New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and maybe Boston. C.C. though will flourish in any town he plays in. I can see a 5 year 100 million dollar contract in the near future. C.C. Rocks

Don't assume for a moment that the Giants are out of it.

I'm a Met fan. There's no way they are getting CC and/or Peavy. I doubt they will go after Manny and I hope they don't. I much rather Pat Burrell or Adam Dunn. If the Mets are going to give out a big contract, it will probably be for a closer (K-Rod or Fuentes).

I would like to see them explore a trade to get a closer. Street, Putz, possibly even Soria. I would definitely trade Fernando Martinez in a deal for Soria.

"Braun, Fielder are not guaranteed to be around for that long which how much they should cost once they hit the open market."

Ridiculous. Fielder probably won't be here, but Braun signed for eight years back in May.

"And after Gallardo, that rotation is pretty bad."

No, it's really not. Parra, young lefty with great stuff. Wore down at the end of the year after pitching the most innings in his career. Bush is a good fourth starter. Suppan sucks but as a fifth starter, even he's not that bad. Just overpaid.

"First of all, the Brewers are kinda cheap."

We were cheap under Selig. Attanasio has raised payroll over $60 million since he took over the team. We were at $90 million after the Sabathia trade this year.

Let's see if this is a "save face" type of offer or a competitive offer. I would love to see the Brewers hold on to CC. With CC, the Brewers will definitely stay competitive, and that young core is solid. Gallardo and Parra will hopefully improve (Gallardo has ace potential IMO), and Bush is a solid 4.

Mets shouldn't go for CC. CC and Johan both with 100MM++ contracts will become ugly (Johan's contract is backloaded) in the years to come if CC/Johan get hurt/deteriorate. I see the Mets resigning Oliver Perez.

I will laugh if Brian Sabean signs CC. Unless he plans to have CC playing 1B on the days he isn't pitching, since CC will probably be the Giants' best left handed hitter. The Giants need hitting, not pitching. Zito will be there for another 5 years, if I'm right (although I have strong confidence in him being able to turn it around and at least hover in the low-mid 4 ERA range).

Knuffy - I pissed myself laughing.... well played sir

"Why are the Mets interested in Sabathia they don't need a starter they need relief pitching"

The only garuentees the Mets have to start next year are Santana, Maine, and Pelfry. Everything is a toss up after that. Correct me If I'm wrong, but they have 30M coming off the books, it wouldn't be a drastic payroll raise if they wanted to sign CC, Fuentes, trade for Gregg, and sign a back end starter like Byrd. Probably would raise the team to the 150M range.

I think the Brew crew has 2 things going for them with CC. 1) He really enjoyed his switch to the National League. 2) He doesn't seem like a mercenary style pitcher who's out for money. He might see the Brewers as a good challenge to get a ring with.

"Everybody can stop fantasizing about 3 or 4 year deals for Sabathia. He already turned down competitive offers in dollars from the Indians because they were short in years. I predict that he'll sign for 5 or maybe even 6 years....because somebody will offer it."

Sabathia can make more through taking a shorter-term deal and being a free agent again at 32ish. IF Sabathia thought the wheels were going to come off (worried about potential injury) and was targetting security, yes, going for the biggest contract possible makes more sense. Sabathia is in a position right now where he could plan on 2 major pay days before the end of his career. If he signs a deal like Zito's or Johan's, that's probably his last major payday. As he gets up in age, the risk that comes with his contract grows. He could stand to make more (assuming he stays healthy) by taking a 4 year deal now and then signing another 4 year deal after the the first one ends.

Hypothetically speaking, Sabathia could take a 4 year $92M contract now (basically a shorter version of Johan's contract with Sabathia making $1M more annually), reach free agency again at age 32 and then take another 4 or 5 year deal worth $27+M (or whatever the market's inflated things to by then) per season to lock him up through age 36/37. The risk there would be getting injured late in the first deal or production slipping significantly. I'm not saying he'd do this or this is what he has in mind but I'm saying that he could potentially make more money by hitting the market again while still young and that MAYBE he'd consider something along these lines to stick with the Brewers.

C.C. has expressed interest in playing for the Giants

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/jon_heyman/08/25/heyman.scoop/index.html

With Zito's contract they couldn't afford to give him top dollar, but Giants are NOT out of his interest.

Everyone keeps saying that he Cubs don't have money to spend. Remember that they're expecting a payroll bump, maybe around $20 million... Assuming they don't resign Dempster to a $14 million a year or so contract they've got the money. Don't sign Dempster, trade Marquis and some/all of his salary, go with some cheap option in right field (DeRosa w/ Fontenot at 2b), sign Wood as cheap as possible, don't pick up Blanco's options (bring him back at much less than $3 million)........... There are certainly plenty of options, the Cubs could definitely get in on Sabathia at around $20 million a year if they decided to. Whether he's their first priority or not is another story, probably not.

"Sabathia can make more through taking a shorter-term deal and being a free agent again at 32ish."

Um, no. Taking a 3/4 year deal would be idiotic for him to do. Anything can happen within that amount of time. What if he has really horrible arm injuries in that time? What if he starts to decline in his 31 year old season, and starts to go into the high 3 era range? What if when he becomes a free agent at 32, and there are 2 or 3 better free agent starters on the market?

There are a ton of "what ifs" with that plan. Fact is that he is the best starter on this market with not too many injury concerns as of right now. The chance that he makes more money in the long term by signing a 3/4 year deal right now is not high, espically considering he will be able to net a 6/7 year "Johan" deal.

the yankees are going to offer him 6 years $138-$150. for most people thats a lot of happiness.

"Why are the Mets interested in Sabathia they don't need a starter they need relief pitching"

They should sign CC and pitch him out of the pen like 3 innings everyday he can handle it lol.

I would also say that the Giants are a definite darkhorse in the Sabathia sweepstakes. That would give them an absolute beastly rotation of CC, Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Noah Lowry or Barry Zito (almost Zito by default with that contract of his), with the near certainty of trading Sanchez, Lowry, or to a greater extent Cain for some impact hitters. They could also ponder over trading either Madison Bumgarner or Tim Alderson in that case as well, or even having them replace one of the guys they trade. Just the idea of having Lincecum and Sabathia in the same rotation would make the Giants absolutely scary in the winnable NL West.

Having that depth with Sabathia in the rotation could help them pick up some impact hitters via trade as opposed to signing them to big, overpriced deals like they did with Aaron Rowand. It has to be on their mind, especially since it's been rumored that Sabathia prefers living on the West Coast and he loves playing in teh National League.

"Can you spell...it is impossible to read that.

I don't think it would be smart for CC to resign with the Brewers (on CC's part). Braun, Fielder are not guaranteed to be around for that long which how much they should cost once they hit the open market. And after Gallardo, that rotation is pretty bad."

-Braun is actually pretty well guaranteed to be around Milwaukee for at least the next 6 or 7 seasons, and who knows with Prince...he's certainly going to attract a lot on the trade market which might leave the brewers in an even better position. The Brewers will likely add a free agent starter or via trade depending on what happens with CC, but the rotation would be stocked...to say that the rotation sucks behind gallardo is pretty naive. Bush has been solid for the Crew and Parra is going to be a top of the line lefty for years to come. CC wants to play for a contender, and the Brewers are built for perennial contention now.