Sabathia chooses the Yankees, 1050 ESPN Radio New York says 7 years $160 million

[fondybrewfan]

That is mind boggling. CC must have really needed some convincing for NY to offer $60M more than anyone else. Well at least we can finally move on, hopefully the Yanks don't sign Sheets as well

[1992casey]

Please explain to me how this works. If I understand correctly, if Tex signs with the Yankees the Brewers get bumped from the Yankees first round pick and instead get their second round pick...correct? If this is true..why? How does Anaheim have rights over the Brewers? You would think the team with the worst record would get the higher pick.

 

Mark T. is ranked as the "better" or "more valuable" player. See these threads:

 

Elias Rankings: CC, Sheets Type A, Cameron, Gagne, Shouse, Torres Type B

 

Elias Rankings, maybe

[Oldcity]

One of the rare times Elias got it right, because Tex is the number one free agent.

 

Wow, seven years. He'll be great for at least two or three but that has a very good chance of getting ugly. I guess that's the way NY operates, and Mussina worked out for them, so who knows.

[Patrick425]

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize that they actually ranked the players, I just assumed it was an A, B, C thing. I'm sure there is some Sabermetric formula that goes into the rankings, but it still seems kind of arbitrary to me.

One of the rare times Elias got it right, because Tex is the number one free agent

Based on what?.

[Team Canada]

I guess this falls in the Carlos Lee, "You can't blame him for not leaving $50M on the table" category. Not that it's not still ridiculous that the Yankees have to overpay by that much, but I can't blame CC.

 

Sigh. You'll be missed, big fella.

[monty57]

Please explain to me how this works. If I understand correctly, if Tex signs with the Yankees the Brewers get bumped from the Yankees first round pick and instead get their second round pick...correct? If this is true..why? How does Anaheim have rights over the Brewers? You would think the team with the worst record would get the higher pick.

kramnoj already answered this, but I'll add a little. After the season, all of the available free agents are ranked as a group (#1, 2, 3, etc) and by position (Type A, Type B). Type A free agents net the team losing the player the first round pick of the team that signed the player unless the signing team's draft choice is in the top half of the first round picks (this is why we only got 2nd rounders for Coco and Linebrink last season), or unless that team signed a different player that was ranked higher. Since Texiera (? sp) is ranked as the #1 overall free agent on the market and CC is ranked #2 overall, and the Yankess have a pick in the second half of the first round, the only way now that we will not get the Yankee's first round draft choice is if they now sign Texiera. I hope this helps.

As for the signing, I think it does show that CC was sticking to his guns somewhat, as the Yankees had to offer a ridiculous contract (probably much longer and more expensive than any other offers) in order to lure him. With the contract the Yankees threw at him, I cannot in any way fault CC for going to the Yankees. As has been said by a previous poster, I'm just a little upset that I won't be cheering for him any more. He's a great pitcher and seems like a really likeable person, but I can't bring myself to cheer for a team that has such an unfair advantage over all of its competitors.

That said, it is a relief to finally be able to move on. Melvin's met with agents for Wood, Hoffman and Fuentes, and now that he knows his money situation, I agree with Sam that one of these pitchers should be signed by the end of the week. I'm glad to see that K-Rod didn't break the bank with his contract. If he gets 3 years @ $12MM / year, I'd guess Wood and Fuentes should be in the 2-3 year, $8-10MM / year range. Hoffman is probably only looking for one year.

[endaround]

Not sure why people think this is ridiculous. I always thought 6yrs/$150m would be the the basic point. The Yankees 7th year at $10m over that is a sign about how bad the market is affecting player salaries even with both New York teams getting new stadiums.

[BrewCrew39]

hopefully the Yanks don't sign Sheets as well

From si.com:

 

Burnett is talking to the Braves, as well, and there is a feeling Atlanta is the favorite to lock him up. If Burnett does go to Atlanta, Sheets looks like the next pitcher the Yankees will target.

[TheCrew07]

FA contracts always seem to come down to years, which the Brewers simply cannot do. Many of us were thinking 7 years years 150 Million while we beat this issue to death since he was acquired. If the report is true, good for CC and this just proves that the Brewers never realistically had a shot. Any contract a small market team can offer a large market team can comeback and simply toss another year for the same money onto the table. Baseball isn't a level playing field, if it was then CC would have never been available in the first place because Cleveland would have had the resources to resign him. It stinks I suppose, but if true this development should not have been unexpected, and in the end this works out better for the Brewers as they cannot afford to commit over 25% of their payroll to any single player.

[sgtcluels]

At least I can make fun of all the people that went out and got a Sabathia jersey.

[BrewCrew25]

Well it sucks that he signed with the Yanks. It just makes me want to cheer harder for the Rays to win that division again next year and prove that money doesn't buy everything. :o)

[homer]

So if Sheets signs with the Yanks, the Crew gets hosed on 1st round compensation for him right?

[monty57]

Okay, so now I have a question. If the Yankees sign Tex, Sabathia, and Sheets, would the Brewers get the second round pick for Sabathia and none of the Yankee's picks for Sheets?

[PlayerHader]

Not sure why people think this is ridiculous. I always thought 6yrs/$150m would be the the basic point. The Yankees 7th year at $10m over that is a sign about how bad the market is affecting player salaries even with both New York teams getting new stadiums.

Because the next closest reported offer was 5 years $100 million. The fact that the Yankees could jump 60,000,000 over the next offer IS ridiculous.

[Invader3K]

Yeah...but we all know there isn't going to be some sort of salary cap in baseball, so whining about it at this point doesn't really help. It's just hammered home what most of us knew...that Sabathia was a rental. I'll remember fondly his time in Milwaukee, but like I said before, I won't cheer him now that he's in New York. They can pay him all that money, and even if he stinks for half of that length of his contract, it won't matter to them, since they can basically just eat it, and Cashman can go out and sign a guy who made his name on another team.

 

I think Melvin probably has numerous back up plans ready to go...he had better, because if we finish this off-season without a top quality pitcher to round out our rotation, he's going to look like a complete idiot for waiting on Sabathia so long. We also really need to get some bullpen help. No excuses, time to make things happen, Mr. Melvin.

[brains and braun]

I commend the Brewers for pursuing a top flight player so hard. Certainly seems they were ready to go all in with C.C. who may well be the best pitcher in the game today.

[bklynbrewcrew]

Melvin better have a plan B because resigning CC was a pipedream at best. Melvin needs to make amends with Ben Sheets and resign him so we can have a strong rotation with Sheets and Gallardo as the 1-2 starters. I would hate to have to hurt our lineup by trading Fielder for pitching when we can keep him for at least one more season and have Sheets back in the fold. It really appears that Melvin overplayed his hand when he really had no chance at keeping sabathia.

[jakesdaddio]

This was totally expected, but I had my hopes raised yesterday as rumors spread that CC turned down the Yankees. This just shows what is wrong with baseball. I'll always root for CC, but I will always root against the Yankees.

[dpapo]

No real surprise. I pretty much knew Sabathia was using the Brewers offer as leverage with other teams. I do think he wanted to play for a team in California, but it appears that the Dodgers and Angeles never really got into serious talks with Sabathia and the Giants were probably going to end up offering a deal similar to the Brewers. The Yankees ended up offering way more money than any other team was willing to do.

 

I am disappointed that Melvin wasted his time waiting around for Sabathia and wasn't more aggressive trying to make trades or going after other free agents, if he had been maybe the Brewers would have made a move by now. It looks like this may have cost the Brewers a chance at Wood. I have a feeling that was Melvin's first choice as closer. I wrote yesterday that Fuentes was looking for a 3 year $30 million deal. I don't believe any other team will offer him that, including the Brewers. I think if Melvin were to offer, say 3 years at 24-27 million, Fuentes would probably accept it, but I don't know if Melvin wants to offer that type of contract for Fuentes.

 

It also appears as though the Yankees are the favorites right now to sign Sheets. Read in ESPN that they checked out his medical records, so unless they find something there they don't like, or some other team jumps in at the last minute, don't be surprised to see the Yankees sign Sheets as well. That would mean that we still would lose a first round pick as we would end up getting the Yankees 2nd round pick for Sheets.

There hasn't been any serious rumors that I have seen that has the Brewers going after any of the other free agent starting pitchers. In fact, Melvin has basically stated that he isn't interested in acquiring one of the other free agent starting pitchers. If he doesn't trade for one, I have to think he will end up signing at least one. I hope that was just talk and not how Melvin really feels. It's just too bad the Brewers wasted their time and energy waiting around for Sabathia. It's one thing for fans to have hope, but Melvin needed to be realistic about it. Of course, it's hard to know what Melvin has really been doing the past few days as we can only go on what is being reported.

[rluzinski]

CC was never going to play for anywhere near 5/100. Sure, if this were an auction, the Yankees took the bid from 60% fair market value right to maybe 110% but so what? They have the extra financial resources and didn't want to wait for someone else to bid at 85-90% and make CC rethink his position.

 

I am fine with this, provided that the Brewers get their first round compensation.

[bball123h]

So if Sheets signs with the Yanks, the Crew gets hosed on 1st round compensation for him right?

Correct. Also, if the Yanks add Tex to the mix, the Crew gets the Yankees 2nd rounder for CC and a comp pick, and a 3rd rounder for Sheets plus comp pick.

[TheCrew07]

Melvin better have a plan B because resigning CC was a pipedream at best. Melvin needs to make amends with Ben Sheets and resign him so we can have a strong rotation with Sheets and Gallardo as the 1-2 starters. I would hate to have to hurt our lineup by trading Fielder for pitching when we can keep him for at least one more season and have Sheets back in the fold. It really appears that Melvin overplayed his hand when he really had no chance at keeping sabathia.

Why does spending money on a FA pitcher have to be the answer? Why is a trade for a starting pitcher out of the question? We aren't talking about the Sheets of 2004, we're talking about the Sheets of 2008, a very solid yet often injured pitcher. There are a couple of teams with quality surplus arm in need of hitting that may be motivated to make a deal. I don't see why it all has to to start and end with Sheets if Sabathia is gone. Melvin is a smart man, it's silly to think that he knew the Brewers had maybe a 5% chance at resigning Sabathia but still structured his plan around that acquisition. Simply put Sheets was let go knowing that they would also be without the services of Sabathia, so it seems to me that Melvin has a different idea in mind.

 

What would really stink about of this is if the Yankees sign Sheets or Teixeira and we miss out on 1rst round compensation for either of our type A free agents.

[areacodes]

I am disappointed that Melvin wasted his time waiting around for Sabathia and wasn't more aggressive trying to make trades or going after other free agents, if he had been maybe the Brewers would have made a move by now. It looks like this may have cost the Brewers a chance at Wood.

 

There is no indication that Melvin is sitting on his hands, even while we were pursuing CC. We've been linked to trade talks and all of the FA closers on the market. I really can't blame Melvin for not wanting to go out and spend a huge chunk of change on some of these other starters as I would prefer if we go the trade route. Not to mention that we have most of the offseason left as the Winter Meetings aren't even over for another day and we now know where we stand. If this situation had gone on for another month and we were in the same boat I could understand some of these concerns but there is a lot of time for moves to be made.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

Time to trade for Greinke AND Cain............... This pretty much means we're going into rebuilding for 2009. If we can somehow turn (Fielder, Hart, and Escobar) into Greinke & Cain, i'd be pumped

 

Yo, Cain, Greinke, Parra, Bush/Soup. Sign Abreau, let Gamel play 1B.

[brains and braun]

I don't understand the panic either, considering no one (other than C.C.) has signed that we'd have gone after anyway.