Find Lots of Great Coverage Here

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Saturday, August 9, 2008

How high do you go

for this guy?

$20 million a year? Higher?

I'm starting to be of the opinion that you go as high as it takes to get a guy like that. Still young. Very sturdy. Eight straight seasons now with at least 10 victories.

You want a mentor for all those young studs that we're told are coming along for the rotation? There's your guy.

Pay to play. Open the wallets. You may not get him. You won't if you don't take a shot.

Build from within. Supplement from the outside.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You talked about the search for the "The One" Sabathia would certainly be that. And he would be the anchor for a future divison-winning staff.
Yes he is worth $20 million and I don't think he would turn up his nose at playing for the Nats.
I am not sure he wants to play in an overwhelming media market like either New York team, or L.A. or Chicago.

WFY said...

"Build from within. Supplement from the outside."

The Plan! Of course, only open the wallet when they are knocking on the door which might mean they need to win 85 or more before spending any money. The flaw of course is that they may not win 85 without opening up the wallet.

Anonymous said...

Right there with you. Of course, it'll never happen because of that little problem of needing to actually spend money. And we all know how The Family feels about ponying up for FAs; remember this gem from Mark Lerner a few weeks back? Oh well...

"Nobody wants - you don't want to be in the situation where you wake up one morning and Johan Santana has won eight games all season and you owe him $150 million. That's the thing. You see a lot of guys for $150 million, but we're going to stick with what we're doing. We're going to take a lot of heat from you and everybody else, but I think you're starting to see it."

MikeHarris said...

I'm all for the don't go all crazy route. I'm also all for opening it up when the time is right and I think Sabathia is the type who makes the time right. Any FA is a risk. He seems like much less of a risk.
Open it up. Sign him up. Let C.C. try to lead us closer to the promised land.

An Briosca Mor said...

The Brewers would be fools if they don't lock up Sabathia before he ever makes it onto the free agent list. Why not wait until after the season when we know who they're bidding for to start lambasting our ownership for not spending money. Oh, right. That takes all the fun out of it, doesn't it?

MikeHarris said...

Yes. It does.

Sabathia would be a fool not to test the market and see what he could get. Testing the market doesn't mean he can't stay with the Brewers. He could cost himself millions by signing before the season ends.

An Briosca Mor said...

Sure, but if he does test the market the Brewers would still be fools to let him get away. This guy Sheets I believe is also a FA after this year, and if the Brewers back off on going after anyone it would probably be him rather than Sabathia. So if the Nats were going to get in a bidding war over a Milwaukee pitcher, I think it would make more sense for them to go after Sheets. That's a bidding war they might have a chance of winning. (Of course Don Sutton wouldn't agree with me on that.)

MikeHarris said...

Heck, I'd take either one. I think Sabathia will be much more expensive. He has a history of durability. Sheets does not.

And your earlier point is a good one but speculating about the future IS part of the fun!

You'd hope for their sake the Brewers - like the Angels with Teixeira - are willing to pay the big price.

$20 million to play baseball. Nice work if you can get it.