My Cleveland Gladiators (affectionately called 'mine' after my recent jump onto their bandwagon) got a big playoff win last night in Georgia and they will now advance the conference championship game... but they aren't the only ones moving on. The really big story over the holiday weekend actually became official yesterday. CC Sabathia is now a Milwaukee Brewer, traded Monday for 1B/LF Matt LaPorta, LHP Zach Jackson, RHP Rob Bryson and the always popular player-to-be-named-later. The Tribe insists that this player will have a chance to be a big leaguer so we will wait and see on that one.
Listening to the radio and reading responses online, Indians fans are obviously less than thrilled with the move. And I understand that. I loved watching CC grow from a solid-but-inconsistent young pitcher into a Cy Young winner last year. There were always questions about his weight, but none of us can deny that CC was a durable pitcher while he was here and he actually liked being on the Indians. That goes a long way for fans in this town. Yet with that said, I just cannot rip the Indians for this move. This is what Major League Baseball has become over the last decade. With no hard salary cap in place, the rich stay rich and mid-market teams are forced to make agonizing decisions about their own players. Do you risk everything and give him a huge, long-term contract that he will likely never live up to and will strap your team financially for years? Or do you trade him for prospects and hope that those young guys pan out and become stars?
In this case I really think Mark Shapiro made the right decision. We've seen it too many times in the past where we thought we could keep our own players, only to see them bolt to greener (as in dollar signs) pastures. Did we get ripped off in this deal? Who knows? But to me, the Brewers are giving up four prospects for a pitcher they are renting for maybe 15 starts this season. And they are currently behind two teams in their own division. So by no means does this guarantee them anything. At least the Indians know their season is already over and building for the future begins now. We can only hope that this deal can come remotely close to the Bartolo Colon trade that netted us Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Brandon Phillips. I'm not expecting that this time around, but I just hope one of these players will end up being solid for us. I'd honestly rather see it go down this way than CC just walking away for nothing after this season.
And ripping the Dolans for this move is just silly in my view. CC was offered a 4-year deal at $72M before this season started. Given the history of long-term huge money deals for pitchers (Barry Zito immediately comes to mind) I would have really been upset if the Tribe went for more years and more money. It just wouldn't have made any sense and would have hurt the long-term potential for this team. I wish CC the best and I'm looking forward to seeing him hit in the National League. But I'm not looking forward to him wearing a Boston or New York cap next season when he chases the almighty dollar. And that's why Major League Baseball in 2008 drives me crazy. This scenario will play out again and again and again until the system is fixed.
We'll definitely miss the big leftyOther Tribe Updates: Life without CC begins for the Tribe tonight in Detroit when Jeremy Sowers and his 7.53 ERA try to end the team's current 8-game losing skid. In case you missed it over the long holiday weekend, our favorite punching bag closer Joe Borowski was designated for assignment on Friday. Thinking back to last year, it now truly seems miraculous that we were able to squeeze 45 saves out of that right arm. And Jeff Weaver was picked up off the scrap heap to plug the enormous hole left by CC in the Tribe's rotation. That ought to be fun to watch. And Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee will be the lone members of the Tribe in NYC for the All-Star Game. Oh, and Grady will even be in the Home Run Derby, thanks to his AL-leading 22 HR's (18 of them solo shots by my own unofficial count - lots of clicking on individual box scores there).
Gladiators Update: Big win for the Gladiators last night. Once again our receivers basically caught everything thrown to them and they squeaked out another big playoff win, this time on the road. And QB Raymond Philyaw added 8 more TD passes, now giving him 16 for the postseason to go along with no interceptions. My personal favorite moment from last night's game was team president and CEO Bernie Kosar hovering behind the officials as they tried to review a play near the end of the game on instant replay. You can see he is pouring everything he has into this team and it's fun to watch. The Gladiators now advance to the National Conference Championship game against the Philadelphia Soul this Saturday at 1:00pm on ESPNHD.
One win away from ArenaBowl XXII...
