Trader Rater 1.0

Baseball offseason is upon us and about a week ago I took a look at the contender in the CC Sabathia Sweepstakes. Well, we do have a winner and we also have another big name pitcher off the market as well.

The Milwaukee Brewers were the winners and the team able to land the reigning AL Cy Young. The Brewers gave up 4 top prospects and it centered around Double-A star Matt LaPorta. I had suggested that the Brewers were the most likely landing destination.

The following day, the Chicago Cubs made a splash that essentially came out of nowhere. The Cubs were able to grab Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the Oakland A's for a package of 4 decent minor leaguers, with some major league experience. I really do think that the Cubbies stole Harden from the A's, assuming he can make most of his starts this season.

So what does this do for the National League? Well it definitely puts the Brewers and Cubs as the top 2 squads in the NL. Before the Harden deal, the Brewers were definitely pushing the Cubs for NL supremacy. A top of the rotation of Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia could only be matched by a say Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden top of the rotation.

The next question is, What are your moves Philadelphia Phillies, St.Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondback, and New York Mets to counter?

CC Sabathia: Oh the places he'll (potentially) go...

Well it is July, so that means the baseball rumors start to heat up and everything from borderline bogus to so outrageous it just may work is given some thoughts in hopes and anticipation of improving the ballclub.


Every year there seems to be a big name or two who is rumored to go everywhere and anywhere depending on what newspapers and websites you check out from day to day. The big name in this year's deadline talks CC Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians.
Let's take a quick look at the possibilities of landing locations for the CY Young aka CC Sabathia.

Tampa Bay Rays: The Rays clearly have the talent to make the deal and have plenty of young prospects both in the minor leagues and at the big-league level. The rotation has a very solid young foundation right now with James Shields, Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza, and Andy Sonnastine, but adding Sabathia would round out a very tough to beat deep rotation. Do the Rays have the guts to pull it off? And would they actually sign CC long-term?

Boston Red Sox: When healthy, it's tough to argue the Red Sox would have a glaring need for Sabathia. Remember last Winter they toyed with the idea of going after Johan and eventually backed off. The Sox rotation of Beckett, Dice-K, Lester, Masterson,Wakefield and Colon/Bucholz lurking, is good enough to carry this squad.

Los Angeles Dodgers: The Dodgers are another team who always seem to have a lot of young talent, but never seem to make the big move on in-season trades. In a division that is basically there for the taking with no one over .500, it would be wise of them to add Sabathia to Derek Lowe, Hiroki Kuroda, Billingsly and the injured Brad Penny. Will the Dodgers make the move and trade some of their prospects a la Andy Laroche and Matt Kemp?

Milwaukee Brewers: Lately, the Brewers have been the team with the most about of publicity going for Sabathia. Offering top prospect Matt LaPorta among other talent seems to have caught Indians GM Mark Shapiro's eye. The Brewers have some interesting in-house pitching issues to deal with, such as free agent to be Ben Sheets. However, in a short a series I would like to have Sabathia-Sheets-Gallardo on my side.

Philadelphia Phillies: Probably the team that needs Sabathia the most. With the recent demotion on Opening Day starter Brett Myers to Triple-A, the Phillies need another staring pitcher in the worst way. Kyle Kendrick and Jamie Moyer have pitched pretty well for Philly, but a pairing of Sabathia and Cole Hamels would make opposing lineups cringe. The issue at hand here is, do the Phillies have enough prospects besides Carlos Carrasco that would interest the Tribe?

Chicago Cubs: At this point in the Sabathia sweepstakes game, it appears as though the Cubs will be a long shot to land this year's deadline prize. The word is, is that the Indians are looking for infield help most notably at third base and second base and the Cubs don't appear to have any prospects who will be able to help for another 2 to 3 years. What the Cubs do have is pitching talent in the upper minor league levels, but the Indians seem to be set with their staff.

If I had to predict as of today which team Sabathia will go, I would have to say the Brewers. They seem to have the talent to make the deal and GM Doug Melvin has a recent track record of making in-season deals.

Who do you think will trade for CC?