Welcome to day #2 of VFBC's coverage of the MLB Winter Meetings. Nothing groundbreaking, but a few bits of news to go over. In a non Brewers related note the first "big" signing of free agency happened today when the Mets came to terms with former Angels closer Fransisco Rodriguez. It is reported as a 3 year deal worth $37 mill. Quite a bit less then I thought K-Rod would get. I mean I thought some idiot GM would way overpay for him since he shattered the single season save record in 2008. He is a good closer, but when you look more closely at his stats there are many better then him. I hope it blows up in the Mets faces, because that would be funny.
On to real news, Brewers news. The Crew signed 3B Mike Lamb to a 1 year deal for the league minimum. Lamb was acquired very late last season and actually had a few key pinch hits late in the year. He did not start any games. Looks like right now the plan would be for Lamb and Bill Hall to platoon at 3B at least to start the year, maybe until they feel Mat Gamel is ready. Personally I like the signing, very low risk and if nothing else Lamb is a good left handed bat off the bench who can also play 1B if needed. He has a couple of decent years in Houston before falling on his face last year in Minnesota.
Speaking of Bill Hall, he had the lasik surgery. All I can say is I hope it helps Billy as much as it helped Jason Kendall. If so, maybe Hall can relive some of his 2006 or even 2005 magic when Hall looked like a rising star for the Brewers.
Ben Sheets was at the winter meetings today and is "rumored" to have had a meeting with the Yankees. Excuse me while I puke. If the Yankees sign Ben and CC I might lose it. I already hate the Yankees about as much as I hate the Cubs, which is a lot. And if they go and sign both of our best pitchers in the same offseason. Man, having to see Sheets and Sabathia both in pinestripes is enough to make a grown man cry.
Now this last piece seems to good to be true but another "rumor" going around is that the Yankees may be out of the running for CC and that some in the Giants camp believe the BREWERS ARE THE FRONT RUNNERS. HOLY FUCKING SHIT! It can't be true? Can it? This was reported over at jsonline.com in beat writer Tom Haudricourt's blog. Like Tom says, rumors fly around like crazy at the winter meetings, especially this year regarding Sabathia. But if that is true, wow. That is all I can say. Wow.
Off to watch Batman: The Dark Knight which came out today. Have not seen it since summer when it was in theaters so I'm pretty pysched. Great movie, if you haven't seen it yet, you should. More tomorrow all!
Pretty good day if you are a member of the Brewers organization or one of their fans. Today at the Winter Meetings in Indy, Doug Melvin worked out two deals to help bolster the Brewers pitching. A 3 year $29.75 mill deal with SP Randy Wolf and a 2 year $7.5 mill deal with RP LaTroy Hawkins. The Wolf deal had been speculated for a few days now and was clearly Melvin's number one target this offseason. The Hawkins rumors started today and before you knew it a deal was done. Both pitchers are coming off fantastic 2009 seasons. For the Dodgers Wolf was 11-7 with a 3.23 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and struck out 160 in 214 IP. Hawkins while pitching for the Astros was 1-4, 11 saves with a 2.13 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and struck out 45 in 63 IP.
Well we all knew it would probably come to this but it's still tough to swallow. Today CC Sabathia agreed to a 7 year $161 mill contract with the New York Yankees. It becomes the richest contract ever for a pitcher. The Yankees outbid themselves by giving Sabathia another year and $21 mill more. I think it came down to the fact that no west coast teams got in on the Sabathia bidding and the Yankess overpaid to make sure Sabathia didn't take less money to stay in Milwaukee because of his uncomfortableness with playing in New York. But in the end that would just be way to much money to turn down. I cant blame CC, no person in their right mind would turn down that kind of cash. I just wish that a west coast team (Giants, Dodgers or Angels) would have jumped in. I will hate seeing CC in Yankee pinestripes. The only uniform that would have been worse would have been a Cubs uniform. I wish CC all the best but I hope the Yankees suck and I will never forget how great and important CC's half of a season was here in Milwaukee.
Welcome to day #2 of VFBC's coverage of the MLB Winter Meetings. Nothing groundbreaking, but a few bits of news to go over. In a non Brewers related note the first "big" signing of free agency happened today when the Mets came to terms with former Angels closer Fransisco Rodriguez. It is reported as a 3 year deal worth $37 mill. Quite a bit less then I thought K-Rod would get. I mean I thought some idiot GM would way overpay for him since he shattered the single season save record in 2008. He is a good closer, but when you look more closely at his stats there are many better then him. I hope it blows up in the Mets faces, because that would be funny.
Day 1 of the GM winter meetings in Las Vegas is in the books. Not a whole heck of a lot going on as far as the Brewers are concerned. Doug Melvin did finally meet with CC Sabathia's agent's, and only about 5 weeks after the Brewers made their initial offer to CC. Melvin's meeting lasted a little less then a half hour and when it was finished it appears the Brewers are still in the running and have a chance at actually retaining Sabathia. Melvin will meet with CC's agent's again in a few days. The "rumors" going around are that to compete with the huge 6 year $140 mill deal the Yankees have offered is to add another year, maybe $10 to $20 mill or maybe have an opt out clause after three years of the deal. That is all speculation at this point though.