Tag: CC Sabathia (Page 13 of 17)

Cliff Lee wins AL Cy Young Award

Besides from the Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series or the Tampa Bay Rays having the best season in the history of their franchise, one of the best stories from the 2008 MLB Season was Cliff Lee, who won the American League Cy Young Award on Thursday.

Cliff LeeCliff Lee is a runaway winner for the American League Cy Young Award, capping a dominant comeback season that made him the second consecutive Cleveland Indians lefty to earn the honor.

Demoted to the minors last year, Lee went a major league-best 22-3 this season with a 2.54 ERA. He received 24 of 28 first-place votes and 132 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced Thursday.

Toronto ace Roy Halladay finished second with four first-place votes and 71 points.
Lee became the third Indians pitcher to win the award, following Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry in 1972 and CC Sabathia last year.

Good to see Lee, and Giants’ youngster Tim Lincecum claim their respective league’s Cy Young awards this season. Both played on below average teams this season and still had tremendous success. When they pitched, their hapless teams won – and often because of them.

Yankees ready to dole out big to CC Sabathia

Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes what we already know:

CC SabathiaThe Yanks can begin revealing that answer as today turns to Friday at 12:01 a.m. It has not been the Yanks’ history to brandish a theatric offer at one minute past midnight. Nevertheless, sometime tomorrow you can expect the Yankees aggressively will extend a proposal. It might not be their best and final, but Yankee insiders suggest it will be a number that says this to Sabathia: “Anything they can do we can do better – much, much better.”

One Yankee executive said, “we have to separate ourselves.” Translation: They must divest Sabathia of his dreams of the Pacific and the batter’s box by going to a financial region relatively quickly that no other franchise would even consider, especially in this plummeting economy.

That means a bid north of the six years at $137.5 million the Mets bestowed last year on Johan Santana . My gut says six years at $150 million sounds about right to force league-wide surrender before the bidding really even gets started.

Can anyone else go to that financial area? The Dodgers are probably Sabathia’s dream landing spot. But there continues to be doubt that L.A. owner Frank McCourt has either the money and/or the willingness to offer near that much.

Where Sabathia winds up will come down to money and whether or not he wants to hit every fifth day. So he’ll weigh the options and then head to the Yankees.

10 Burning MLB Offseason Questions

FOX Sports.com has 10 burning questions for baseball’s offseason.

5 Can Milwaukee hang on to CC Sabathia?
The Brewers are already facing the loss of Ben Sheets, so they’ll probably need to bring Sabathia back if they hope to win the tough NL Central. Obviously, the Brewers don’t have the resources to hang with the Yankees, Angels, Dodgers, and Red Sox should those teams enter the bidding. But Sabathia loves hitting, and he enjoyed his time in Milwaukee…

Manny Ramirez4 Where will Manny Ramirez wind up?
This past season, Manny Ramirez hit .332 AVG/.430 OBP/.601 SLG with 37 bombs. Obviously, that’s an elite level of production. On the other hand, Manny is 36 and an ongoing disaster in the outfield. He’s going to command a big contract, but it’s not certain how big and with whom. Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, is angling for a five- or six-year deal, but that’s probably not going to happen. The Dodgers will certainly push to bring him back, and the Blue Jays may be a surprise bidder…

3 How will the Yankees spend those dollars?
The Yankees’ 14-year playoff run came to an end, and that likely means a frantic winter in the Bronx. They’ve got a good bit of money coming off the payroll, and of course they’ll be moving into a palatial new ballpark next season. So expect them to spend with impunity. They’ll likely pass on their option on Jason Giambi, which means they could be in the mix for Mark Teixeira. They’ll certainly be angling for CC Sabathia, and they’ve also got decisions to make on Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte…

1 Who will be the Phillies’ GM next season?
Fresh off the third World Series title of his career, Phillies GM Pat Gillick may be bound for retirement (and, eventually, the Hall of Fame). If he goes, then in all likelihood the job will fall to either Ruben Amaro Jr. or Mike Arbuckle, two longtime Philly lieutenants. Or will Gillick have a change of heart and come back to defend his championship?…

I’ll go ahead and answer the above questions for FOX:

CC Sabathia to the Yankees.

Manny Ramirez to the Yankees.

Yankees will overspend the Yankees dollars.

The Yankees will be the Phillies’ GM next season.

Hot Stove: Shaking Things Up

This is when the baseball season is really interesting—while no games are happening and speculation flies around about who will be changing uniforms and shifting the balance of the sport’s power. It sure beats watching a nine-inning game that goes on for four hours or more.

So the two big names that are free agents and will be courted heavily are CC Sabathia and Manny Ramirez. Forget the fact that commissioner Bud Selig cautioned teams about forking over too much money in a slow economy. Those two guys are going to rake in the cabbage either way, because teams will bid for them at ridiculous numbers. So far, the Brewers, Yankees and Angels seem to be the first in line to make a run at CC, and Manny’s agent, Scott Boras, had a 90 minute conversation with Dodgers’ GM Ned Colletti on Tuesday, but that pretty much means nothing. Still, the Dodgers owe their fans an offer to Ramirez, even if Boras is looking for a 5-6 year offer.

On the trading block, would you believe Tigers’ slugger Magglio Ordonez? The Tigers reportedly have enough holes to fill that they are willing to part with one of the game’s premier hitters to do so. That kind of deal has Yankees written all over it.

Two players whose team option was not picked up were the Yankees’ Jason Giambi and Dodgers’ Brad Penny. For all the talk about Giambi and steroids, the guy did hit 32 homers in 2008 and still has some pop as well as the penchant for bad mustaches.

Though the Mets need bullpen help more than anything, they are talking trade with Tampa Bay for starter Andy Sonnenstine. The Mets are also talking like they will not be bringing back Aaron Heilman, which is about as good a move as any trade to acquire a player.

Finally, free agent Ken Griffey may be heading back to Seattle, and pitcher Derek Lowe may be headed back to Boston. Stay tuned…..

Yankees preparing to overspend for CC Sabathia

The New York Yankees are getting ready to offer CC Sabathia an exorbitant amount of money.

CC SabathiaCiting two unnamed baseball executives, the New York Daily News is reporting the New York Yankees are preparing to make free agent left-hander C.C. Sabathia a ‘huge’ offer after Nov. 14. Sabathia has already been offered $100 million by the Milwaukee Brewers, who retain exclusive negotiating rights until Nov. 14.

Two executives said Wednesday at the GM meetings that they believe Sabathia will wind up in New York, based solely on the expectation that the Bombers’ offer would easily exceed all others.

Word has it that the Yankees are also prepared to deal for Jake Peavy of the Padres. The Bombers are also interested in Cole Hamels, Tim Lincecum, Cliff Lee, Brandon Webb, Johan Santana, Roy Halladay and are looking at the cost of digging up Cy Young.

« Older posts Newer posts »