Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Serious Question, Seriouser Inquiry

The Milwuakee Brewers traded four of the prospects for C.C. Sabathia, and then, once his three months service had ended, promptly watched as he accepted an absurd offer from the Yankees. If reports are to be believed, the Brewers front office did offer him a five year, $100 million contract, which, when you consider the size of Milwuakee (1.7 million people in the metropolitan area) and Sabathia (he's not 30 and already pushing 300 lbs) is a huge risk.

Of course, there was no way a medium market team like the Brewers could compete with a seven year, $161 million deal the Yankees threw at him.

But, what if, what if, there was a cap on free agency spending? Not contract extentions to current players, but a limit to how much money a team can throw at free agents in the offseason?

Not only would it prevent certain teams from monopolizing the market, but, ideally, encourage players to stay with the teams they came up with as they'll have an advantage the 29 other teams won't have in the amount they can offer.

It's not perfect, and there are some ideas to be ironed out, but that way, we'll know for sure who really wants to play for the Yankees and who just wants the money.

Bottom line: If the Yankees had only been able to offer Mark Teixeira less money than the Angels or Orioles, I doubt his wife's opinion on the issue would have mattered. At all.

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