Say Goodbye Sabathia

We've been hearing the rumors for a couple of weeks now, and it was bound to happen any day. Today, it finally did. The Brewers have agreed to send AA outfielder Matt LaPorta and two other prospects to the Indians for C.C. Sabathia and two low level prospects.

I hate to see C.C. go, but we aren't going to win this year, that's painfully obvious, and he wasn't going to resign with us after this year. And we got in return a player in LaPorta who will be one of the anchors of the middle of our lineup by next year.

LaPorta is hitting .291 in AA Hunstville this year with 20 HR and 66 RBI.
http://minors.baseball-reference.com/players.cgi?pid=32457

The other two players in the deal are possibly third basemen Taylor Green and catcher Jonathan Lucroy (unconfirmed). LaPorta is the main piece in this deal, but the way that Green is playing this year and the talk from Brewertown, he could be just as good or better than LaPorta. Green hit .327 with 14 HR and 86 RBI last year in single A and this year in high A ball he was hitting .297 with 10 HR and 50 RBI in a very good Florida State League (Stats). Lucroy this year between A and A+, is hitting .313 with 12 HR and 45 RBI (Stats)

I haven't heard any names on who else the Indians gave up, but I'm not worried. We are getting 3 top prospects in the Brewers farm system.

Sabathia now makes the Brewers a legit contender in the NL Central. He will be making his debut for Milwaukee on Tuesday. A 1-2 punch of Sheets and Sabathia is devestating in the weak NL, and I wish all the luck to the Brewers. I hope CC does for them what I think LaPorta will do for a lineup next year.

Looking ahead to next year for the Indians, LaPorta should make the team out of spring training, his bat is ML ready right now. He can play a variety of different positions. Right field, left field, first base, DH. Which was one of the reasons why the Brewers were more able to let him go since they have players at all of those positions. We can plug LaPorta in at LF, move Francisco over to right and our 3-4-5 will be set with Victor, Pronk and LaPorta (Although next year, after seeing what Sizemore is doing, he should be moved to the 3 spot, no questions asked. He is leading the AL in home runs and they are all being wasted batting from the leadoff. That would also take pressure off of LaPorta hitting 6th.) And if Green can continue to shoot up the system, he could even make the team at 3B for us next year.

I will say, we're used to looking forward to next year in Cleveland, but at least now it looks a little better.