What will CC cost?

The Indians front office and fans got a less-than-subtle reminder today about the difficulty that lies ahead in keeping C.C. Sabathia with the team beyond next year.

In what is being viewed as a hometown-discount signing, the Cubs announced they signed their pitching ace Carlos Zambrano to a five-year, $91.5 million contract to keep him off the free-agent market.

That's $18.3 million a year.

It's also only $300,000 more per year than Barry Zito got from the Giants, so this contract is being viewed as somewhat of a bargain. Some were expecting Zambrano to fetch more like $20 million per, for a longer term.

Which brings us to Sabathia, who has the same number of years in the majors as Zambrano (7), more years in the rotation (7-5), more career wins (95-78) and more years as his team's "ace."

Zambrano has a better lifetime ERA at 3.37 versus 3.89, but he pitches in the National League, where the lineups are a little easier to navigate.

Sabathia, at 14-6 and 3.48, is having a slightly better year this year than Zambrano (14-9 and 3.86) this year.

Just as importanly, if Sabathia does hit the market, he'll be doing so not this off season, but next, so there will be a two-year contract inflation factor to add in.

Plus, Johan Santana will be on the market at the same time. The law of supply and demand would seem to dictate that that would keep C.C.'s price down a little. But in this case, with so many teams out there, the market is more than big enough to drive the price of each up, especially if egos get involved and each tries to out-earn the other.


TIGER SHAKEUP

The Tigers, in NYC to continue their four-game series against the Yankees, have undergone a roster shakeup.

They've DFA'd outfielder Craig Monroe, a major bust at the plate this year, and sent utility infielder Omar Infante to Toledo.

The Tigers promoted their top hitting prospect outfielder Cameron Maybin from Double-A Erie. The 20-year-old outfielder has had only six games of experience in Double-A, having spent most of this season at Class-A Lakeland.

To replace Infante, the Tigers recalled slick fielding Ramon Santiago.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that both Monroe and Infante have cleared trade waivers and these moves might be a precurser to a resurrection of the trade talks the Tigers were having with the Pirates about SS Jack Wilson prior to the July, 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

One person not on the move for the Tigers is rookie pitcher Jair Jurrjens, who made his major league debut against the Indians on Wednesday. He is expected to challenge the Tribe and Fausto Carmona to a rematch when the Indians head to Detroit on Tuesday night. Reliever Joel Zumaya is expected to be back from the DL Tuesday as well.

And in a not very surprising move, the Blue Jays have already sent former Indian Hector Luna to Triple-A. Luna was 0 for 9 since being claimed off waivers from the Tribe nearly two weeks ago.