Carl Pavano - a gamble worth taking

My Yankee-fan co-workers will be laughing in the morning.

In fact I'm certain they are laughing right now, but I'm not within earshot at the moment so I can't hear them.

They are laughing because, while they signed CC Sabathia (just for starters), the Indians have inked a deal with Carl Pavano to help fill out their rotation.

Yankee fans HATE Pavano. And now the lowly Cleveland Indians - one of baseball's many Bob Cratchit's (I know the seasonal reference is a little late but it is still Three Kings Day after all) - have had to go panhandling and came up with the despised Pavano.

His crime?

He signed a four-year, $40 million deal with the Yankees and then had the audacity to get injured - several times - and pitch virtually not at all over the four-year period.

He was a big mistake, a big Yankee mistake, and so it all goes on him, not Yankee management.

Typical Yankee-fan stuff.

Well, now he's ours and Yankee fans can laugh all they want as they plunk down $375 for a seat 20 rows behind third base at the new Yankee Stadium.

They'll tell me how smart their organization is because they identified the two best pitchers and the best hitter on the market and threw wads of money at them. Such genius.

While my Yankee-fan friends are laughing, I'll be smiling to myself.

At least I follow a team that will have earned (by smarts and talent, not money spent) any success they have.

The Indians' front office identified its greatest need - the back end of a bullpen - and threw what money it had in that direction, signing Kerry Wood and trading for Joe Smith.

They got one of the better infielders available (Mark DeRosa) for prospects that would not impact this year's roster.

And then they went to the scrap heap to find someone for the rotation and just may have found someone useful in Pavano.

I am under no illusion that Pavano is a sure thing, or anything close to it. But I do remember myself thinking late last season - as Pavano was coming back from his latest injury and tossed a few games for the Yanks - that he would not be welcomed back in NY, and that he should be someone Cleveland should at least look at.

When it became clear that, with no more money to spend, the Tribe would either have to trade Kelly Shoppach or go to the thrift store for another starter, I began to think once again that Pavano would be worth a look on an incentive-laden deal.

And so, they have taken the gamble. But it's a small gamble and the only kind the Tribe can afford to take.

And that is what my laughing Yankee-fan friends don't get - that for most of us, we just can't buy our way to the top.

Tribe gets reliever, 2B prospect for Gutierrez

The Tribe was one of the teams involved in a three-team, 12-player trade agreed to last night. It's complicated. The Tribe gets reliever Joe Smith from the Mets and 2B prospect Luis Valbuena from Seattle and sends outfielder Franklin Gutierrez to Seattle.

It's too busy on the job for me today (the one I get paid for) to write much more on this. But my other home in the blogosphere - MVN's Tribe Report - has a bit more information about the guys coming to the Tribe. It's penned (keyboarded) by Michael Taylor. Check it out.

The one thing I didn't want to see this winter

The ink has not yet been applied - let alone dried - on a Kerry Wood contract with the Indians and a little bit of the joy of the likely signing has been zapped.

Zapped by the following headline found this morning on the New York Post Web site:

CC SABATHIA PICKS YANKEES

Although it didn't make most of today's editions of the Post's ink-on-paper product, the tabloid's Web site reports Sabathia has agreed to the Yankees six-year, $140 million offer to play in the new Yankee Stadium.

The agreement apparently came after Yankee GM Brian Cashman slipped away from the winter meetings in Las Vegas and went to Sabathia's SF-area home yesterday evening to talk with the big guy about playing in the Bronx.

I had no illusion that Sabathia would be back with Cleveland. It was never even a thought.

But as a Tribe fan living in the New York area it is going to sting to watch CC pull on the pinstripes or road grays every fifth day for the Yankees.

As time passed, I became increasingly hopeful that Sabathia would just say no to all the bucks and take someone else's money. The Dodgers or Giants would have been nice. Out of site (out on the West Coast) out of mind. Milwaukee would have been fine too - a small market team making a splash is something I could root for.

But knowing that CC will be pitching for the Yankees just because they have the most money to throw around, and just because they decided he's the guy they wanted and they can do whatever they decide, that is the hard part.

The Yanks are said to also be among the final suitors for A.J. Burnett - willing to top a four-year, $60 million offer from the Braves - and Derek Lowe.

Suddenly Chien-Ming Wang becomes their No. 4 starter - or at least No. 3.

Just in case they don't get Burnett and/or Lowe, they've also been in on Ben Sheets, and they have Andy Petttite twisting in the wind. Pettitte likely would retire if he's not offered a chance to come back to New York.

And, for No. 5, the Yanks have Joba Chamberlain. Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy - two-fifths of last year's start-of-season rotation - would be toiling in the minors as insurance.

With Sabathia averaging $24 million, and Burnett and Lowe being offered something a little north of $15 million per, the Yankee starting rotation (even though Wang and Chamberlain have not hit the free-agency bonanza yet) would still come in north of $60 million. Throw in $15 million for Mariano Rivera out of the pen and you're already higher than some teams' total payroll.

The worst part about this news is that Yankee fans will be back at full smugness this season, as their store-bought (Tiffany's) rotation likely returns them to the post-season and their fans will act as though their GM is a genius, just because he - like everyone else in baseball - knew who the best three free-agent pitchers were this winter.