CC to Yanks?

Just change 2003 to 2009 and George to Hank, and everything else seems pertinent.

I completely agree with Buster Olney on CC Sabathia. If he chooses New York, he'll choose the Yankees, mainly because they'll choose him. With the Red Sox seemingly in the chase for Peavy, the Yankees will want to counter, and Sabathia is really the only appropriate counter. For all the stuff said about Sabathia wanting to go to the West Coast, don't believe it. It's probably not true, and when CC sees all those C-notes, he'll lose his sense of homesickness. If he was really sentimental, he would have taken the Indians' deal before he left. However, he didn't, and I imagine it's because he knew someone would drop a blank check on his lap.

As for LA, the Dodgers seemingly don't have the money as they had to ask for teams to eat salaries at the deadline, and the Angels have said they don't really want to increase payroll. I think the Dodgers might prefer to keep Lowe, and the Angels have lots of young pitching. The Angels could feasibly use their farm system to land a Peavy (who is just a little worse, but his contract would be less-burdensome) or a Greinke (the Royals could use more players, and Ron, would you like an Adenhart for Greinke switch, as long as a few others like Brandon Wood came along?).

The Braves will definitely make a bid, but I doubt they'd be able to beat out a Yankees offer. Again, if CC doesn't really want LA, then the Yankees will give him the biggest offer. The Braves will try, but unless CC doesn't want the New York lifestyle or LA, the Braves should focus elsewhere.

The Brewers will probably try to retain CC as well, but I don't see them bringing him back. He has no loyalty to them, and they won't be able to pay him the most money. The Brewers really need to add multiple arms instead of just one big one.

Therefore, the Yankees seem to be the likely winners here. For all the talk about the Yankees focusing on youth and development, I can't see them passing this up. Cashman might show more restraint than most would in that situation, but I'd have to imagine he'll go for it.

So, if the Red Sox get Peavy and the Yankees get CC, who has the better rotation? The Yankees would have Sabathia, Wang, Chamberlain, Mussina/Pettite/free-agent, and Hughes/Mussina/ Pettite. The Red Sox would have Peavy, Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka, and Wakefield/Byrd/free-agent/Bowden/Masterson. Each have three aces essentially pitching for them in this scenario. The edge would go to the Red Sox only because we know Lester has gone a full season and Chamberlain hasn't, but Chamberlain might ultimately be better than Lester. I'd probably give the Dice-K vs. Yankee no. 4 to Dice-K unless Mussina comes back and pitches like he did this year. The five slot could go to the Yankees, but mainly because the 5 slot is so open and unpredictable for the Red Sox. Overall, I think the Red Sox would have a better rotation, but it wouldn't be by much. It could be a fun year in the AL Easy next year with the Rays in third having won 93 games.