Time To Go Outside The Box
With CC Sabathia off to the Yankees after signing the biggest deal for a pitcher in baseball history, and Ben Sheets likely to be gone as a free agent, the Brewers need help in the rotation. Sadly, as Sabathia’s signing shows, the Brewers will likely find themselves outspent on the open market. And let’s not get into the posting system.
So, the Brewers need to think outside the box a little. It is not as if they will have a bad rotation with Yovani Gallardo, Manny Parra, Dave Bush, Jeff Suppan and Seth McClung (or Carlos Villanueva, or Tim Dillard, or some other pitcher to be determined), but the Brewers have had a lot of injuries in the past. Gallardo missed most of 2008 with a knee injury. Parra’s minor-league career was beset with shoulder problems before he recovered in 2007. Right now, the Brewers rotation is missing something: Depth.
How to get it? There are some prospects, but most are still below AA. Christopher Cody, acquired in a trade for Jose Capellan in 2007, is one of these prospects, who put up a line in Brevard County (1.83 ERA, 1.11 WHIP) comparable to those put up by Dillard and Villanueva at that level in 2005 (Dillard: 2.48 ERA, 0.98 WHIP; Villanueva 2.32 ERA, 0.98 WHIP). Jeremy Jeffress is their best pitching prospect, but he is not due in the majors until late 2010 at the earliest. Cody is in a similar position. The only Brewers pitching prospects likely to make the jump are Brae Wright and
So, if no help is in the minors, where should Milwaukee look? One thought: Japan. Free agents and the posting system are out, as the Brewers will be easily outbid. However, one just has to look at the fact that several teams have sold contracts of players to Japanese teams to see where Milwaukee could have an out-of-the-box option to upgrade their rotation.
On November 20, the Yankees sold the contract of starting pitcher Darrell Rasner to a Japanese team. On December 9, the Cleveland Indians sold the contract of reliever Tom Mastny to Japan as well. In essence, these are trades - cash for a player. So what is to stop Milwaukee from taking some prospects from its loaded system (significant backlogs are present in the outfield and the middle infield) and instead of taking cash, instead getting a player or two in return?
For instance, Milwaukee may not be able to outbid other teams for Nippon Ham Fighters ace Yu Darvish, who seems content to stay in Japan, anyhow. But there are other pitchers and other teams. The Tokyo Yakult Swallows have a pair of starting pitchers (Shohei Tateyama and Masanori Ishikawa) who could fill the Brewers needs for solid pitchers. Both pitched well for the Swallows (Tateyama: 12-3, 2.99 ERA; Ishikawa 12-10, 2.68 ERA), and they are relatively young (28 and 29).
The Brewers could provide some young pitchers to replace them (Evan Frederickson, Josh Wahpepah, Donovan Hand), as well as position players (say Chris Errecart, Brendan Katin, and Yohannis Perez) who may not have a chance to make it to Milwaukee. It would be, for all intents and purposes, Milwaukee selling the contracts of three or four of its second-tier prospects with significant upside to the Yakult Swallows for at least one of the contracts of Tateyama and Ishikawa. If teams are already selling contracts to Japanese teams, a trade with a Japanese team has to be possible.
As a small-market team, the Brewers cannot compete dollar-for-dollar with the Yankees, Dodgers, and Rex Sox for free agents. The loss of Sabathia and the possible departure of Ben Sheets leaves the Brewers’ rotation weaker. If it isn’t fixed, 2009 could be a long year.
