Out on a Limb: Bold Brewers Off Season Predictions

I know it has been a awhile since I have posted, and I apologize to all of my faithful readers, both of them (including myself), but here are my bold predictions for the Brewers Off Season.

The Not so Bold, Bold Prediction:
CC Sabathia will not be in a Brewers uniform next year.

A little bolder:
The Brewers are better off if they do not CC Sabathia. Before you click the little 'X' in your upper right corner to close your browser, let me explain. The unofficially offered Sabathia a 5 year $100 million contract. You don't have to be a math wiz to figure out that it equates to $20 million a year. If the Brewers stretch their payroll to $90 million next year, CC's contract would make up 22% of that money. Can the Brewers really be a playoff caliber team with almost a fourth of their payroll for one player. Probably not. That money would be better spent on a player like Ben Sheets and a reliever and maybe even to help out with our arbitration eligible players.

Kinda bold:
Ben Sheets resigns with the Brewers. After the Brewers fail to retain the services of Sabathia, their #1 priority would be resigning Ben Sheets. I am all for signing him to an incentive based 3-4 year deal. He is still an ace and with Yovani Gallardo we would have a solid 1-2 punch. I would look to pay Ben between $13-15 million per year.

Obvious, but bold:
The Brewers will trade Mike Cameron, Bill Hall and a young pitching prospect like Mark Rogers or Chris Narveson to the Yankees for Melky Cabrera and Ian Kennedy. The Yankees obviously like Cameron, and Cabrera is a young switching hitting center fielder that could fill the void left by Cameron. That part of the swap makes perfect sense, where it gets interesting is adding Bill Hall the Brewers would love to move Bill Hall and his salary, the questions is wither the Yankees want him and would they be willing to give up on Kennedy after one season of struggles. Kennedy and Rogers could both benefit from a change of scenery. Getting rid of Bill Hall would mean the Brewers could move JJ Hardy to third base and bring in the exciting Alcides Escobar to play short. The Brewers would have that side of the field locked down.

Pretty bold prediction:
The Brewers would not trade Prince or JJ Hardy this off-season. If the Brewers do not resign Sabathia, they will be able to afford the arbitration raises both these players will receive. Let's face it if the Brewers do not have elite pitching they will need to score as many runs as possible and JJ and Prince are 2 of our best hitters.

Darkest and boldest prediction:
Chris Capuano will make the Brewers starting rotation at some point next year. Yes, I said it. You wait and see, if this happens, I said it first. Chris is coming off of his 2nd Tommy John's surgery, never good, but he also has one of the best work ethics in baseball. If he is able to pitch, he will be ready. The Brewers have very few left handed pitching options, and if Capuano returns as the pitcher from his All-Star season, there is no way we could keep him out of the rotation. we will just have to wait and see how is arm heals.

There you have it my list of bold predictions for the Brewers off season. Check back in December for my Brewers Christmas Wish List.