Winter Meetings

The MLB winter meetings have basically become a shopping spree for the Yankees and Mets, and being a New Yorker I really don't have a problem with that. Here is my Sabathia opinion though. I am a Yankee hater, so naturally I will try to find the negatives. Ultimately I think Sabathia helps the Yankees pitching staff greatly, but I do not think he deserves the highest pitching contract ever. Below is a list of arguably the best pitchers in the last 20 years, and a count of how many times they had an ERA under 3 and over 4 in their first 9 full seasons. Here is what Sabathia has allowed:

Seasons with an ERA over 4: 4

Seasons with an ERA below 3: 1

Roger Clemens:

Seasons with an ERA over 4: 1

Seasons with an ERA below 3: 8

Greg Maddux:

Seasons with an ERA over 4: 0

Seasons with an ERA below 3: 6

Pedro Martinez: 

Seasons with an ERA over 4: 0

Seasons with an ERA below 3: 6

Randy Johnson:

Seasons with an ERA over 4: 1

Seasons with an ERA below 3: 2

Johan Santana (7 seasons)

Seasons with an ERA over 4: 0

Seasons with an ERA below 3: 5

So while Sabathia is an impressive pitcher, he does not fit the mold of those who were considered the best of their era I don't think. However, Wang, Joba, Sabathia, that is pretty dangerous and should be interesting.