Also, I'm speaking as a homer here so take it for what its worth, but if CC is serious about winning a championship I think he has a much better shot at doing it with the Brewers in the next 4 years then with the Yankees and their aging squad the next 6 years.
With all the problems and injuries the Yankees had this past year and the total disaster the season was, They won a total of 1 less game than Milwaulkee.. Now, Imagine CC was on the Yankees and the Brewers were ravaged by injuries
Injuries really have nothing to do with it, look at what the Yankees paid to get that one last win and look what the Brewer's farm system has produced and still has waiting at bay.Give me the name of a top prospect for the Yankees? Brett Gardner is the only one I can think of that is anywhere close to major league ready. The Yankee's core is on the way wrong side of 30 and sure they can spend the money each year to bring in the talent to win games, but you need a "team" and not just talent to take home a series. The Brewer's core are still 25 or under and regardless of how much money the Steinbrenners have, Antonosio has proven himself to be a reliable decision maker and committed to putting together a winnning team.
It takes a team to make the playoffs. It takes a lot of breaks to take home a series, and great starting pitching. Not necessarily great pitchERS but pitchING. What I mean is, for every Jake Peavy and Brandon Webb and Randy Johnson that has fizzled in the playoffs the last several years, there's a Jeff Suppan or a Kenny Rogers or a Derek Lowe who has dominated. People mistakenly think the best pitchers always win. That's not true. The team that gets the best performances from those pitchers wins. Did the Yankees have the best pitchers when they were winning the WS? Not really. But David Wells, El Duque, Cone, and Pettitte typically came up big in the playoffs for whatever reason. Those guys are nowhere near the caliber of Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine, yet they beat those guys twice in a four-year span heads-up.People have simplified the playoffs to think that a team like the Yankees as presently constructed CAN'T win in the postseason. They point to things like egos and lineup structure and too many superstars and things of that nature. I myself was guilty of that just a few years ago. But it's ludicrous.I realize I'm going to get killed for the following statements, but...In 2003, the Yankees were an Aaron Boone flyball away from a 3-1 series lead over Florida in the WS.In 2004, they were a Mo Rivera save from sweeping Boston and playing for the WS. Then they were a Hideki Matsui sinking liner from winning. Then a Tony Clark ground rule double. Then a Jorge Posada flyball knocked down by the wind.In 2005, Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield collide in CF and cost them the clinching game against the Angels. And who beat them? A rookie pitcher with no postseason experience named Ervin Santana. So what teams should now do is throw rookies that have never been tested into the fire? That's the key to postseason success?In 2006, they entered the playoffs as the hottest team in baseball and were inexplicably shut down by Kenny Rogers. Verlander and Bonderman I'll give you, but Rogers? That was absurd. Do you think that one game was indicative of the quality of the team, or was it a fluke occurrence that came at a bad time?In 2007, Joba Chamberlain was attacked by a swarm of midges on the mound. Not saying they definitely win the game or series, but it certainly didn't help. Boston won 5/6 against the Yanks early in the regular season that year, but the Yankees dominated the head to head matchup after that point if I'm not mistaken. If they get by Cleveland, there's a decent chance they get by Boston. And that year, the NL forgot to show up for the World Series.See, the playoffs are a funny thing. One or two breaks go another way and you're talking about a World Championship or three. Just like during the Yankees winning run, we saw the following:In 1996, they're a Jeff Maier-aided HR from going down 0-1 to the O's. Then without the Leyritz HR in Game 4, they're down 3-1 and facing Smoltz in an elimination game in Atlanta. No way they'd have won. Did Leyritz hit that HR because the Yankees were a younger team, or did he hit the HR because Wohlers hung a slider?In 1998, El Duque saved their season after Knoblauch's brain lock. Then in the WS, they were a horrid non-call on strike 3 to Tino Martinez from heading into the 9th tied in Game 1. Then it took a HR off the bat of Scott Brosius (who had hit .205 the year before the Yankees signed him) in the 9th off Hoffman to win another one. So now the key to success is to sign guys who had horrible seasons the year before?In 2000, they finished the season horribly, limping into the playoffs. They were an Armando Benitez walk and a Timo Perez failure to hustle away from losing the Game 1 home opener to the Mets in the WS.In 2001, there were about 75 plays on either side (Jeter flip play, Giambi throwing error in game 5, Tino HR, Brosius HR, Rivera throwing error in Game 7) from having any one of those series go the other way.People on this and other forums go on and on all the time about how much the Yankees have sucked lately. But the simple fact is that during their so-called glory years, they were always a play or two away from not winning. And during these so-called down years, they've been a play or two away from playing for the whole thing. What I see is a team that certainly declined last season (after all, age is a part of injuries) but one that was still winning 95-100 games per year from 2001 to 2007 despite no rings. And despite the decline last year, they were within striking distance of a playoff spot when they lost Joba in late August...after having lost Wang and his 19 wins in June.If anyone is going to suggest that a team that is poised to lose its number 2 starter and has made the playoffs once since 1982 has a better shot at a championship than a team that has been in the playoffs all but once since 1994, I don't think I need to say anything other than what I just did.
Fair enough!
I'm sure most Yankee fans will be happy with this signing, if/when it happens. Just like most Yanks fans seemed rather content holding on to Kennedy and Hughes, rather than trade in those chips for a HOF lefty. 
He reminds me of David Wells
and even Kennedy to be a part of the rotation Plus a lot more from Melky.... A LOT!!!!!I think Yankee fans understood it was a roll of the dice to hope the young guys would come thru AND get their pitcher without paying the price in young talent...
