This will be running tomorrow on Sportsbubbler.com.  Since it regards C.C. Sabathia becoming a Brewer, I thought I would share my Case of the Monday's with you a bit earlier.....

Go With A Guarantee Even If It Doesn’t Guarantee Anything

By Todd Welter

Brewers GM Doug Melvin is going for broke by mortgaging his future.  He is renting C.C. Sabathia and putting it on the Matt LaPorta credit card.  I hear it yields a lot of reward points like October baseball. 

Melvin made the right call on this one.  It is better to go with what you know then a who knows.  That is what Melvin did by shipping LaPorta to Cleveland for Sabathia. 

Nobody actually knows how good LaPorta will ever be at the Major League level.  He could hit 40 homers every year or he could hit 40 career homers marked by injuries or inability to hit big league pitching.  Remember, Russell Branyan was supposed to take the Indians to a ton of World Series.  Rickie Weeks had a diary in Sports Illustrated with how good he was supposed to be.  You know what you got in Sabathia.  A Cy Young pitcher who can team with Ben Sheets to drive this team to heights it has not seen since I was three months old.

Melvin made a calculated gamble here.  That is why nobody should be worried about the LaPorta loss.  Let’s not act like Melvin gave up Ryan Braun or half the farm.  He did not go all in by throwing in Alicades Escobar or Mat Gamel.  He did bet his biggest marker but if the roulette wheel stops on October, the man is going to get a nice return.

A lot of fans seemed scared by this move.  Some feel LaPorta is too much to give up for a guy that will be gone in a few months.  Well, I bet half the people that will be dancing in the streets if the Brewers do go to October and beyond will be saying LaPorta who?

Then again, Sabathia does not guarantee the playoffs either.  There is no guarantee that Ben Sheets will stay away from the DL.  Heck, there is no guarantee that Sabathia does not go back to his early season form.  Sabathia’s playoff record is not exactly stellar either so that does not mean a World Series either.

The key is LaPorta was not going to help this team get to October right now.  All that matters is right now.  Forget the whole the Brewers have to go for it now because Ben Sheets will walk after the season.  Forget the possibility that Prince Fielder is going to be traded because for some reason Melvin is afraid in three years Fielder will bolt.  The reason the Brewers have to go for it now is it has been 26 years!  Priests are the only the ones that can sympathize with a dry spell that long.  The pieces are in place and it just needs that one last molding to be a finished championship project.

This city, this state wants October baseball badly.  Last year was a let down but it was all supposed to be built up for this season anyway.  The Cubs have a major chink in the armor with its road woes.  So why not go for broke? 

Wait, the Brewers are not really going for broke with this Sabathia move because well, the Brewers still have plenty of talent to stay competitive for a couple seasons.  Plus, the Crew will get four first round picks if Sabathia and Sheets walk.  The Crew’s draft history should have everyone pretty confident that the Brewers’ world will not fall apart with LaPorta, Sheets, and Sabathia not in the picture.  It was said in Rounders you can't lose what you don't put in but with that thinking you don't win much either.