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RINGOLSBY: Cy Young for Sabathia? It's doubtful

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 21, 2008 at 6:10 p.m.

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The Brewers' CC Sabathia has been everything Milwaukee was looking for when they acquired him from the Indians.

Darren Hauck/Associated Press

The Brewers' CC Sabathia has been everything Milwaukee was looking for when they acquired him from the Indians.

The lineup

NUMBERS GAME

12-game hitting streak for Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, who extended the streak with a home run leading off the third inning Thursday against Cincinnati. It is the fifth- longest hitting streak for a starting pitcher, according to hit-streak guru Trent McCotter. Wilbur Cooper set the record with a 16-game streak for Pittsburgh in 1924. Amos Rusie of the 1897 Giants and Al Spalding of the 1876 White Stockings had 15-game hitting streaks, and Johnny Sain hit safely in 14 starts in a row with the 1947 Braves.

PADRES OR MADRES?

The pending divorce of Padres owner John Moores and wife Becky could impact the ballclub. As well as leading to a drastic reduction in payroll for 2009 because of the couple splitting their assets, a key factor in the legal case is whether John or Becky will get controlling interest in the team.

HE SAID IT

“We know what we’re in for. It’s not like we have a $100 million team out there losing 12 in a row. We want to win just as much as any other team, but sometimes, the other teams are just better.”

Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, whose team ended a 12-game losing streak Thursday night.

The rotation

Four of the top five teams, in terms of money spent on signing their selections in the first 10 rounds of the June draft, were small-market teams. But the key reason for the inflated bonus money is that those four teams — the Royals, Rays, Giants and Pirates — each gave their first-round pick at least $6 million. The teams that spent the most money signing players from the first 10 rounds of the draft:

Team: Bonus money (No. 1 pick, position, bonus)

Royals: $10,165,000 (Eric Hosmer, 1B, $6 million)

Rays: $9,357,000 (Tim Beckham, SS, $6.15 million)

Red Sox: $8,990,000 (Casey Kelly, SS, $3 million)

Giants: $8,703,000 (Buster Posey, C, $6.2 million)

Pirates: $8,256,000 (Pedro Alvarez, 3B, $6 million)

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The acquisition of CC Sabathia has been everything the Milwaukee Brewers could have hoped for.

Sabathia has done so well since his arrival from Cleveland the first week of July, there has been speculation he could win the National League Cy Young Award.

Don't bet on it.

Only once has a pitcher who was traded in midseason been voted the Cy Young Award winner - Rick Sutcliffe, with the Chicago Cubs in 1984.

Sutcliffe was a special case. He was 16-1 with a 2.69 ERA for the Cubs after his early June acquisition from Cleveland, helping the Cubs earn their first postseason appearance since 1945. More than that, even though he spent the first two months of the season in the American League, he finished fourth in the NL in wins (16) and sixth in strikeouts (155).

With the Cubs and Indians, he compiled a 20-6 record, which equaled Joaquin Andujar of St. Louis (20-14) and Mark Boddicker of Baltimore (20-11) for the major league lead in wins. He also led the majors with a .769 winning percentage.

Two words that weaken Sabathia's candidacy: Brandon Webb.

Sabathia has been dominant for the Brewers. He was 8-0 with a 1.60 ERA in his first nine starts, including five complete games and two shutouts. And while he is 14-8 with a 2.99 ERA overall, Webb has been the anchor in Arizona's NL West title run, going into the weekend 19-4 with a 2.74 ERA.

Not only does he seem a lock to become the first 20-game winner in the NL since 2005, but he has an opportunity to win 24, which no NL pitcher has done since Webb's Arizona teammate, Randy Johnson, in 2002. The last time an NL pitcher won more than 24 games was 1972, when Steve Carlton won 27.

Meanwhile, over in the AL, White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin could become only the fourth player in history to earn the MVP award in a season after being traded. Basically a giveaway by Arizona, Quentin leads the majors with 35 home runs. He is third in the AL with 97 RBI.

The last player to win an MVP the year after he was traded was Frank Robinson, with the 1966 Orioles. Baltimore sent Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun and Dick Simpson to Cincinnati for Robinson before the season.

Bob Elliott was the 1947 NL MVP for the Boston Braves, who had acquired him the previous offseason from Pittsburgh with Hank Camelli for Billy Herman, Elmer Singleton, Stan Wentzel and Whitey Wietelmann. And in 1914, Johnny Evers won the NL MVP with the Braves, who sent Billy Sweeney and cash to the Cubs to acquire Evers before the season.

Infield chatter

* Catcher Brad Ausmus has indicated he won't return to Houston next season, but he hasn't officially retired. If he plays, Ausmus, who lives in the San Diego area, says he would like to be closer to home, which would indicate interest in a backup role with the Padres, Angels or Dodgers.

* Cubs general manager Jim Hendry is ready to exercise manager Lou Piniella's contract option for 2011 and give him a new option for 2012.

* Atlanta would like to re-sign center fielder Mark Kotsay, and Kotsay says he'd like to stay. Problem is, he wants to continue as an every-day player, and with the Braves, he fits as a fourth outfielder or backup first baseman.

Out in left field

The Twins will find out in the next two weeks whether they are a serious factor in the postseason hunt.

Having to vacate the Twin Cities to accommodate the Republican National Convention, the Twins opened a 14-game, 15-day trip on Thursday night in Anaheim, Calif., against the Angels. It's the sixth-longest trip in Twins history. And then, after returning home for a six-game stay at the Metrodome, they will have another 10-game trip.

The Twins embark on the journey with a 26-31 road record, 15th best in the major leagues. Only four major league teams have winning road records - the Angels, Phillies, Brewers and Cardinals.

Closing statement

Next June, Washington will become the first team in history to have two of the top 10 selections in the baseball draft. The Nationals will get their regular pick, most likely No. 1 overall, and will have the 10th pick in the draft as compensation for failing to sign Aaron Crow, a right-handed pitcher out of Missouri and the ninth player taken this year.

The Nationals say they were blindsided when Crow, three days before the Aug. 15 signing deadline, asked for $9 million. Crow eventually lowered his request to $4 million, while Washington increased its original offer of $2.1 million to $3.5 million.

Crowd instead signed with the independent Fort Worth Cats.

Two other first-round picks didn't sign - right-hander Gerrit Cole, drafted by the Yankees, and right-hander Josh Fields, drafted by Seattle. Seattle has until a week before next year's draft to sign Fields, because he just finished his senior year at the University of Georgia. Cole will enroll at UCLA after his family declined to even accept an offer from the Yankees, despite telling the team before the draft that their son is a lifelong Yankees fan.

MILE HIGH WATCH

The Rockies are enjoying the attendance residual of a successful 2007 season.

With 18 home dates remaining, they are already assured of surpassing last year's season total and of having their largest home attendance in six years. That's contrary to a recent Internet claim that the Rockies were behind last year's average.

The Rockies return home for a weekend series against Cincinnati averaging 33,696 for 62 home dates. A year ago, they averaged 28,979 for 82 home dates, including the wild-card tiebreaker game against San Diego.

The season total was 2,376,250, the Rockies' largest number of ticket sales since they sold 2,737,918 in 2002.

With only 80 home dates this year - a rainout with Washington on Aug. 6 was made up the next day as a doubleheader with only one gate admission for both games and a playoff game isn't likely - the Rockies must average only 15,948 for their remaining home dates to surpass last year's total.

And season-ticket sales alone ensure the Rockies will reach that level.

For 2008 to climb into the top-10 single-season attendance totals in franchise history, the Rockies would have to surpass their 2002 total, which is unlikely. They would have to average 36,041 in their final 18 home dates, which would require another surprising finish.

What works in the Rockies' favor for a strong late-season attendance push is that 12 of their remaining 18 home games are on weekends - this weekend and the first three weekends in September.

The smallest crowd at Coors Field this season was 23,210 for an April 9 game against Atlanta. The three weeknight games against Atlanta on April 7-9 are the only three Coors Field games in which the Rockies had less than 25,000 in ticket sales.

The Rockies have had 38 games in which they sold 30,000-plus tickets, and 15 of those surpassed 40,000. While the three-game interleague visit by Cleveland didn't create an attendance spike, the Rockies announced ticket sales of 118,811 for a three-game visit by the Twins, their first regular-season series played in Colorado.