Your Second Team

CC Sabathia, last year's Cy Young award winner for the American League and next year's spectacularly overpaid free agent (call it a hunch, but I'm betting that a guy with a high inning and pitch count who historically carries a lot of extra weight might not be the best bet to withstand the workload later in life) has been moved from the Tribe to the Brewers for a reasonable prospect, because the Tribe knows (a) they aren't going to need him in post-season this year, and (b) they aren't going to be able to afford him, either.

Milwaukee gets a second ace behind Ben Sheets, and becomes a theoretically dangerous team in a short series, except for the fact that they probably aren't going to get there, and if they do, Sheets and Sabathia are extremely likely to become ineffective under the workload by then. (Remember, of course, that Sabathia was tatooed in the playoffs last year after racking up a big inning count during the year, and Sheets' injury workload is rivalled only by Rich Harden in terms of sheer heartbreak to his fan base.) The Brewers wound up giving up a big strikeout, low defense player in Matt LaPorta, like they don't already have that kind of player in spades. They'll also get the inevitable high compensation pick when some MLB+ team signs him away after the 15 or so starts that Sabathia will make in a Brewers uniform, assuming, of course, that the hefty lefty will dominate the weaker circuit down the stretch. He really should do that, despite the fact that he's going to be facing better hitters in the NL Central in bandbox parks, because he's been on a roll and will be unfamiliar to most of the hitters that will face him.

But that's not what I'd like to address here.

Sabathia has always been something of an enigma. He's huge, and has been for most of his career. He's one of an ever-dwindling number of African-Americans in the sport; it's pretty much him and Dontrelle Willis in terms of finding a black lefty of prominence now, and Willis is plying his trade in the minors right now. He's been in line for an immense payday for a while, so Tribe fans haven't really taken him to the kind of heart you'd expect. He's streaky, with months of extreme hittability that have kept him from a top-tiered fantasy role in most drafts. And now, he's on his next team.

When a player has his laundry changed, it permanently affects, in some small way, how the public judges him. There's a bedrock irritation from casual fans from having to update their file on the guy. We start to judge him as not quite all that, since the first team didn't move heaven and earth to keep him. Maybe he's a bad teammate or just about the money. Perhaps there are some off-field stuff we don't know about, or (if you're local to his first team) that he secretly hated your town. Maybe you'll be angry with the team, but eventually, you have to forgive them, because they are your team, and players come and go. Hell, if LaPorta becomes a standout Tribe performer and/or Sabathia becoems the next Carl Pavano, you have to eventually applaud the move.

What I'm most curious about is whether or not this kind of judgment also applies to people in your place of work. As a marketing guy who has worked for a lot of risky start-ups, I've amassed a resume that barely fits on two pages. If I were to count every place that has given me a W-2 by hands, I'd have to take off my shoes. And yet, I've never really felt discriminated against as a mercenary chasing the dollar, probably because at this level, we're all like this, especially in a dicey economy. That level of experience has usually been treasured in interviews and by recruiters, and it's how I define job security -- my network of satisfied clients, since your personal reputation has more to do with your future than the well-being of your current employer.

Perhaps this is just a casualty of the unreality of men who make more than you and I will in our lifetimes in one single year. Maybe I'm secretly regarded badly by my co-workers. And maybe Sabathia's eventual MLB+ owners will take him to heart, rather than regard him with suspicion and buyers' remorse. And finally, maybe we're all just fantasy players now, and we're loving the fact that Sabathia's probably going to get more wins as a Brewer than an Indian. (Though he did go to a team that doesn't catch the ball worth a damn. Worth remembering.)