Take the bump?

C.C. Sabathia has been named the American League Cy Young Award winner for the 2007 season. When we last saw C.C. he was getting shelled by the Red Sox. His teammates didn't help much, giving him little run support against Josh Beckett. Beckett was lights out in his two meetings with C.C. in the American League Championship Series. He came in second with 11 fewer first place votes. He did, however, win the World Series this past October.

If it is any consolation, I'll just tip this to you. By winning the Cy Young, C.C. has become only the second Cleveland Indian to win the award. He also becomes the first African-American to win the award in the American League since 1971, when Vida Blue won (trivia: who was last African-American winner in the National League?). Sabathia topped the bigs in innings pitched with 241. He went at least 6 innings in every game during the season, had a record of 19-7 in 34 starts, a 3.21 ERA, and received a $2.25 million bump in pay by winning the Cy Young. He gets a $250,000 bonus and will earn $11 million in 2008 instead of $9 million.

An even bigger pay bump could soon be coming: Sabathia can become a free agent after the 2008 season. At 27 years of age and a dominate south-paw, teams will be salivating at the chance to sign him ("Teams" probably means the Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs, and Yankees). And just for good measure there is another guy out there who might get traded this hot stove season and make a bigger payday: Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins.

The Twins are a small market team, and will probably move Santana before the start of next season to get the maximum value for him. That should set the bar quiet high. Greg Maddux, at 41, just inked a $10 million, one year deal to stay with the San Diego Padres. You do the math!

The Free Agent poll...updated with others who ain't free agents but you'd like anyway!