Naturally, the biggest news of the day is still… the Brewers might grab Kei Igawa from the Yankees in the well-publicized Mike Cameron-for-Melky Cabrera deal that makes it seem like the Brewers are getting bullied around.

Cabrera had a terrible year last year for the Yankees, batting a mere .249/.301/.341/.641. Marcel projections put him at a better year next year — however, while he won’t be quite as good as Mike Cameron would be (Marcel projects Cam at a .333 wOBA compared to Cabrera’s .317), the dropoff in performance is definitely worth the $9mm+ shed in payroll by sending him to the Yankees. After losing CC and Sheets already, this team is still a little ways away from contending, and shedding payroll for the future is the way to go.

However, the Yankees either want the Brewers to eat some of Cameron’s salary, or take on the 3 year, $12mm contract of Kei Igawa. Igawa struggled in his brief appearance in the majors, giving up 15 HR and a 6.25 ERA. While his AAA stats don’t entice too much excitement (3.45ERA with about a 2.5:1 K/BB and 117K in 156 innings), they’re not nearly as bad as his small sample size in New York would imply. A year and a half ago, John Sickels of Minor League Ball projected Igawa to have a career of average-to-below average ball, and his stats in AAA would imply that he would have such a career. If he can, in Milwaukee, throw a couple of seasons of 4.5-5.0 ERA ball, $4mm/year wouldn’t be too bad (remember: Jeff Suppan is doing the same thing for over $10mm/year). That’s still plugging a rotation spot with a 4/5 starter for a year or two while Jeferess or other prospects develop (not to mention the discussions right now probably are about how much of Igawa’s salary the Yankees will eat).

If the Yankees will pay 1/3 of Igawa’s salary, two years of average/below average pitching and a light-hitting center fielder is worth sending one year of Cameron to the Yankees for. It’s not like the Brewers with Cameron are going to contend this year anyways. Hopefully the Yankees can take Bill Hall off of Milwaukee’s hands, but that’s a bag of worms that’s not necessary to get into.

Music of the Week for Dec. 15:

System 7 – Phoenix.
System 7 is an electronic band (you’ll hear this quite a bit) unlike most you’ll hear. It’s not your typical techno — mostly because it can be classified in multiple genres. The base of the album is psytrance, however, it’s more ambient than anything. The album isn’t so much a CD of separate songs, but instead, separate experiences — it’s really good with some high-quality headphones when you don’t really want to concentrate on anything. System 7 is Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, and Phoenix was recently released in 2007. Check ‘em out.

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Brewer stuff, milwaukee brewers by Cody