Non-Jason Bay Outfielder

Hmm... doesn't that sound like another prospect we acquired who was supposed to be a very solid to very good player?  In other words, Andy Marte?  He had better BB/K ratios at about the same ages and levels Jones played at, yet Marte has struggled to adapt his skills, including his once strong plate discipline, to the MLs.  That experience would make me a bit hesitant to just take Jones for Sabathia and think it's a fair trade - there's too much risk on our part in my opinion based on Jones' relatively weak strike zone judgment and the quick pace he went through the Mariners' system (arguably faster than it probably should have, as his poor strike zone judgment could hurt him at the ML level and may not be that easy for him to make that strike zone judgment stronger playing regularly at the ML level.)

While Marte and Jones are separate players, the main point is that Jones is no sure thing (no prospect is,) and while Jones is highly-touted and highly projectable, there are enough concerns in Jones' makeup (36 BB/106 K at AAA and 4 BB/21 K in 65 ML ABs, albeit at age 21, which suggests there are holes in his swing and approach, and several recent reports I've read on him say pretty much the same thing in regards to his swing, being that he has some severe BB/K ratios throughout his Minor League career) to make me think it's going to make more than Jones to get Sabathia, arguably one of the Top 5 pitchers in the league, and arguably, either the second or third best LHP in baseball (after Santana and maybe Bedard, though Sabathia has the more consistent, and arguably, better track record over Bedard, so I'd probably say Sabathia is second to Santana and above Bedard as a LH starting pitcher.)

Therefore, I agree with Andrew that it would take more than Jones to get Sabathia, even with just 1-year left on his current contract.  

Just my 2 cents - no offense.

You'll pass on someone who tore up AAA pitching as a 21-year-old because you know one other person who did it and hasn't produced since?

No, no, you're being sarcastic.  Whoo.  I almost got all up in this business.

It just looks like a perfect storm where you could sell high on CC, we could get a haul of talent, and Bavasi could turn to his fan base (the uninformed section) and say "look, I went out and snagged us a Cy Young winnder!"

And I reiterate, only if we have 100% decided that we cannot resign CC.