A New York Yankees Blog, a New York Giants Blog
Papa Bear CC Sabathia did jot opt out after all but instead accepted a contract extension. Now, the Yankeess and Sabathia are linked for 5 more years and $122 million – a 6th year automatically vests (as long as he’s healthy) at $20 million.
Oh yeah, the cardinals won the world series… nice pun, Bergen Record.
Don’t get me wrong, I love me some C.C. Sabathia – it’s like the Yankees went out and signed a giant teddy bear to lead them to victory. But, since August began, Sabathia has had only one start where he gave up less hits than the number of innings he pitched and over all, the results have not been there as he’s gone 4-3 in 9 starts since August 1st.
Don’t get me wrong – I know hits against innings pitched don’t tell the whole story and wins might be the worst statistic to use when evaluating a starting pitcher, but these numbers are a bit scary.
The Yankees are in a comfortable position in terms of making the post season, but once they actually get there, they need C.C. Sabathia to pitch like the monster he is. If he can’t get it done, the Yankees chances of going deep in October are significantly reduced. I don’t think it’s time to start panicking, but we’re getting close.
Really close.
In the first two innings of last night’s contest between the New York Yankees at the Boston Red Sox, CC Sabathia threw over 50 pitches, struck out 4 batters and allowed no runs. The results were there, but the monstrous pitch count was cause for serious concern and put the chances of a win for the Bombers in serious jeopardy.
Or so I thought.
Before last night, could you imagine a strike zone where the home plate umpire doesn’t call strikes at the knees? As the 2011 strike zone has been so big (including more above the belt strikes being called more this year than they have in any season I can remember), it would stand to reason the strike zone I grew up with (belt to knees) would be in full force, but not last night. That’s what pitchers had to deal with last night – so when umpires complain about long games but can’t get the basics of the strike zone correct, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for them. (I’d also love to know why John Lackey wasn’t automatically ejected for hitting Francisco Cervelli – and then the third base umpire had the audacity to throw out Larry Rothschild – a point I’m sure Joe Girardi made clear when he was going bizerk.)
Back to C.C. Sabathia – the man without fear. He doesn’t complain when the strike zone A) shrinks from its usual size; B) expands and contracts during the game; C) does whatever the umpire feels like. Ten strike outs, 2 runs, 6 IP, 128 pitches – not the greatest pitching line, but any day Adrian Gonzalez goes 0-4 against him, Sabathia has to feel good about it. Sure, there were lots of bright spots in this game: the running catch by Brett Gardner in the 8th inning, the home run by Francisco Cervelli, Eric Chavez’s RBI singles, Boone Logan and Mariano Rivera, but no accomplishment looms as large as the biggest 6 IP outing any pitcher is likely to have during the regular season. A lesser pitcher would have collapsed, but C.C. Sabathia doesn’t play that.
Stand and salute CC Sabathia – the big man who got it done!
After a four game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, the Yankees headed to Boston to end a road trip with three games against the Red Sox – to determine the fate of the division!
Well, we all know how it turned out – Boston took two of three and reclaimed their hold on 1st place in the American League East. After the previous road trip and the beating the Yankees gave the White Sox, you might have had high expectations with the Yankees going into Fenway, and that would be fair – the Yankees are certainly playing better ball of late, even without A-Rod.
It just didn’t happen for the Yankees this weekend, and, as usual, the prime suspect was starting pitching. If the Yankees have had a theme over the last decade (minus a year or two), it’s been the starting pitching putting too much pressure on the bullpen, and this series was no different. On Friday, Bartolo Colon just didn’t have his best stuff (as has been the case through most of his starts since returning from the DL), CC Sabathia was just bad from the first inning (any time you see Fransisco Cervelli doing that half split catcher’s stance in the first inning, you know you’re in trouble) and Freddy Garcia through a zillion pitches in such a short while (98 pitches in 5 IP) that I’m shocked Sweaty Freddy didn’t dehydrate.
But whatever; the Yankees are one game back in the east now, and seven games up in the wild card – they’re going to the playoffs.
The Red Sox are inside CC’s head?
I heard people saying the Red Sox are inside CC Sabathia’s head before and after Saturday’s game… I don’t buy it. I know he hasn’t beaten them in four tries this year, but that’s they way it goes sometimes. He’s certainly had success against them before, and since coming to the Yankees, even if his lifetime numbers aren’t dominant against the Red Sox. And, it’s not like he had his best stuff on Saturday and the Red Sox beat him – he was bad right from the start. You can say that’s some sort of Red Sox hangover, but I don’t buy it.
Posada to ride the pine
Jorge Posada is going to be a pinch hitter for the rest of the year instead of part of a DH rotation with Andruw Jones as Eric Chavez takes over for him. It’s just another phase out of Posada’s Yankee career, which will be even more pronounced when Jesus Montero makes his appearance as part of September call ups Frankly, I’d rather see Montero in the roll full time, but I guess we’re stuck for a few more weeks.
Mo is human
It would have been nice for Mo to nail down the save last night and win a series at Fenway against the Red Sox, but it didn’t happen – a near home run that turns into a lead off double is pretty hard to pitch around, even for my savior. Oh well.
AJ Burnett is not necessarily the best pitcher to ever grace a mound with his presence. Sure, you’ll hear tales of his filthy stuff, and it’s true, to an extent: Burnett has some good pitches in his arsenal, including a hard fastball and a snapping curve ball. In yesterday’s fourth of July game, he struggled but overcame in the 1st inning but overall, pitched 6 solid innings. Sure, at the end of the 6th, he looked a little tired, but I couldn’t begrudge Joe Girardi for sending him out there for the 7th, especially after how much the bullpen worked in the Mets series. But at some point, you have to go to your bullpen.
AJ Burnett is not the sort of guy who saves your bullpen; he’s just not. Sure, he’ll go 8 innings every once and a while, but it’s just not who he is. So after that Shelly Duncan at bat, during which Burnett was clearly tired and didn’t have anything left and couldn’t snap off a curve ball to save his life, Girardi left him in there. He didn’t go to his bullpen, he didn’t send Larry Rothschild or even Russell Martin out there to give him a breather.
After the Duncan single, I thought it was obvious that it was time for a call to the bullpen to get somebody up before the ball got back to the infield, followed by a lengthy mound visit. Then, the next batter should have been given the unintentional intentional walk. By then, your bullpen guy ought to be ready to go, and you make the change. It’s that simple.
Instead, BOOM – home run, and the Yankees go on to loose a game they should have found a way to win. Nice job, Girardi!
YANKEESNEWS VIA TEXT:
Today’s text reads: “HBO & MLB Productions to produce a 1 hour special chronicling Jeter’s 3K chase.”
My guess is that working titles include, “Boring as Hell: Jeter’s 3000 Chase” or “Jeter Documentary: The Best Editing You’ll Ever See,” because this must be one boring film. How much drama could the end possibly have in store? Jeter did not have a good offensive year last year (.270 average, 179 hits), nor has he this year (.256 average, 68 hits), and he’s been hurt for the last several weeks with 6 hits to go. Maybe I’ll get more excited about this as we get to the end, but right now, I’m not interested in Jeter’s personal achievements – but I’m happy to have his glove back, because Edwardo Nunez can not field.
YANKEES VIA EMAIL:
subject – MLB best Six Yankees are headed to the All-Star Game
In case you didn’t already hear, the Yankees heading to the All Star game are
Can we PLEASE climb out of Jeter’s ass? A-Rod has been to the All Star Game a few times, why can’t we count how many times he’s been? And really, Jeter is one of the six best Yankees on the team? Really? Derek Jeter is having a better year and/or is more valuable to the team that Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia or Brett Gardner? Or how about David Robinson, for that matter? I feel like I spend a lot of time writing negative things about Jeter in this space, but I don’t hate the guy – I just don’t think he’s the golden god everyone else makes him out to be – at least he’s not anymore.
Whatever, I don’t care about the all star game and I wish no Yankees were going, because if anyone gets so much as a cramp from appearing in the farce, I’m going to be PISSED!
CC Sabathia has a 2-2 record so far this year. He’s not known for his great starts to the season, and last night wasn’t a wonderful performance, but when Brad Penny is the opposing pitcher, you need to find a way to score runs and offset the sins by CC. I know the Yankees are susceptible to the curve ball and yes, we can all see on Fangraphs that Penny threw nearly 20% curveballs last night, but let’s be real here – Penny stinks. The Yankees had plenty of runners on base and they failed to capitalize. If your starter gives you 7 IP on 4 ER and the opposing starting pitcher is Brad Penny, you need to win that game. There’s no excuse for a loss like this!
Hit the ball!
I have to admit, I was about ready to throw in the towel on last night’s game once it was tied up at 3. It’s pretty hard to win one of those games on the road once you get to so late an inning, but the Yankees found a way to get it done.
The Pitching:
Justin Verlander might have started out slow, but he hung in there and gave his team 6 IP or 3 run ball, which is a decent outing – maybe not when you consider it took him over 120 pitches to do it, but impressive, nevertheless, especially considering his hardest thrown fastballs came in his last inning of work – those pitches he K’d Derek Jeter on were in the high 90s. I know a lot of people have been noting that Jeter’s bat has been a little slow this season, but few can catch up to the kind of heat Verlander was bringing. Too bad for him he was so wild last night – despite hitting 100 with his fastball.
While poking around the Yankee Blogosphere, I’ve seen some rumbling concerns that Bartolo Colon is throwing two many fastballs. While it is true that both his four seam and two seam fastballs make up about 85% of the pitches he’s thrown this year, the results clearly indicate that it’s not a problem. Sure, I’d love it if he mixed in a few extra change ups and sliders, but whatever – his four seam fastball has been topping out in the mid 90s (huh – that’s when pop music stopped being relevant, too, but probably just a coincidence) and his two seamer is devastating - it’s like Charlie Sheen’s four seam fastball from Major League – The Terminator or the Eliminator or something… well, except it’s the two seam version. And two seam it does! It can be difficult to explain to pitch movement to non baseball people, but when you say, “Watch this next pitch move,” and Colon uncorks one of his two seam fastballs, whipping across the strike zone and finishing in on a righty’s hand, even the most novice of observers will be heard to comment, “Holy Shiite! What the hell was that?” It’s that amazing.
The Tigers have a realized on their team named Alburquerque? “You just can’t predict baseball.”
Nice outings by Joba Chamberlain and the flawless Mariano Rivera. Mo is probably off tonight, so if the dice fall right, we’ll see Rafael Soriano get the ball for the save tonight. Should be fun!
The Bunt:
There wasn’t a ton of good things to say about the Yankees offensive performance last night (felt like there was a solid hour or longer where they didn’t get a hit), but they got some runs early and some more late, and that’s enough. Even a struggling Verlander is a tough match up, so no big deal. What is a big deal was that stupid bunt.
After the aforementioned Alburquerque walked Russell Martin, Brett Gardiner bunted on the first pitch. Given that Gardner went to bunt immediately, I can only assume that Joe Girardi called this from the bench. Why? Gardner is red hot and knows how to work a walk – why bunt when Alburquerque is wild? With Eduardo Nunez and Derek Jeter coming up? These guys look like they’re both poised to hit an RBI single to send Martin in from second? I think not. Let Gardner swing there. I don’t have any problem with small ball or bunting or whatever you want to call it, but that bunt was a pain in my ass!
Tonight:
Tonight, he that is called The Other Big One takes the mound. (He’s not called that, nor is Colon called The Big One, but I think we might want to start considering calling them The Twin Boulders or something.) As always, I like Sabathia’s chances to be effective and go late in the game, but with these crazy 6:05 start times (that’s local in Chicago, 7:05 here in greater NYC), who knows what will happen? Also, I’d like to see a pizza eating contest between Sabathia, Colon and Ramiro Pena. Pena is gritty!
Jamie Insalaco
