Sabathia leaving to mixed bag of results
CHICAGO – His last pitch of the game came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Gordon Beckham, whom nobody pitching for the Yankees could get out this weekend, hit a ground rule double to right center to give the White Sox a chance to tie the game with a home run,
Emerging was Joe Girardi from the dugout. He was going to take the ball from an “ace” and trust his two bullpen weapons Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera to finish the job.
When he left the mound, you wondered exactly how to categorize his performance. Was it good? Well, considering he gave up 10 hits, five runs (all earned - the last one scoring after Rivera gave up a single to Carlos Quentin) and gave back the 3-0 lead the Yankees had given him early in the game.
Yet, as his teammates rallied to bail him by putting more runs on the board en route to an 8-5 win, Sabathia settled down to pitch seven innings, much needed length after the stink bomb detonated by AJ Burnett the day before.
In many ways, he gave the team what they needed, a long outing. At the same time, for the fourth start in a row, he battled command issues despite throwing 71 of his 100 pitches for strikes. Some of those strikes, known as “hittable strikes” found plenty of holes. Six of the ten hits yielded were for extra bases. Three of them for doubles, one for a triple, two for homeruns (it would have seven had Quentin’s had not been thrown out at second in the third inning). These were not bleeders finding ways through the infield to blame on just plain old luck.
You look at his ERA currently and it sits at 3.95 and an 11-7 record. Certainly not the results the Yankees are paying $161 million for. One can talk about adjustment periods and that would be a cover up to excuse some sub par performances. Before Burnett turned in one of his worst games of the year, he was not even statistically the best pitcher on his own team, more less the league.
What could possibly be the problem? Is it just the American League? He did win the Cy Young Award two years pitching in league, granted the lineups he was facing in the AL Central made it very easy to pitch and rack up comparable statistics much like Cliff Lee did last year. Pitching in the AL East is a far more dangerous beast and his 4.40 ERA is indicative of that.
The one question that lingers above the Yankees heads is at what point do the 513 logged innings over the last two years catch up with the big left-hander?
In 2007, the Indians worked him into the ground throwing the most innings in his career by 50. This caught up to him in three postseason starts against the Yankees and eventual world champion Red Sox.
Last year, the Brewers, desperate to make the postseason, elect to use Sabathia on three days rest for him final four starts of the season. He pitched a complete game against the Cubs on the final day of the regular season and then tired out in Game 2 of the Division Series against the Phillies.
The Yankees held off on using Phil Hughes as a main trading chip for Johan Santana (looking like a smart move now) and instead waited a year so they can spend money only on Sabathia. In their eyes, he was a better, long-term investment despite his massive size (the team scale lists him at 290 pounds).
Going forward the rest of the reason, the team needs him to be the anchor of the rotation. They are not going to go anywhere he is unable to do the job. His numbers this season are similar to the numbers that Randy Johnson posted in 2005 when he joined the Yankees. The Big Unit was switching leagues after dominating the NL in 2004 and found that the expectations from fans along with the American League made him a lesser pitcher.
That is the only similarity between the two. Sabathia may be 28 in his prime, but there could be a chance that the accumulation of innings may shorten his prime to where he may show decline sooner.
On Saturday, the fans patience with him will reach a crescendo when the Red Sox come to town as his next opponent.
He his being forgiven right now. How much longer is the next question.
CHICAGO – His last pitch of the game came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Gordon Beckham, whom nobody pitching for the Yankees could get out this weekend, hit a ground rule double to right center to give the White Sox a chance to tie the game with a home run,
Emerging was Joe Girardi from the dugout. He was going to take the ball from an “ace” and trust his two bullpen weapons Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera to finish the job.
When he left the mound, you wondered exactly how to categorize his performance. Was it good? Well, considering he gave up 10 hits, five runs (all earned - the last one scoring after Rivera gave up a single to Carlos Quentin) and gave back the 3-0 lead the Yankees had given him early in the game.
Yet, as his teammates rallied to bail him by putting more runs on the board en route to an 8-5 win, Sabathia settled down to pitch seven innings, much needed length after the stink bomb detonated by AJ Burnett the day before.
In many ways, he gave the team what they needed, a long outing. At the same time, for the fourth start in a row, he battled command issues despite throwing 71 of his 100 pitches for strikes. Some of those strikes, known as “hittable strikes” found plenty of holes. Six of the ten hits yielded were for extra bases. Three of them for doubles, one for a triple, two for homeruns (it would have seven had Quentin’s had not been thrown out at second in the third inning). These were not bleeders finding ways through the infield to blame on just plain old luck.
You look at his ERA currently and it sits at 3.95 and an 11-7 record. Certainly not the results the Yankees are paying $161 million for. One can talk about adjustment periods and that would be a cover up to excuse some sub par performances. Before Burnett turned in one of his worst games of the year, he was not even statistically the best pitcher on his own team, more less the league.
What could possibly be the problem? Is it just the American League? He did win the Cy Young Award two years pitching in league, granted the lineups he was facing in the AL Central made it very easy to pitch and rack up comparable statistics much like Cliff Lee did last year. Pitching in the AL East is a far more dangerous beast and his 4.40 ERA is indicative of that.
The one question that lingers above the Yankees heads is at what point do the 513 logged innings over the last two years catch up with the big left-hander?
In 2007, the Indians worked him into the ground throwing the most innings in his career by 50. This caught up to him in three postseason starts against the Yankees and eventual world champion Red Sox.
Last year, the Brewers, desperate to make the postseason, elect to use Sabathia on three days rest for him final four starts of the season. He pitched a complete game against the Cubs on the final day of the regular season and then tired out in Game 2 of the Division Series against the Phillies.
The Yankees held off on using Phil Hughes as a main trading chip for Johan Santana (looking like a smart move now) and instead waited a year so they can spend money only on Sabathia. In their eyes, he was a better, long-term investment despite his massive size (the team scale lists him at 290 pounds).
Going forward the rest of the reason, the team needs him to be the anchor of the rotation. They are not going to go anywhere he is unable to do the job. His numbers this season are similar to the numbers that Randy Johnson posted in 2005 when he joined the Yankees. The Big Unit was switching leagues after dominating the NL in 2004 and found that the expectations from fans along with the American League made him a lesser pitcher.
That is the only similarity between the two. Sabathia may be 28 in his prime, but there could be a chance that the accumulation of innings may shorten his prime to where he may show decline sooner.
On Saturday, the fans patience with him will reach a crescendo when the Red Sox come to town as his next opponent.
He his being forgiven right now. How much longer is the next question.
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