After the 2001 baseball season, the New York Yankees were craving for a power hitter after their paltry performance against Arizona in the World Series...the Yankees wanted the best hitter on the free agent market and that was first baseman Jason Giambi - the Yankees got him and signed him to a seven year deal...After the 2008 baseball season, the Yankees were craving for much needed starting pitching after not making the post-season in over a dozen years...the Yankees wanted the best starting pitcher on the free agent market and that was C.C. Sabathia - the Yankees got him and signed him to a seven year deal...
As a Yankees fan, I did not like the signing of Giambi because he was a one deminesional power hitter who could not run nor field...the seven years are now over for Giambi as a Yankee and I could safely say New York made a mistake by signing him...
Seven years after the signing of Giambi, I once again believe the Yankees made a big mistake by signing Sabathia...don't get me wrong, Sabathia is a very good pitcher...but he has three big flaws that concern me:
1. He is a hot head on the mound - I watched Sabathia numerous times when he pitched for the Indians...after giving up a key hit or homer, Sabathia gets rattled on the mound...once he gets rattled, he overthrows by barrelling the ball in at 100 mph which leads to another homerun...batters can get into Sabathia's head...
2. He is fat - let's be blunt - Sabathia is a fat, out-of-shape young man who is only going to get more fat as he ages over the next seven years...this weight can and usually leads to health problems (aka, going on the disabled list)...
3. October - the sole purpose for playing on the Yankees is to win in October...and when you are the highest paid pitcher ever, you must come across with a W in October...over the last two post-seasons with the Indians and Brewers, Sabathia has failed miserably in the post-season...
This past post-season, the Brewers found themselves down 1-0 in the NLDS at Philadelphia with Sabathia on the mound...this was a must win game for Milwaukee...Sabathia tanked it...he went 3.2 innings and gave up a crucial walk to Phillies pitcher Brett Myers with two outs in the second inning...the pitcher!!!...clearly flustered, Sabathia walked the next batter Jimmy Rollins to load up the bases...Shane Victorino then parked a grand slam that ended any chance of the Brewers to advance...
Flip back one year earlier when Sabathia pitched for the Indians...he beat the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS, but it was a poor effort...he went 5 innings and gave up 4 hits, 6 walks, 2 homers, and 3 earned runs...
In the ALCS against Boston, Sabathia was completely unreliable...in Game 1, he went 4.1 innings and gave up 7 hits, 3 walks, and 8 earned runs as he took the loss...
With the Indians up 3-1 in the series and at home, Sabathia took the mound in Game 5...a win would send the Indians to the World Series...he was the team's #1 pitcher, the horse, the ace - this was supposed to be money in the bank...Sabathia went 6 innings and gave up 10 hits, 2 walks, 1 homer, and 4 earned runs...he lost again...
Those post-season performances alone would be why I would not have given Sabathia a seven year contract worth $160 million...he is not a big game pitcher...I see Sabathia being a player who has overbloated regular season stats who cannot perform on the biggest stage in October...the Yankees made a mistake...
1 comment:
Rick, as a Yankees fan, I'm OK with this. Fans of poor teams will bitch about the money but I don't give a shit about.
You can't blame him for his struggle against the Phils. For a month, they asked him to throw 130 pitches on 3 days rest...it caught up to him. The Yankees will keep him between 100-110 pitches every start to leave some gas in the tank.
The moral of the story is, Wang is not an ace. CC is. Burnett and Lowe are not aces. They went out and got a #1 starter and that works for me.
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