Postgame notes: Some things never change
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Notes, Podcast on Jun 05, 2011 
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The first changeup was fouled off by Maicer Izturis. The second was hit to deep center field by Erick Aybar.
“I always stick with it, though,” CC Sabathia said.
At the end of 8.2 innings — after his fourth straight win — Sabathia gave all the credit to the pitch that he was was “terrible” when the game started. The changeup has been an equalizer for the Yankees ace, and tonight the pitch did its job: Keeping hitters honest against Sabathia’s fastball and generating a series of weak popups and ground balls.
“It was huge for me tonight,” Sabathia said. “The only reason I pitched eight innings tonight is because I was able to get some swings early and get some weak fly balls (and) get some ground balls with that pitch. A couple of years ago, I probably would have been in trouble not being able to command it if I didn’t have it early.”
Sabathia has pitched at least eight innings in his past four starts. He’s won seven of his past nine, and tonight he was one out away from his second complete game in the past two weeks. After Alex Rodriguez hit the go-ahead, two-run home run in the sixth inning, Sabathia needed a total of 12 pitches to get through the next two innings. A third of those 12 pitches were changeups, and there’s no telling how many of his fastballs were made more effective because of the change.
“It just keeps the hitters off-balance, and they can’t sit hard on him,” Joe Girardi said. “You know you’re going to get your share of fastballs, but when you have that changeup, it gets them out front and gets some popups. That’s what he did tonight.”
During this West Coast road trip, the Yankees have faced six starting pitchers with a 3.01 ERA or lower. They’ve seen some of the very best in the American League, but none has pitched as well as Sabathia, who’s allowed two earned runs in 16.2 innings.
“CC is amazing,” Alex Rodriguez said. “He’s been kind of a life-saver here for the last two or three years. He’s a guy that starts winning streaks for us and stops losing streaks. He did that last Sunday, and hopefully today was another example of that.”
Here’s Sabathia.
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• Robinson Cano was hilarious talking about Torii Hunter’s tumbling attempt to catch his fourth-inning home run. Hunter nearly made the grab, and he flipped over the wall in the effort. Cano said he would have run straight out to right field if Hunter had robbed him of the homer. “That’s the kind of thing where you say, ‘Go, go, go, go,’” Cano said. “And then you see him jumping. You say, ‘Oh no.’ And then when I see the ball bounce, I say, ‘OK, we’re cool.’”
• Cano actually said he wasn’t happy with the home run at-bat because it should have ended earlier with ball four. “Honestly I don’t like that at-bat because I swing at everything and the other slider was in the dirt,” he said. “So, that’s me chasing and swinging at everything, and that’s not where you want to be. You want to be able to just take those pitches and just take your walks and just swing at better pitches.”
• Rodriguez’s analysis of his home run at-bat was not quite so complex: “Good pitch to hit,” he said. “Right down the middle, and I put a good swing on it.”
• Rodriguez had not hit a home run since May 21, but during that drought he hit .378 with a .417 on-base percentage. “You always want to be productive,” Rodriguez said. “If that means home runs, RBIs, doubles, whatever it takes to help the team win. Over my career, the one thing I’ve never worried about is home runs. I’ve focused on being a good hitter, drawing my walks and being very productive for my offense.”
• Great, great play by Rodriguez in the ninth inning. Sabathia said the diving stop was a game-saving play. Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher also made very nice plays tonight. “They were outstanding,” Girardi said. “You think about all those plays, go back to Al and the (near) double in the ninth inning. Maybe it’s a different inning in that situation (if he doesn’t make that play).”
• Girardi on the decision to leave Sabathia in for the ninth: “He was throwing the ball great. I didn’t see any reason to make a change. His pitch count was down which we usually see out of CC. He’s been on a roll.” Girardi said he didn’t want to Sabathia to face Aybar a fifth time, so he went to the closer.
• Sabathia on seeing Mariano Rivera come in to close one of his games: “That’s the best feeling, no matter what the situation is. He’s the greatest.”
• Rivera got the save with one pitch. “Very efficient,” Sabathia said.
• The Yankees tied their season high by moving eight games above .500. They’ve won 12 of their past 17 games.
• The Yankees got their first one-run road win of the season.
• Baseball Reference lists a different hit total for Sam Rice, but according to the Yankees — and Elias — Derek Jeter tied Rice tonight, moving into a share of 28th place all time with career hit No. 2,985. Baseballreference.com says Rice had 2,987.
• Also, Rodriguez tied Mel Ott for ninth place on baseball’s all-time RBI list with No. 1,864. Rivera moved ahead of Goose Gossage for sole possession of 14th on baseball’s games pitched list with his 1,003rd appearance.
• The Yankees have assured themselves a winning record on this road trip, but they’d like to win this series. “Tomorrow’s a big game,” Rodriguez said. “We have to come in here with a lot of adrenaline and hunger to finish off the trio. We haven’t accomplished anything, but for the most part the team has played a little better.”
Associated Press photos
Two things:
a) I don’t buy into the whole “pitching to the score” thing that was discussed in the previous thread, which specifically mentioned Pettitte and Morris. Someone undertook a study of Morris’ entire career and basically found zero support for the fact that Morris “pitched to the score.”
b) People who say that CC isn’t an ace are either crazy or simply haven’t watched the Yankees since he joined the team. The guy finished 5th in the AL in ERA+ in 2009, 5th in the AL in ERA+ in 2010, and is 9th in ERA+ so far this year (and CC has demonstrated that he significantly improves as the season goes along).
Simply put, don’t believe the doubters: CC is an ace. Whatever THAT means.
CC is an ace and a horse, but I don’t think he’s as good as some of the other aces out there.
Someone mentioned Hellickson – wow, I didn’t realize he was pitching that well. The Rays are amazing in how they develop pitching. I get that they’ve had high draft picks, but developing pitching is still very hard – have they missed with anyone?
Like who, exactly? I’m trying to understand what “aces” you’re referring to.
Sure, every year a pitcher steps up. Some stay at that level, most don’t Year in and year out since 2006 CC has been money. Apart from Felix and maybe Hallady, I’ll take CC. Almost everyone else has been up and down or hasn’t done it as long.
CC is an ace and a horse, but I don’t think he’s as good as some of the other aces out there
—————-
I love CC but he doesn’t dominate the game as well as Halladay, Verlander or Felix Hernandez do. I definitely don’t think being the 3rd or 4th best pitcher in baseball is bad or saying he still isn’t great.
Rich in NJ,
I agree with that. There are very few pitchers that I would take over CC. King Felix is absolutely one of them, and so is Halladay. They’re extraordinarily tough. Though there’s a few others, the list isn’t particularly long.
But CC is consistently excellent. For instance, would I take Greinke’s 2009 season over CC’s 2009 season? Of course. Greinke’s 2009 season was historically good. Look at what he’s done since then, though, and you’ll realize why it isn’t just as easy as saying, “Well, I’d take Greinke over Sabathia.”
In the end, it’s almost comical to see people comparing Jeremy Hellickson and Josh Tomlin to CC Sabathia. It’s just ridiculous, and shows how undervalued CC is.
Captain Clutch,
Your claims are stupid and unsubstantiated. In the two full years since CC Sabathia has been here (and even THIS year), he has had a higher ERA+ than Justin Verlander. While his ERA+ has been lower than Halladay’s, I think your attempt to diminish CC by using a name like Verlander shows how little you know about baseball.
CC’s ERA+ has been consistently better than Verlander’s. Sure, at times Verlander is unhittable, but CC pitches more reliably at a higher level over the course of a season.
CC Sabathia may not be as flashy as some of the games elite arms, but make no mistake about this, CC Sabathia is a horse and can carry a ballclub as well as any pitcher in the game….He can dominate come October……Tonight he kept hitters off balance and the one thing that I noticed was how the Angel hitters kept moving in the box trying to get a read on him which they never did……..Call him an Ace or call him the Anchor, but I say this, he’s real good…….As a hitter, you just don’t get a feeling of comfort facing him on the hill……
Sabathia can be my ace any day. There are very few guys in the league that can match up with Sabathia over an extended period of time– Halladay, Hernandez, Lester, and possibly Lincecum come to mind. And in Yankee Stadium, I can’t say that I would take any of these guys over Sabathia (although if I could get Lester, then I would do it in a second). On the stats, Sabathia matches up pretty darn well with anybody, and fall just a hair short of Halladay’s production.
Sabathia:162 Game Avg. 17 9 .642 3.55 225 (ERA+:124)
Halladay: 162 Game Avg. 17 9 .664 3.29 235 (ERA+:137)
Hernanadez: 162 Game Av 14 10 .575 3.18 229 (ERA+:132)
Lester: 62 Game Avg. 17 7 .716 3.58 211 (ERA+:127)
Lincecum: 162 Game Avg. 15 8 .663 3.00 226 (ERA+:141)
On the intangibles, the way he handled the situation after Padilla beaned Cano in LA told me all that I needed to know about him.
BTW, in terms of Wins above Replacement, Halladay checks in at about 57.9, CC at 44.1, and all of the others mentioned above are fall below 26.4.
There’s a no hitter coming for CC Sabathia……..Good night night people and good morning to Doreen and her morning group…….Maybe Erica & Tricia pop up as well
Good Morning.
Nice win last night.
Time to pay homage to what CC has done lately.
This is for you Big Man. You’ve earned it and then some.
https://picasaweb.google.com/cybermrb03/TaylorCreek?authkey=Gv1sRgCP2-o76wwJapQA#
MTU, majestic stuff.
What is the reddish triangular marking in #9?
Aldo-
That’s one portion of Zion NP.
Just a little “abstract art” on my part. A piece of the Alcove wall peeled off in a way that I thought was interesting.
I just don’t see the point in comparing CC to other teams’ best pitchers. Especially stats.
He’s the Yankees’ ace, and a damn good one. And that’s all that really matters, in my book. He’s worth every penny he’s getting.
The Yankees know it, other teams know it, and anyone following this team knows it.
MTU says:
June 5, 2011 at 8:23 am
Aldo-
That’s one portion of Zion NP.
Just a little “abstract art” on my part. A piece of the Alcove wall peeled off in a way that I thought was interesting.
————
So it’s natural, not man made?
Aldo-
Correct.
MTU, ‘scuse my ignorance, but by my experience, abstract art is the double dogleg 13th hole at Dorado Beach, PR.
Aldo-
Don’t golf. never been. But I’ll take your word for it.
And I could not care less whether CC is as dominating in games as anyone else. That’s putting form over substance.
All he does is win. Which is why he was robbed of the CYA last season. IMO, it was ridiculous for Felix to get it, with only 13 wins.
Steve Carlton won the CY one year with a 27-10 record … pitching for a team that only won 50-something games!!!
All CC does is win … which is all that matters!
Aldo-
And if CC had been just a little bit more fortunate he could easily have another 2 or 3 wins.
Morning, nice win. I watched most of the game, we got a few more hits than the previous game (7), but it still took a big time perfromance for CC to get the win. Nice to see Cano rip one.
It’s past the time to make a move with Posada, he has been hitting .175 or there about the entire season. Last nights spectacle of the announcers feeling sorry for him because he hit a ball hard and good forbid the OF caught it was a pretty low point. We can’t have a DH go out there night after night giving the other team 4 outs. Hard to imagine that this is the best we have in the entire system?
Nice if they win again today. Would like to go into the Boston and Cleveland series with a win. It will be a big week for the Yanks.
MTU, picture a reverse-Z, with water in front of each turn, and the blue-green Atlantic with a white sandy beach as the backdrop for the green.
Beautiful and treacherous, all at once.
MTU says:
June 5, 2011 at 8:44 am
Aldo-
And if CC had been just a little bit more fortunate he could easily have another 2 or 3 wins.
————
True. And AJ also. He should be 8-3, if the bullpen had done its job.
Aldo-
Maybe I ought to take up golf ?
I’d even make GB look good on the course and he got sent to Nam because he was so bad.
And if CC had been just a little bit more fortunate he could easily have another 2 or 3 wins.
–
If Felix were fortunate enough to have a non-little league offense behind him, he’d have a bunch more wins as well.
JF-
If Felix would like to join us we’d be more than glad to oblige him with more run support, and consequently more wins.
New thread ==>
Good morning.
MTU- Fantastic uplifting photos of Taylor Creek. #7 what am I looking at?
I’ve attached an article from NY Daily News about the upcoming draft. Skip most of page one on the Mets. Page two talks about many of the previous Yankee draft choices. There is a Yankee pitcher in Trenton who may “currently” be better than Betances or Banuelos-Tim Norton!
http://www.nydailynews.com/spo.....ut_on.html
And then there is 6-3, 230-pound Tim Norton, a 28-year-old righthander whom the Yankees took on the seventh round of that 2006 draft out of the U. of Connecticut.
Norton wasn’t on anyone’s radar this spring, primarily because he missed the last half of last season with a back injury. But he’s completely overmatching Eastern League batters at Trenton (1.67 ERA, 41K, 6 walks in 27 IP as of Friday), prompting another scout to proclaim: “This kid, for me, is the best complete pitching prospect in their organization. He’s a big strong kid who throws 93-95 and can locate. Plus he throws a really ‘hard’ ball. My only question about him is why are they leaving him in Double A? He’s better than Chamberlain right now.”
Jerkface, maybe so, but see my reference to Carlton.
Mel Stottlemyre is another who comes to mind, “manufacturing” 20-win seasons while pitching for bad teams.
Maybe it’s just a function of today’s 7-inning ‘complete games,’ I don’t know.
But to me, it’s about wins and losses, nothing else.
Cashman and Damon Oppenheimer will be focused on the draft Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
After picks have been made Cashman begins to focus on what happens for the next 7 weeks with any dealing partners for the 7/31 trading deadline.