Good morning everyone and welcome back to the blog. Just a
quick hit for you this morning concerning CC Sabathia and his sudden trip to
the disabled list… because I’m not buying it. Now before I dive too deep into
this I want to preface that I do believe there are processes in place that
prevent a team from simply “Phantom DL’ing” someone for no reason. There is
protection in place for the teams and there is protection in place for the
players, but with the case of CC Sabathia and his troublesome knees it makes
you wonder if the Yankees are somehow taking advantage of that.
Sabathia was placed on the disabled list with knee
inflammation, a diagnosis that has cost him time a lot recently over the past
few seasons in the Bronx, but I wonder just how inflamed the knee really is. I am
sure at any given time, given the status of his knees, if there was an MRI or
whatever test the Yankees had run on his knee that there would be inflammation in
the knee. It is bone-on-bone essentially and inflammation is just going to be a
thing that CC has to deal with for the rest of his life, period. It makes you
wonder if the Yankees are taking advantage of that and placing him on the
disabled list now before the stretch run of the season.
What benefit would the Yankees get by placing CC on the DL
with a phantom ailment? Well, looking at the Yankees schedule you see that the
Yankees have a couple of days off going forward that may have factored into the
decision. CC last pitched on August 12th against the Texas Rangers
firing six innings of one-hit ball in a victory meaning that he would not be in
line to start again until August 17th against the Toronto Blue Jays,
a start that Luis Cessa will make according to Aaron Boone. After that start
though the Yankees have an off day on August 23rd (CC’s next
scheduled start) giving the Yankees the ability to “skip” his start and let the
rest of the rotation pitch on normal rest. The Yankees may have just found a
way to manipulate the disabled list process and given CC at least 10 days’
worth of rest while still allowing him to only miss one start against a
sub-.500 team.
I am sorry, but something just seems off here. I am not a
conspiracy theorist by any means, but this just doesn’t seem right. Look at the
way CC pitched in his last start, that is not the way you pitch when your
weight-bearing knee is inflamed to the point to where you need to go on the
disabled list. It just doesn’t add up. Something else is up here and I think
that something else is the Yankees are taking advantage of the system to give
CC some extra rest down the stretch.
I’m not saying that I am not okay with it, but I am saying
that if it looks like fish… and smells fishy…
