Tuesday, August 14, 2018

The Curious Case of the CC Sabathia DL Trip




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…

5 comments:

  1. Number one reason why we should not bring him back next year for anything over a 1 million .
    The first thing Brian Cashman has to do is not make a trade but find Pedro Martinez and bring him in too fix our pitchers.
    Clueless Larry has no idea , I bet he could had messed up Andy Pettitte if he was the pitching coach during the glory years.
    Don't think Dave Eiland was smiling last night.
    Pedro could be what Sonny Gray needs , remember Sevy was just horrible until Pedro got hold of him.
    Ask a Red Sox for help , Pedro is about show me the money and the fact he likes Sevy.
    Rothschild has done nothing as a coach , DRob under him for a full year has gone backwards , Britton who was showing flashes of old gone backwards, Sonny Gray doesn't even know who he is and Pedro and Goose said the thing about Betances and Chapman because of their mechanics you have to keep running them out there if you don't they lose their feel of mechanics.
    Cash pay the man and hire Pedro today.

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    1. I'm sorry to sound so terse, but you are crazy. First and foremost, CC has been worth every bit of his $10 million this season and would easily be worth that again, or more, in 2019 if he decides to come back. What in the world makes you think that CC hasn't been worth the money and wouldn't be worth more than $1 million in 2019? Because the team Phantom DL'd his because of his knee to give the guy some extra rest and manipulated the roster rules to bring up George Kontos (who may or may not have had a minor league term written into his contract that he had to be called up by a certain date or he could elect free agency) and Ronald Torreyes.

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    2. FYI,

      According to Fangraphs and their value stat CC has been worth $12.2 million this season, and this is a cumulative stat that rises and doesn't fall. That's on August 14th with basically a month and a half or more left in the season. He was worth 14.9 million last season using the same stat and 21.2 million the year prior. The only time in his entire career that CC was worth less than a million was in 2014 when he was limited to just 46 innings pitched.

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  2. I am not saying that CC Sabathia is not worth the money the Yankees are paying him, but if they can upgrade his spot in the rotation next year, they should. As much as Sabathia has meant to the Yankees, I'd gladly take Patrick Corbin in his place. I'd really like to see Lance Lynn return so to me, they represent better options than CC as this point in his career.

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    1. CC has been the model of consistency over the past few seasons, Lynn has not. While I normally agree with most everything you say, I cannot agree with this. I don't see how you could pass up a controllable deal worth one year for a veteran left-handed arm that brings what he brings to the team, both on and off the field.

      Lynn and what he is doing is great, but at the end of the season I have a feeling we will be looking back and saying that it was more on an anomaly than our version of 2017 Justin Verlander. I hope I am wrong, but I don't think I will be.

      You can add Corbin to Severino, Tanaka, and CC and still have a spot. Jordan Montgomery won't be ready for the first half, Sonny Gray sucks and the Yankees seem to be in no rush to bring up Justus Sheffield.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)