While I was watching CC Sabathia’s second start of the young
season on Tuesday night I was very encouraged by what I saw. Sure CC gave up
more runs than we are accustomed to seeing from him and totally gave up on
covering first and third base on plays but there were a ton of positives to pull
from it. CC is still a work in progress but he was striking people out despite
his dip in velocity, was keeping the ball down and for the most part kept the
ball in the ballpark. Most importantly though he kept his team in the game and
at this point in his career that’s all that really matters. CC reminds me more
and more of another Yankees hurler at the end of his career that learned to
pitch, not throw, with a lower velocity and succeeded, Mike Mussina.
Mussina won 20 games for the first time in his career in
2008, his final season, with a fastball that sat around 88 or 89 MPH, much like
Sabathia’s has been sitting this season. CC would be lucky, in my opinion, to
win 15 games this season let alone 20 games but you have to keep in mind that
Mussina had a few more years to work on the transition from a power strikeout
pitcher to a control pitcher. Mussina was 39 years old at the time while CC is
just 34, although his degenerative knee problem and subsequent surgery may
leave his body feeling more like he is 37 or 38. Mussina also had one powerful
offspeed pitch to work off of that he had great control over his entire career,
the knuckle curve, where CC has more or less lived and died off his fastball
and slider.
Mussina learned to pitch without the velocity and still had
swing and miss stuff much like another Yankee that recently retired, Andy
Pettitte. Pettitte reportedly worked with CC on this over the winter and I have
to say in an incredibly small sample size the teachings have been working. Sabathia
is far from a finished product but if he can keep this up and keep getting
better and more confident with every start then the remainder of his contract
may not be the black hole that we all may have originally thought.
