CC Sabathia vs John Lackey. I’ll take that match up every day and twice on Saturday. Unfortunately, on this particular Saturday they’re only playing one game. Sabathia has been utterly brilliant this year and Lackey has been mediocre at best. What’s that you say? Sabathia is 0-3 with a 6.16 ERA in three starts against Boston this season? That just tells me the small sample is begging for a correction, which means CC has about 3 shutouts left in him facing the Bostonians. Fenway may not be a great park for Lefties, but the way CC’s been throwing the rawhide lately he could pitch anywhere. Lackey’s declining curveball and horrendous fastball make for a bad match up facing most teams, but the power and patience the Yanks feature should be a recipe for success for the Bronx Bombers.
A win today will secure a much needed series win facing the not-so-beloved Red Sox, which will be the Yanks first for this year. Then we go for the sweep on Sunday with Freddy Garcia facing Josh Beckett. Wait a minute. On second thought, we REALLY need this afternoon’s game. As good as he’s been, I still don’t trust Freddy facing a high powered offense like Boston. And Josh Beckett is pitching this year like he thinks it’s 2007 all over again. But I’ll get to that tomorrow. For now, enjoy this afternoon’s game and CC Sabathia’s inevitable dismantling of the hated bean eaters. GO YANKS!!!!!!!!!
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20 Responses to Game 112-A win on paper
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TIQ IQ
Layup today but I like Freddy shooting the 3 tomorrow just the same ;)
How many of you see Girardi starting Cervelli in a playoff game for CC…. that would be so sad..
I wouldn’t see him on the playoff roster. Hope Montero and Posada (emergency catcher) are on.
Posada and Cervelli will be on the postseason roster, but Posada won’t catch. Montero will not be on the postseason because he can’t catch well enough to be the insurance/backup catcher, he can be only a DH. The Yanks don’t need much less want two DHs who can barely play the field (Posada and Montero) on the postseason roster. Posada plays the field i.e. 1B only to occasionally make a spot start at 1B to rest Teixiera or when Teixiera is taken out of the game during garbage time (Yanks up 11-2 through 6.)
If Cervelli contributes to Sabathia pitching the best he can, Cervelli starts games Sabathia starts. It looks like Cervelli does this. Don’t fix what ain’t broke. The Yanks usually don’t need a ton of offense to win games Sabathia pitches, so a little less offense with Cervelli won’t hurt them. All you’re really losing offensively is Martin’s power as Cervelli has no power, but there’s more than enough hitters in the lineup to make up for the lack of power at catcher. Cervelli is not as good as Martin defensively, but he’s been servicable in Sabathia starts. I would like to see Martin catch Sabathia at least twice and Posada catch a couple of games in general (no CC starts) before the year is out in case Cervelli gets hurt.
The Yankee bats need to wake up out of this funk they’ve been in since they’ve arrived at Fenway (3 runs in 12 innings, 2 by hits.) Lackey is not this good. I hope this is the Yanks just getting a look at him before they strike.
Someone got dismantled, but it wasn’t the Red Sox offense. I don’t think he was going to win it anyway, but Sabathia just lost any chance at the Cy Young with that performance. Back to back 7 run games against the Sox will spererate Verlander and Weaver.
Considering CC constructively, his slider he’ll probably say, was not sharp, for the second game in a row. What has happened to his changeup? Would’ve been handy.
Although it’s been insisted, in the 6 man rotation discussions, that he works best with 4 days or less rest, I’m thinkin’ he needs a couple weeks in the Bahamas, near a beach, where he can work on that change-up.
His slider has been so good this year he hasn’t really needed it. The problem is that the change is the ultimate feel pitch, and you can’t just summon it once you’re in trouble.
It’s not just CC though, all pitchers have better command when they pitch quicker. You lose your feel for pitches the longer you have off between starts. It’s why old school pitchers still prefer a 4 man rotation.
That all sounds right. No argument intended on the 5th day thing. I don’t know if two weeks’ r&r wuld let him get a game-ready feel for the change again, but I was really thinking he may need a rest, considering the lack of quality recently on his slider.
Tonight, I think he threw a lot of fastballs when he was getting hit. On the postgame, he cited terrible fastball command, throwing poor location to good hitters. While that was true, I think he made them look like better hitters when he quit mixing in his slider.
Look how he came back from the AllStar break.
Weeks off would only do harm to his command, and feel for pitches. Some games you just don’t have good stuff, and as hot as he been he was due for regression at some point. You can’t be that spot on that many starts in a row.
He always blames poor fastball command, just his go to answer. He just didn’t look like he had much at all out there, this wasn’t like his last game against the Sox. Then he was great up until the last inning in which he blew up, this time he just wasn’t very good.
Alright, alright. A weekend in Vegas, all expenses paid, that’s his final offer. And he wants to play some very high stakes poker.
with all the trimmings.
He’d need to be on the Michael Jordan, Charles Barkely table with his cash.
Can someone remind me why the Yankees gave up on Aceves? I thought it was a stupid move then and I think it’s a stupid move now. Aceves has put together another nice season.
you’re right, but we have substituted for him pretty well. This was Noesi’s first big falter. Ayala is the short late innings Ace, and he’s doing well.
Yea, I hear that. I didn’t say that as a reaction to any one of our pitchers doing badly, I simply liked Aceves and I cannot believe we just let him go.
The Yanks should do this:
1. Let go of Sabathia (really 2016-18/19 Sabathia as I can’t see him wanting less than 7 or 8 years) when he opts out.
2. Get Jake Peavy ($17M salary + $4M buyout = $21M for 2012 only, $39M for 2012-13 if he has such a good 2012 his $22M club option for 2013 is picked up.)
3. Bring back Pettitte for 2012.
4. Go with a Peavy/Pettitte/Burnett/Nova/Hughes rotation to start 2012 with the entire AAA rotation as rotation insurance.
Ideally Peavy pitches like a #2 and Burnett/Nova/Hughes pitches like a 3-3-3 or 3-3-4 in whatever order combo in 2012, and Banuelos is MLB-ready for 2013 so the rotation to start 2013 could be Peavy/Burnett/Nova/Hughes/Banuelos with Peavy and Burnett in their walk years. $39.5M would be off the books for 2014 if the Yanks let go of Peavy ($22M) and Burnett ($16.5M), more if Hughes was let go as I believe his walk year is 2013, too, right?
If the Yanks don’t get this from these four guys and Banuelos isn’t ready yet, they could look into into signing Weaver, Cain, Hamels, or Grienke et.al. who are all free-agents after next year. They let go of Peavy ($21M cleared), probably go with one from Nova/Hughes/Banuelos, keep Burnett as his 2013 salary is probably untradeable even if the Yanks threw in cash (nevermind that he could exercise his no-trade clause), sign a veteran for a year cheap a la 2011 Garcia/Colon, and see who wins the fifth starter job out of spring training. If they brought back Peavy, they could go with Free Agent/Peavy/Burnett/Nova/Hughes to start 2013 and see if they need to replace someone after Peavy.
Pettitte ain’t coming through that door.
… and Peavy is an awful choice at this point. There is no certainty in that shoulder at this point, his stuff is down, and he’s one pitch away from never playing again.
Here’s my problem with Sabathia:
Short-term I want him (the remaining years of his contract), long-term I don’t (2016-18/19.) He’s already 31 and just too heavy to make me think he can be healthy and productive well into his late thirites. Add to that all the innings he’ll most likely log 2012-15 and I just can’t see him being ace or even #2 like 2016-18/19 and who knows if he’ll be like that in 2014/15. What year could he #3 or worse suck?
Sabathia should be worth the money through 34 or 35, every year after that you pay for because you have no choice. He’s getting re-signed, and it will be for whatever he asks for. I imagine he gets 7 years again, pretty much identical money to his first contract with us.