Daily Archives: December 10, 2008

As an admitted (but not recovering) math geek, I decided to take a look at just what the Yankees would be getting for their investment in C.C. Sabathia.

Based on his seasonal averages to date, and assuming Sabathia stays for all seven seasons, here’s the breakdown (hmm …. perhaps I could have chosen a different word there … oh well).

Annual average salary: $23,000,000
Per win (based on 15 per year): $1,533,333.33
Per game (based on 34 per year): $676,470.59
Per inning pitched (based on 222 per year):$103,603.60
Per strikeout (based on 186 per year): $123,655.91
Per batter faced (based on 27.15 per game): $24,918.74
Per pitch thrown (based on 99.4 per game): $6,808.40

Just because I think the Yankees need Mark Teixeira more than they need CC Sabathia doesn’t mean I’m not thrilled that the Yankees have landed the big lefty. CC Sabathia is, in my opinion, the best pitcher in baseball. He’s 28 years old, left-handed, a work horse who can give you 240 innings a year, and he’s only gotten better throughout his career. I’m not concerned about his weight. I’m not concerned about his workloads. And I’m not concerned about the length of the seven-year, $161 million contract the Yankees just gave him. He’s an ace, a horse, and the thought of having him and Joba Chamberlain as a pair of opposite-armed aces atop the Yankee rotation well into the next decade give me goosebumps.

Here are a few things to like about Sabathia.

• Though he was just 17 when taken by the Indians with the 20th overall pick in the 1998 amateur draft and started 33 games in the major leagues as a 20-year-old rookie, the Indians were careful about his workloads through his age 25 season, extending him past 200 innings just once in his first six major league seasons and rarely allowing him to throw more than 120 pitches in a start (and never as many as 130).
• Though scouts have always griped about his weight, Sabathia’s only DL stay resulted from a groin strain early in the 2006 season. He missed a month, threw eight shutout innings in his second start after returning, and didn’t have any reoccurrences.
• Sabathia’s walk rate declined every year from 2004 to 2007. The only reason it didn’t go down again in 2008 was that he set an impossibly low standard in 2007 by walking a mere 1.38 men per nine innings.
• Sabathia’s strikeout rate increased every year from 2002 to 2006 and he set a new career high by striking out 8.93 men per nine innings in 2008.
• Something of a fly ball pitcher in his early twenties, Sabathia has a 1.41 GB/FB rate over the past four seasons.

(more…)

Picking up on the big news of the day, SI.com’s Jon Heyman reports that C.C. Sabathia is about to sign with the Yankees.   Over at Fox, Ken Rosenthal says the deal is for seven years, $160 million.

Yowza. 

Man, I was looking for George Clinton’s “Chocolate City” on You Tube but it wasn’t available.  And to think I’ve been waiting on that one for weeks.  Dag.

This will have to do:

Juan Carlos was ready for the meeting at 5:30 a.m. Coffee was brewed and donuts were lined up neatly on the stainless-steel counter.

The Bronx’s top baseball minds not at the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas – Javier from Walton Avenue, Fat Paulie from Gerard Avenue, Reggie from Mott Haven and Jon from High Bridge – would soon arrive to discuss the Yankees and CC Sabathia.

“Baseball is big business for me,” said Juan Carlos as he finished readying his cart. “They can’t do their meetings without my coffee and donuts.

“Once they went on so long that I had to send a kid to Twin Donuts for more,” he continued. “That was one of their marathon sessions last year when they were determined to keep Phil Hughes in pinstripes. They haven’t gone to those lengths yet this winter.”

Juan Carlos expects that to change today.

“The talk should really heat up,” he said. “Brian Cashman may be wrapping up a deal with CC on the other side of the country, but these guys are going to have their say in the Bronx.

“I can see another marathon session coming,” Juan Carlos continued. “This time I might need to add a lunch menu and possibly even dinner.”

Juan Carlos laughed and said:

“I could probably just send that kid back to Twin Donuts. These guys would eat donuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner if the baseball talk was good enough.”

CC certainly makes it good enough.

Powered by the great guitarwork of blues/jazzman Melvin Taylor, here’s the news:

• Late-breaking news …. (7:06 this morning): Joel Sherman of the Post is reporting the Sabathia has accepted the Yankees offer.  I’m sure we’ll see about the validity of this article throughout the day.
• I sprained my Ankiel tripping over this news: the Post’s Joel Sherman blogs that the Yanks have expressed some interest in the Cards’ Rick Ankiel, and mentions that the Cards like Ian Kennedy.
• Lifestyles of the rich and famous Yankees: Tyler Kepner of the Times writes of the diligence shown by C.C. Sabathia in asking all sort of “living in NYC” questions during his talks with the Yankees.  Sabathia (the person) impressed Brian Cashman:

“I walked out of there saying to myself, ‘That’s exactly the type of person I thought he was from afar,’ ” Cashman said. “Now I get a chance to meet him up close and get a sense of the person. He’s a quality guy. Whether he picks us or doesn’t pick us, I think he’s going through this process with genuine, sincere effort to make the best decision for himself and his family, simple as that.

“We’re not being played, we’re not being manipulated, we’re not being used. I just think that he’s making an informed decision.”

• Cashman goes to San Fran for the night (but it wasn’t for a Jeter/A-Rod type of sleepover): Newsday reports that Brian Cashman had a third meeting with Sabathia last evening in San Francisco:

The Yankees have renewed optimism about their chances of signing CC Sabathia after general manager Brian Cashman met with Sabathia for a third consecutive day. Last night’s meeting was a last-minute affair for which Cashman jetted to San Francisco for the evening, multiple sources told Newsday.

Earlier in the day, a Yankees official told Newsday “things are going in the right direction” with Sabathia. That became quite apparent once Cashman canceled his planned daily meeting with the New York media. Media relations director Jason Zillo explained in an e-mail: “Brian is off hotel property and unavailable for the rest of the evening. This was not scheduled and he/we apologize for the inconvenience.”

Cashman is believed to have gone alone to the San Francisco area, where Sabathia lives, as manager Joe Girardi was seen at the Bellagio later yesterday.

• Not Right Said Ned: MLB.com notes that Dodger GM Ned Colletti clarified what C.C. Sabathia supposedly said to him about wanting to pitch for L.A.:

Colletti clarified his chance meeting with Sabathia in the Bellagio Casino on Sunday night, on the eve of the four-day Winter Meetings, saying it wasn’t Sabathia who said he wanted to play for the Dodgers but that “he’s told us in other ways, not directly to me.”

• In that same article, its noted that the Dodgers consider Sabathia “special”:

Even more intriguing, Colletti revealed that Sabathia is the kind of pitcher for which the Dodgers might relax their unwritten rule limiting contracts for pitchers to three years, although the club hasn’t decided how far it might go for him.

“We’ve tried to stay short, three or less, but in special circumstances it might be more depending on the age, the health history, like that,” said Colletti. “He would be worth a consideration.”

• ESPN reports that the Giants also met with Sabathia Monday night, and would meet again after the Meetings.
• Lowe spark of high-payroll boys: MLB.com notes that the Yanks and Phils are now the two leading pursuers of Derek Lowe.

(more…)