Klapisch: CC Sabathia’s new mantra for Yanks is killing ’em softly
TAMPA, Fla. – There are still mornings when CC Sabathia wakes up and wonders if this is the day the fates finally restore his fastball to its old power and glory. Nothing feels better to the Yankees’ left-hander than remembering the early-to-mid 2000s, when he could generate swings-and-misses whenever the need arose. All it took was a deep breath. Hitters weren’t just wary of Sabathia — they dreaded stepping into the box against a 6-foot-7 giant who lit up the radar at 97 mph and created the illusion of throwing downhill.
It’s not easy letting go of a past so rich, but little by little Sabathia says he’s tamping down the memories. He knows it’s the only path to success in the final third of his career, realizing that the fastball – that wonderful, blistering, nuclear four-seamer – is never coming back.
“It is what it is, you know?” Sabathia was saying Friday morning. “I’ll go in and do my work [with the trainers] and hopefully it comes back. If not, I’ll pitch with it.”
Sabathia makes this concession in a casual, matter-of-fact way, like a man no longer in denial. He threw live batting practice with several other pitchers, including Masahiro Tanaka, but, as expected, there were no sudden changes in velocity.
Instead, Sabathia focused on maintaining a high three-quarters arm-angle, throwing strikes at the knees and otherwise making sure his delivery was as neat and compact as he could, given his size. Like Sabathia, the Yankees have stopped wishing for the impossible and instead project their ace to be more like Andy Pettitte than, say, Randy Johnson, at least if he intends to hold onto his title as the Yankees’ No. 1.
And make no mistake: For all the attention being paid to Tanaka in camp this week and with it, the predictions he’s destined to become the team’s next superstar, Sabathia still considers himself the rock of the Bombers’ rotation.
“I feel like I set the tone” Sabathia said, even if balancing that responsibility with diminished stuff is no minor exercise. Sabathia is convinced he cost the Yankees a chance at the postseason in 2013 with a career-worst 4.78 ERA and 28 home runs allowed.
What went wrong? The radar gun told a story even more damning, as Sabathia’s fastball dropped to an average of 91.1 — a full 3 mph slower than in 2009, and off from its peak of 94.7 in 2005. The culprit? No secret here, either. Sabathia is suffering from the corrosive effects of 2,775 innings, which, as the New York Post recently noted, are the most of any pitcher except for Greg Maddux through his age-32 season in the post DH era.
Sabathia has tried everything to step into a personal time tunnel, including a dramatic weight loss that left him weak and gaunt-looking in 2013. When he realized dropping 25 pounds made no difference to the radar gun he panicked, overaccelerating his arm in an attempt to recover those precious miles per hour.
Sabathia learned his lesson the hard way and is now practicing late-career discipline and restraint. When he says, “I’m trying not to overthrow” it means emulating Pettitte’s passive approach. That is, redirecting a hitter’s aggressiveness much the way a matador tames the raging bull – letting the beast exhaust itself first.
Unlike most pitchers, who dread falling behind in the count, Pettitte was always the one in control in a jam. He’d deliver a perfect change-up, down and away, at 2-0 and 2-1, counting on the hitter to overswing. They did so often Pettitte found himself welcoming those unfavorable counts. “It forced me to be smarter and make the better pitch,” he said last summer. Sabathia was paying attention, too. “Andy was so good at outthinking hitters that it made me realize you don’t have to throw 95 mph to be successful,” he said. “It’s why I feel good about this season, because my arm is fine.” If Sabathia is right – if his slider and change-up can replace his fastball as his out pitches – then the Yankees will be one step closer to solving their rotation issues. They had their first helping of Tanaka’s splitter on Friday and were impressed – Austin Romine, who batted against the Japanese right-hander said, “I’ve never seen anything like that before. You’re going to see a lot of guys swinging, looking like fools on that pitch.” Tanaka’s blemish, if it even exists, is how similarly he and Hiroki Kuroda deliver the ball. The two foreign pitchers have the same pause in their windups, a near-identical leg kick and a heavy reliance on the splitter. It would only make sense to separate Kuroda and Tanaka in the rotation so as not to allow opposing lineups a chance to adapt to the Japanese pitching styles. Theoretically, the best solution would make Kuroda the opening day starter in Houston on April 1, allow Sabathia to start the second game and give Tanaka the third. But let’s get real: that’s heresy. Sabathia as the No. 2 man? Not now. Maybe not ever. Not while Sabathia is perfecting a new, Eastern philosophy on the mound, which is to say, he promises to kill ’em softly from now on. – See more at:
SD Yankee Report 