Like my brother, I thought for sure that CC Sabathia would suck this postseason with the Yankees just like he did with the Indians and Brewers previously.
So far, we’ve been wrong.
The thought that I’m sure went through the minds of plenty of Clevelanders - regrettably, myself included - was that CC’s turnaround has something to do with him getting out of Northeast Ohio. The culture of losing, if you will, a curse maybe, or even karma is the culprit.
Of course, that would mean Milwaukee has all of these problems, too.
But instead of subscribing to an opinion akin to witchcraft, I thought I should look into how many innings CC threw in the 2007 regular season. In 2008, the general consensus (which I’m always cautious of) was that the Brewers over-used Sabathia down the stretch, leaving him exhausted and ineffective for his one playoff start, which he bombed out on.
Having said that, Sabathia did throw a complete game on the final day of the 2008 season, giving up one run with 7 SO’s and 1 BB - that he magically crossed the threshold between exhausted and capably tired when the regular season became the postseason seems questionable…however, it was also CC’s fourth straight start on three days rest!
In 2008, Sabathia threw 253 innings for the Brewers and Indians combined. In 2007, he pitched 241 innings for the Indians. This year for the Yankees, CC’s innings count ended up at 230.
So the discrepancy between all three seasons may not be huge - but what’s massive (besides CC himself) is the leap Sabathia made between 2006 and 2007.
CC’s innings pitched in 2006: 192.2
For those without a calculator, that means the Indians increased his workload by 48.1 innings!
Further, CC had only pitched more than 200 innings one other time in his career up until 2007, in his second season with the Tribe, when he threw 210 innings. In other words, there was no real precedent for him to be used so extensively.
Thankfully, at least, the Indians never used CC on three days rest in 2007. And his last three starts - one of which came after the team clinched the division on September 23 - were only 7 inning efforts, so it’s hard to be overly critical of how they used him down the stretch.
Still, there’s certainly reason to wonder what made manager Eric Wedge and pitching coach Carl Willis think that Sabathia wouldn’t be worn down in the postseason when they chose to up his workload 25% between 2006 and 2007. Certainly, it’s a debatable decision.
We can thank Willis and Wedge for one thing though - at least now we don’t have to act like CC’s failure in the Indians postseason was the result of some kind of ridiculous Cleveland curse. Their questionable management of him gives us one other possible, and highly plausible, reason.
