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Yankees Editorial: The Yankees Are Failing CC Sabathia

By Lionel Olivo

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If New York Yankees former ace CC Sabathia is failing the team through his 5.45 ERA and 0-5 record, then the team is also failing Sabathia through the meager 13 runs they’ve scored this season when he is pitching for them. On average, they produce 5.03 runs for anyone whose name is not Sabathia.

As of late, everyone who has heard of CC Sabathia’s performance is calling for his head. However, baseball is a team sport. The offense can’t win without the defense and vice-versa. Unfortunately for the Yankees, its former ace hasn’t been able to regain the dominance of years past. His lack of pizazz on the mound is aggravated by the fact the almost every time he toes the pitching rubber, the offense takes the day off.

The Yankees abandon Sabathia every time he toes the rubber

It’s not that they don’t hit, it’s the fact that they struggle mightily to push runs across the plate while he is on the mound. An apt example of that occurred on May 1st, when he held the Boston Red Sox to two runs over 6 innings. The Yankees ended up winning the game on Alex Rodriguez’s 660th home run during the 8th, but by then, Sabathia had already left the game.

Another example of Sabathia’s misfortunes can be seen in Chase Whitley. Whitley, who has only started two games for the team, has already surpassed Sabathia in average run support (2.5) and in wins (1). He earned his first victory in April 28 against the Tampa Bay Rays,with a boost from the team offense. That day the Bronx Bombers produced 4 runs for him. In contrast, Sabathia has yet to have more than 3 runs in games he starts and hasn’t won a game, yet.

The run support issue is so severe for him that there are only 6 pitchers in the majors that have received less support than he does. They are Cole Hamels, Jeremy Hellickson, Jered Weaver, Jake Odorizzi and Johnny Cueto.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi has even gone on record confirming that Sabathia’s record doesn’t reflect that he’s pitching bad. “He’s pitched well enough to win, two or three games,” he said. “We just haven’t scored a lot of runs.”

Even though his manager accepts that he hasn’t being pitching bad, Sabathia knows that his game is not where it should be. “I’m just good enough to lose right now. I’ll keep going. I’ll keep pushing and try to help this team win,” he said after his latest loss to the Blue Jays on May 6th (5-1). For the record, the Yankees scored only one run on this losing effort.

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