Sure, Sabathia's 'W' Over the Sox Was Gutsy, Courageous, Crucial, and Ameliorating, BUT...

...Why Yankee Universe Should Celebrate with Cautious Optimism and What Carsten Charles Needs to Do If He Wants to Beat Boston in October

YES Network commentator Ken Singleton probably summed up C.C. Sabathia's victory over the Red Sox most aptly last night when he noted that the southpaw had "definitely earned this one."

And even that might be an understatement.

The 290-lbs. Yankee ace has been known to perspire rather profusely when on the bump, but Sabathia pushed the term "sweating buckets" to its literal limits Tuesday evening. In six innings of work, C.C. threw a season-high 128 pitches (tied for second-most in his career), while enduring 30 batters, 10 hits, and 2 runs en route to his 18th win of the year. And keep in mind that this was a Yankee-Red Sox game, meaning each plate appearance lasted approximately half an hour.

By the time he recorded his 18th out, the man looked like he had spent five days in a sauna in the attic of a greenhouse in a submarine that was submerged in the river Styx.

Hyperbole? Never that.

Not only did C.C. sweat this one out in the physical sense, but in the metaphorical as well. The Sox had a runner(s) on base in all 6 innings, had a runner(s) in scoring position in 4 of the 6, loaded the bases in the 2nd, left 10 runners on base total, and forced the lefty to throw 78 of those 128 pitches from the stretch. Boston bent him and bent him and bent him, but the big man refused to break.

For the Yankees and their fans, this crack-but-don't-crumble narrative was a pleasant departure from the crack-then-crumble-in-miserable-fashion sequence they had come to expect when Sabathia toed the rubber against the Sox. Entering Tuesday, C.C. was a horrid 0-4 with a 7.20 ERA in four starts vs. Boston. Ouch.

A feared and formidable foe against the rest of the league
in 2011, Sabathia had looked mentally and emotionally
overwhelmed by a relentless Red Sox entering Tuesday

And here's what hurt even more than the ugly stats if you're pro-pinstripes: Boston was IN HIS HEAD. They had psyched out the Yankees' best pitcher. The man looked unsinkable against everyone else in the league, but as soon as he saw that old-English style 'B' and the matching red lettering on the caps and jerseys of the opposing team, that same man capsized harder than the Lusitania (too soon?).

Simply put, Sabathia looked scared of the franchise nemesis. It was in his body language on the mound. It was in the lack of confidence behind his pitches. It was in his fear of coming anywhere near the plate against even the weaker hitters in the Sox lineup.  In fact, you could argue that Boston jarred his mental skeleton so badly in his previous outing (6 IP, 9 H, 7 ER) that it carried over into his next three starts, all of which were subpar by the his standards.

So that brings us to the essential question (and inevitable follow-ups) posed by this article: how encouraged should Yankee Universe be by what they saw in Fenway last night from C.C. Sabathia?  Was this a C.C. that showcased a better attitude, approach, and plan against the Sox, or was Boston just having an off day?  Did we see relative continuity or a clear change?  Was it luck?  Was it courage?  Some other vague adjective?

To begin, I'll have to reference the obvious and the trite for a moment: it's a win.  A huge win.  It was a huge team win for a number of reasons (bounce-back from some bad losses, tone-setter for the rest of an important series, AL East standings implications, and so-on, and so-on).

It was also a huge individual win if nothing else for the fact that it was a win.  Just the sight a '1' on the left side of those '4' losses on the stat sheet was most likely a significant psychological boost.  It's a jolt of momentum in his favor.  It's positive energy he can build off of for the next time they meet, whether that's in late September or late October.  It's video that he can look back to and say, 'Okay, this is what worked when I beat these guys, this is what didn't.'

So from a mental and emotional standpoint, it's a definite sigh of relief.  Thus, the Yankee organization/fan base should feel free to bask in this moment of exhalation right along with him.  Go ahead y'all.  In through the nose, out through the mouth.

Enjoy that?  Good, because here comes the however...

HOWEVER, let's keep in mind that Sabathia labored heavily (128 pitches/buckets of sweat) just to get through six innings yesterday.  In addition, there were plenty of hard hit balls off Boston bats that happened to find Yankee leather, and if Adrian Gonzalez didn't have such a gaping blind spot for Sabathia's slider, things might not have worked out in #52's favor.

Now, while his pitch execution certainly played a role in all of that, I think that it was the pitch selection and his overall approach that led him to struggle as much as he did, despite avoiding the big blow.  So although Sabathia's future attitude and pitch execution against the Red Sox may very well improve thanks to this latest pick-me-up victory, I am not convinced that Sabathia's overall strategy showed marked improvement from his previous starts.  To specify, I noticed three things that I believe Sabathia will have to do if he wants to survive the Sox come playoff time.

1) Dude, where is your change-up? The change-up, the change-up, the change-up. I can't say it enough. It's such a key pitch against any team, but especially when facing a killer offense like that of the Sox.  I might be wrong (and according to Tyler Kepner of the Boston Globe, I am--see paragraph #5), but I'm pretty sure C.C. didn't throw a single change-up last night.  It is the culmination of a disturbing trend in which Sabathia (or whoever is calling his pitches) has upped his slider usage while steadily dropping the dosage on his change-up.  I don't know what doctor wrote you that prescription, but that guy's a quack for sure.

C.C. Sabathia's changeup, a staple of his arsenal earlier
in the season has all but disappeared in recent outings

The absence of that devastating fourth pitch gives opponents a massive advantage for many reasons.  For one, it's one less thing to worry about at the dish, one less thing to clutter the batter's mind.  Sabathia's success is stems primarily from his wide array of pitches, and his ability to mix them, work off of them, and throw all of them for strikes.  It keeps hitters guessing, and second-guessing, and third-guessing themselves, because you know that at any given time, you could see any one of those pitches.

In other words, Sabathia's deadly and varied arsenal disrupts the batter's timing and their comfort-level in the box.  The change-up bolsters the arm-action of the fastball which plays off the depth of the slider which complements the velocity of the curveball.  It's a symbiotic relationship, and when you take the changeup out of the equation, you weaken that balance exponentially and allow the hitter to get that much more comfortable.

One last comment on the change-up or lack thereof...think of this from the lens of the hitter.  When C.C. is on and using all his pitches, the thought is this:  If you see white (cowhide) out of the hand and violent arm-action, it's EITHER a fastball OR a change-up.  If you see a spinning red eye out of the hand (seams), it's a breaking ball.  But if you know that C.C. is not using the change-up, you can simplify your pitch-tracking process into cowhide=fastball, seams=breaking ball.  Much, much easier.

I don't know why the change-up has disappeared from Sabathia's repertoire so rapidly.  Could it possibly be motivated by a handful of bad results? (Kelly Shoppach's homer on 8/13 comes to mind.)  Regardless of the cause, I do know that if C.C. doesn't return to it, and return to it soon, he's going to be hard pressed to beat Boston in the playoffs.

2) You must pitch inside.  Again, this applies to facing any team but especially the Sox.  Boston, maybe more than any other team in the league, loves to hang out over the plate and sit on your junk pitches, waiting to pounce on them.  Kevin Gregg recognized this and delivered the appropriate message to Ortiz in the form of three fastballs inside to David Ortiz (sparking one of the greatest SOT calls by any NESN announcer ever).

I'm not saying that C.C. should go to the lengths that Mr. Gregg did.  Then again, maybe sending a message with a high-hard one earlier in the season when he was getting shellacked wouldn't have been the worst thing.  Regardless, what I'm talking about fall under the category of pitching 101.  You throw inside to open up the other half of the plate.  You don't need to put a guy on his back.  Just fling a fastball on the inner half towards the hip/hands every now and again to let the hitters know that it's YOUR plate and you're just letting them borrow it.  Now instead of hanging out over the dish and sitting on your junk, the hitters have that nasty little memory of the 96-mph fastball that nearly clipped their pelvic bone to deter them.

This is nothing new or alien to major league pitchers, yet it took Sabathia nearly four innings Tuesday to finally muster the nerve to throw anything convincing in towards the batter.  That batter happened to be Jacoby Ellsbury, who flinched as a fastball streaked by his hip flexor.  The next pitch was a fastball on the outside corner he hacked meekly at for strike three.  Well whadaya know.

If C.C. and the Sox dance in October, the Yankee ace will
have to get bold and start throwing more pitches inside and
to contact if he wants his team to repeat the success the
enjoyed in 2009.

Ironically, C.C. is usually a guy who isn't afraid to pitch in tight, at least relative to the average modern pitcher.  Against the Sox though, Sabathia rarely makes batters even slightly uncomfortable, and last night was no exception.  This to me signals that a part of him still has mental issues with Boston, and until he mans up and starts challenging these hitters on the inner half, he'll only be making harder for himself.

3) Don't walk the couple of guys in the order that can't hit.  It's one thing when you try and nibble against Ortiz, Pedroia, and Ellsbury, but when you load the bases because you're trying to throw perfect pitches to the likes of Darnell McDonald, we've got issues.  This one speaks most loudly to the larger confidence issue C.C. is having.  Why are you messing around with sliders in the dirt and fastball six inches off the edge of the plate when you've got a .192 hitter at the dish?  It simply does not compute.  Rear back and let it fly.  Trust your stuff.  Failing to do so is only going to more trouble when the dudes who can really swing the stick come up again.

With all of that said, let me reiterate that C.C. Sabathia pitched one hell of a courageous game Tuesday night.  But there were too many moments in which that timid pitcher emerged. I still saw an ace who was scared of pitching to contact, scared of coming inside with emphasis, and scared of utilizing a pitch he was so dominant with earlier in the year.

Was every bead of sweat was worth it?  Without question.  Do I have concerns that future beads of sweat expended against the Sox won't be?  You bet your overly-baggy baseball pants I do.

Swish is Sent, Youk Rebuked, But Was It the Right Call?

The final vote for the 2010 All-Star Game is in and the fans have given Nick Swisher the edge over Kevin Youkilis for the remaining spot on the A.L. roster by a sliver of a hair.  But is this a fair outcome?  Did the burly, bald, and bearded Beantowner deserve the spot more than the half-crazed West Virginia native?  An objective man debates himself.

BY THE NUMBERS

A wise man once told me that numbers don't lie, so let's begin there.

Batting Average: Advantage Swisher by .006 percentage points.  He also has 89 hits to Youkilis's 83.

Home Runs: Advantage Youkilis by 3.  10 of his 17 boomers have come with men on base, whereas just 6 of Swisher's 14 fence-clearers have brought in more than one.  Nick holds claim to the only multi-homer game between the two.

RBIs: It would follow logically from the previous note that Youkilis would have more RBI and he does, boasting 55 to Swisher's 48.  But one must keep in mind that Swisher has been penciled into the 2-hole for the vast majority of games this year, while Kevin has hit clean-up for the Sox in almost every contest.  This has provided Youkilis with 21 more opportunities with runners-scoring-position than the Yankee outfielder.  Which brings me to the next category...

BA w/RISP: In contrast with my assumption, Youkilis has actually hit far worse with runners-in-scoring-position than has Swisher.  The Bostonian has swatted just 21 hits in these situations for a .259 average, compared to Swisher who has notched 24 for .333.  It is fairly safe to assume that had Swisher been hitting in a deeper spot in the Yankee order, he would have had more opportunites to drive in runs, and would have probably outpaced him in this category.  This is definitely an assumption, but an educated one nonetheless.
It also would behoove me to mention that with 2-outs and RISP, Swisher has banged out an impressive .375 mark.  Youkilis?  A surprisingly low .189 posting.  Claro, es muy interesante.

OPS: Here's the one that I can't figure out.  Swisher has 6 more hits than Youkilis, as we've established, and he also has 18 more walks (69 to 51).  Yet the first baseman's on-base percentage is sits at a reputable .409, besting Swisher's .376 by a healthy margin.  Come again?  Is Youkilis getting beaned by that many more balls?  Really strange.

For slugging percetage, Youkilis is pretty much the given winner here, as he's racked up more homers, more triples (5 to 3), and more doubles (19 to 18) in less at-bats (284 to 299).  Thus, the final OPS comparison reads Youkilis .983, Swisher .895.  Overall, the numbers give the edge to Swisher in terms of understanding of the strike zone and clutch hitting, while Youkilis has the advantage in power, production, and contact.  The numbers don't exactly lie, but they don't exactly give us a clear-cut winner yet either.

DEFENSIVE PRESENCE

Defense is an area where numbers can't really give you the true story, especially when comparing an outfielder to an infielder, so these are tougher waters to drag.  I think most baseball heads would agree that having a strong fielding first baseman is more valuable to any given team than a strong fielding right fielder.  This is based solely on the simple nature of each position.  The fact is that the amount of opportunities a right fielder will get to make significant plays on defense are far lower.  That’s not to say Swisher hasn’t made several excellent and timely plays for the Yanks this season, for he surely has.  But one would be a fool to argue that his glove has been a more integral part of New York’s defensive prowess than the glove of Mark Teixeira, just as it would silly to argue for Swish’s glove over Youkilis.

Now, if Youkilis were an average to below-average first baseman, I’d be making a different case all together.  But Youkilis is far from an average fielder.  His reflexes are top-notch, his digging skills among the best, and his ability to make tricky stretches, catches, and snappy, on-target throws rival just about anyone else’s in the game.  Nick has a solid, accurate arm, but it isn’t particularly outstanding.  He has decent range, but there are many with better.  His most remarkable attribute is the unrestrained way in which he continuously sacrifices his body to make the play.  Bomber enthusiasts have cringed on multiple occasions watching Swisher fly full force into the “padding” on the wall in right, just as they’ve cheered multiple times watching Nick go parallel for the diving snag.  But does this put him above Boston’s boy in this analysis.  Sorry, Swish, but this one goes to baldy for sure.


INTANGIBLES/EXCITEMENT FACTOR

‘Intangibles?’ say(s) the reader(s).  ‘How do you judge something that can’t be measured in any concrete way?’  Fair point, fictitious audience, but that’s not going to stop me from making an attempt at it.  Both these guys are high-IQ players.  Both these guys are hustlers.  Both these guys are ‘ra-ra’ type of individuals who play the game with overt passion.  However, I’d argue that Swisher’s spirit is a bit more relaxed and good-natured than that of Youkilis.  Not that Kevin doesn’t cheer loudly and proudly for his guys when they execute well.  It’s just that when someone’s out there not busting their buttocks, the bald, bearded one is guaranteed to voice his displeasure (think the scuffle he had with Manny).  Swisher on the other hand carries the shake-it-off-dude, you’ll-get-‘em-next-time kind of attitude.  That’s great when things are going good, but when things are rocky, it’s sometimes nice to have a ball-buster on the bench getting in guys ears.  No, Mr. Zambrano, that isn’t a pardon for what you did.  You know why?  ‘Cause you’re overrated and Youkilis can actually play.

So to generalize, Nick keeps the clubhouse loose and the camaraderie level high, but Kevin puts pressure on guys to stay disciplined, focused, and in check.  When it boils down to it though, I’d have to say that Pedroia and Lester are the fundamental inspiration for the Sox clubhouse, while the veteran leadership of Jeter, Pettitte, and Posada are the anchors of the Yankee ship.  Youk and Swish’s intangible contributions are significant, but not as pivotal as certain teammates, so we’ll call that aspect even.

How about the excitement factor?  Both players energize the crowd, and I can say this from the standpoint of someone’s who been witness to several Red Sox and Yankee games.  No other player on the Sox gets the fans into it like Youkilis during the game, if not solely because they all love to chant ‘Yooouuuuk’ whenever he does something positive.  He’s got that scruffy, hard-hat Bostonian swagger about him and you can tell that’s a large factor of his appeal to the Nation.  Yet Swisher too is a very engaging and entertaining player to watch, and has become as much as a team/crowd rouser as anyone else on the Yankee roster.  He plays with his emotions on his sleeve and has shown a genuine appreciation and love for the fans.
This category is simply too close to call.  Both men are valuable to the fabric of the team and they both bring the masses to their feet time and time again.  This one’s a draw.

LIKABILITY

Here’s where my biases are sure to show.  Youkilis used to be the kind of player who kicked, cussed, slammed his helmet, and rearranged the bat rack every time he struck out.  While he has toned that down considerably over the last couple of seasons, his temper surfaces every now and then.  Listen, I get that he’s a competitor and a gamer and a seriously hard-worker and so on, but there’s something downright obnoxious about his antics that tend to repel me more than they compel, to put it nicely.  He also just seems like he’d be a prick in real life, but let me say straight out that it’s based on nothing more than superficial assumption.  Additionally, his face is plastered all over Boston in random, pro-New Englandy advertisements on trains, billboards, and newspapers. Gag.

As I said before, Swisher can be a joy to watch when things are going well, but when he or the team is struggling, he can be extremely frustrating.  He gets that sheepish, clueless look on his face that makes you wonder at times if he’d rather be in the clubhouse lighting up a joint than out in right field.  Also, while I presume that many Yankee fans found the whole “Send Swish” campaign to be funny and captivating, I felt that it was a little over-the-top and gimmicky, especially that inane commercial with him and the surfboard.  Really, Nick?  You’re gonna sink to that level to get to the All-Star Game?  C’mon man, I thought you were less douchey than that.  Yeah, I most everyone in the Bronx would tell me I’m just hatin’, but that lame self-promoting garbage tipped the scales for me.

The final verdict?  My head wants to say Youkilis for the numbers and the defense, but my heart tells me Swisher because I like him better and…well, shoot, I am a Yankee man after all.  Plus Swish went 4-for-4 last night, boosting his average to a shiny .307.  Hook.  Line.  Sinker.