CC Sabathia bears less responsibility for the Yankees’ Subway Series debacle than anyone on the roster, considering his role against the Mets was spectator.
Yet, he just might be the most troubling Yankee at the one-third pole.
Consider the wording. Sabathia is not the Yankees’ biggest problem. In fact, even this version remains a good major league pitcher. But he is their greatest concern because it is difficult to envision how the Yankees rise to championship levels in 2013 and the near future if Sabathia is in an irreversible fade.
For even with Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis due back today, the Yankees will be nothing special as an offensive team, certainly nothing like their recent past when they could just pulverize their way through swaths of the schedule. No, for the Yankees to be a 90-plus win contender they probably have to be among the best pitching teams in the sport.
And how do they do that over 162 games with Sabathia pitching more like a No. 3-4 starter than No. 1-2?
Say we concede Hiroki Kuroda will stay an ace. Then what? How many starts can the Yankees realistically expect now from the suddenly brittle Andy Pettitte? Michael Pineda is a wild card, but a wild card as likely to pitch to a five-something ERA as a three-something after needing shoulder surgery and missing more than a year.
Phil Hughes, David Phelps, Ivan Nova and Vidal Nuno are back-end filler.
What would elevate the Yankees is having Sabathia replicating his prime — or at least coming close to that. But he goes into tonight’s series-opening start against the Red Sox with a 4-4 record and 3.96 ERA. His fastball average has fallen to 90 mph — down nearly 2 1/2 mph from last season and 4 1/2 from his 2009 Yankees debut. That is still enough to be effective, but is it enough to be a force?
Yankees officials keep talking about Sabathia rediscovering some heat as the season progresses. But that might be more wishful thinking than logic. And without the high-end fastball, Sabathia is striking out a tick less than his career norm, struggling more against lefties and giving up a greater frequency of flyballs, resulting in more hits and more homers. In five winless May starts, Sabathia had a .302 batting average against and an .825 OPS against.
The most obvious reason for Sabathia’s dimmed velocity is the compilation of innings, including now five straight postseasons. There is no way to unwind that odometer and we have seen his workhorse contemporaries, Roy Halladay and Johan Santana, break down (perhaps for good) this year.
So you wonder what this means for the future, too, since Sabathia is signed through 2016 with an option that likely vests for 2017 unless he has a debilitating left shoulder ailment. The Yankees hoped by 2014 that at least two from Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances and Pineda had made it easier to transition Sabathia down the rotation. But Betances is no longer a starter, Banuelos is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and Pineda is a mystery. Meanwhile, Kuroda, Pettitte and Hughes are free agents after this season.
Thus, you see why the Yankees need more than just a good Sabathia — now and in the near future. The Yankees derailed in the Subway Series without him and — more importantly — cannot make it to their desired final stop if more of his prime does not return.
Coach Cano offers tips to Brignac
When he was with Tampa Bay, Reid Brignac used to come out early to watch Robinson Cano go through his pre-batting practice routine. Cano regularly does a drill in which a hitting net is placed at the midpoint of home plate. The concept is it stresses staying short to the ball to pull with authority — or else your bat will strike the net.
You can understand why even a major leaguer might come out early to watch it because when Cano is in a flow he will launch one ball beyond the right-field wall after another, finding a rhythm probably somewhat akin to Ray Allen drilling one 3-pointer after another in practice.
Brignac tried to do the drill two or three times in Tampa, but yesterday was the first time he did it as a Yankee. And Cano was more than his partner — he was Brignac’s instructor as much as hitting coach Kevin Long, who was firing the underhand pitches.
Cano stopped the drill twice to walk into the cage and offer advice, namely to have Brignac lower his hands to shorten his stroke and to also visualize the pitchers and situations that might make the approach valuable in a game. At one point, he grabbed his bat to demonstrate to Brignac the shorter, quicker arc of his swing.
“As soon as I did what he said the ball just came off the bat differently,” Brignac said. “Robbie is not only a great hitter, but he is a great teammate. I know he has helped a lot of guys. It says a lot about his character that he would reach out to help me. I’m actually honored by it.”
Cano verified he offers counsel quite often because “if I see something wrong, I can’t stay quiet. Same with me, you see something, tell me.”
* If Tim Duncan were a baseball player, he would be Mariano Rivera, and if Rivera were a basketball player, he would be Duncan.
It is in their sustained consistent genius. Their egoless, team-oriented nature. Their durability. Their success in big moments. Their ability to do the difficult athletically with economy, precision and metronome-like repetition. They are low maintenance, high production.
When I mentioned this to Rivera, he smiled and said, “I think you hit the nail on the head.” He was thrilled to be compared with Duncan, saying, “I never hear him speak of himself, only the team and trying to win.” He has never met Duncan, but Rivera said he has admired him from afar and did share a dais years ago at a charity event with David Robinson and was blown away by how glowing Robinson’s reviews were of the selflessness and seriousness of a much younger teammate.
It seems fitting that Duncan — who joined the NBA in 1997, the year Rivera became a full-time closer — will now play for his fifth title, the same amount Rivera has.