Tonight, I'm still trying to fathom how CC Sabathia - a lion of a competitor, a prince of a guy - could devolve into the player who can't even answer the bell in what would likely be his last chance at a World Series. How messed up must he have been in these recent weeks? Dear God, it must have been horrible, the sequence of events that prompts him to walk away from what he was working toward all year - a post-season appearance. It blows your mind. I'm sure we'll learn a lot about CC in the next few days - it is NYC, after all - and I doubt the revelations will be pretty for both Sabathia and the Yankees. It's nice that the franchise is backing him - (we'll see how far they go with that) - but how could things have gotten so bad? This didn't happen overnight.
Close your eyes, and its almost impossible to imagine the 2015 Yankees winning the World Series. It's easier to imagine dolphins rising from the oceans to demand an end to casino gambling. Of course, yes, anything can happen. All you need is a dollar and a dream. They must win tomorrow, then get really hot and really lucky, and that's the beauty of hope: You can always find some. But these Yankees have now gone through one of the ugliest collapses in their history: A sickening end-of-season losing streak that nearly cost them the wild card. Now, they go into October with the bare shell of a staff. Even if their pitchers perform heroics, they're not going to last three and a half weeks.
It's as if the entire year has been a cruel joke by Chris Capuano. He's been DFA'ed multiple times, always returned for one last chance - and then he'd crap the bed again. Yet if the Yankees make the ALCS, we might actually see him again. Can you believe it?
OK... we have Tanaka tomorrow. He was a gamer in Japan. Let's hope he throws a shutout, because we won't score on Dallas Keuchel. Let's say we win. Then we go to KC with a rotation of Severino, Pineda and either Adam Warren or - ugh - Ivan Nova. We will expect Betances and Miller both to pitch two innings per game. And if somehow we beat KC - it's only a five game shot - we face Toronto/Texas over seven. And then the World Series. How many times can Tanaka pitch, especially with a bad hamstring? How many more innings should Severino pitch? How do you figure this team winning it?
Well, you don't. And when it's over - and it ain't 'till it is, somebody said - the 2015 Yankees are going to be remembered for trials and tribulations - and for one ultimate question: How things could have gotten this way?
CC's pretty sick. Obviously -- maybe not obviously but more like my skeptical side guesses -- that ol'CC went a little too far, probably on the family side, maybe made a spectacle of himself in public or behaved in a threatening manner, and his wife said, "Whoa, Dude, you gotta get your shit straight because, otherwise, I'm taking my portion of your many millions and your children. And you can go live down at the YMCA or in that saloon with those skanky girls that you like to hang out with."
ReplyDeleteAnd CC, who comes off as a very decent man, said he was so sorry: "but there's this little problem with that sports car I wrapped around a tree last night, and I think the sheriff is coming, but if I run to rehab right now maybe they'll be nicer to me. As for the girl who was in the car, well, she should have known better than to be hanging out with the likes of me." That last part might be a reach since if there was a car accident we probably would have heard about it by now.)
Now, there's a million different ways this thing could have gone that good ol'CC got himself into such hot water that he needed to enlist with Dr. Drew immediately, but one way or another he got himself into such a pile of trouble that rehab was the only partial solution they could come up with.
And now we have two decent starting pitchers. Fortunately, we got the other CC, and he's due for a couple of good innings before he gets DFA'd -- permanently, I hope.
I'm sorry if that last post is less than sympathetic, but if your job description is to help your team reach the world series and win it, then it's hard for me not to think that you;re in pretty rough shape if you have to bow out just as the season is turning into an elimination tournament.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to CC, but geez, this hurts the team quite a bit.
On the bright side, I will probably get to shave this mustache off pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteUNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE.....FIRST WE LOSE TEX...THEN WE LOSE YOGI...NOW WE LOSE CC...WTF??? GOD DAMMIT!..WE ARE GOING TO WIN THIS BULLSHIT TOMORROW, AND SLAP THE SHIT OUT OF THE ROYALS (ACTUALLY, I THINK WE CAN BEAT K.C)...IT'S AFTER THEM THAT PRESENTS A PROBLEM, BUT LETS TAKE IT ONE AT A TIME!...TANAKA TIME!..LETS GO!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat's hard to understand is that the Yankees addressed CC's health issues, specifically his inability to get his weight down. His diet was scrutinized. Now, if a guy is pounding those cervezas, he's going to put on weight and raise his blood sugar. Maybe CC had a more refined palate and preferred expensive scotch. But heavy drinking, especially alcoholic drinking, is betrayed by more than a few physical symptoms. The good news: if he gets into recovery his health will improve and that may make him a better pitcher. That's not just my opinion. That's Ryne Duren's take on his own alcoholic baseball career. If you don't know who Ryne Duren was, kids, look him up.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, guys. I'm taking Chris Capuano's spot in the bullpen. Yeah, Nick Swisher has a better ERA, but I'm not afraid to throw inside to left-handed hitters. Check me out tomorrow night, warming up with Mariano's weights.
ReplyDeleteWe're not playing Minnesota? Oh dear.
ReplyDeleteNow I wonder about that incident outside a bar in Toronto.......should everyone taken that more seriously. When I first heard this on the Michael Kay Show, I thought that it had something to do with CC smoking "something" on the balcony recently.
ReplyDeleteThe Yankees have the habit of keeping any bad news quiet. Cashman, and his pet Girardi, tend to be less than truthful with negativity.
BTW. I am U of P Anonymous.
Did you ever try to pitch with a bad hangover? I have problems sometimes just answering the phone.
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