"Now, what is this site about, how Joe Torre ruined pitchers' arms? Is that it?"
-Michael Kay, August 18, 2009

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Sabathia ready to tackle N.Y. pressure

Here are some quotes from CC Sabathia via Jeff Latzke before Sabathia received the Warren Spahn Award (baseball's top left-handed pitcher).

“If you ask anybody in my family or anybody that knows me, I don’t think there’s any outside pressure that could be put on me that I don’t put on myself,” Sabathia said Saturday night before being honored with the Warren Spahn Award. “I put an enormous amount of pressure on myself to go out there and perform and expect to win every game, expect to pitch well in every game.

“I think having the guys in New York—the A-Rods and the Jeters and these great players, and Tex—I think it will help me be a better player.”
...

“All I’m going to say is I’m excited to be on a big-market team and to be able to get where we need to win and know that the organization’s going to do that every year, year in and year out,” Sabathia said. “That feels good.”
I love this guy already. I can't wait to watch him pitch this spring.

Update - 11:55 p.m.: I can't believe I missed this earlier. Thanks to Rebecca for bringing this to my attention:
Before Saturday night’s ceremony, he said he’s looking forward to having Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera there to close out games for him, and he’s already talked to Chamberlain about it.

“To have that bullpen and have just the support of that team, that team is unbelievable,” Sabathia said. “To add me and A.J and put Tex in that lineup, I think it’s going to be an unbelievable team. Hopefully we have a special year.”
Joba won't be in the bullpen, Carsten Charles.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm a more than a little confused about the comment implying that Joba will be in the pen.

Andrew Fletcher said...

Yeah, that was bizarre if anything. I don't know what to make of it.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully it's a sign of things to come. They HAVE to get Joba into that pen. I know how you feel about this Fletch but Joba-MO as a 1-2 punch in the bullpen would be DEVASTATING.

It's something that Francesa and I completely agree on.

Rich said...

A devastating waste of talent.

Anonymous said...

Joba is still going to be on a strict innings limit this season. Even skipping the 5th starter slot every once in a while, he should approach his limit by the begining of September at the latest. As he gets closer, he will be moved into the bullpen for the last month of the season and *hopefully* the playoffs.

This is exactly what I said the team needed to do with him at the outset of last season, and we saw what happens when you try to stretch out a young arm midseason in the big leagues.. even if he wasn't hurt at the end of last year, his arm was fatigued. This year, he will have built himself up to full strength the right way and will be able to conserve himself by limiting his effort to one or two innings late in the year.

Clearly CC was refering to games one, four and seven of the World Series where he expects Joba and Mo to be there closing it out for him.

Andrew Fletcher said...

I can't see them moving him into the bullpen unless he absolutely has to. I think one of the contributing factors to his injury was the team toying with his role.

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