CC Sabathia's Performance Has Been Historically Good

by Peter Bendix on Sep 29, 2008 1:00 PM EDT Comment 3 comments

CC Sabathia began the 2008 season terribly. After four starts, the large lefty sported a 13.50 ERA through 18 innings, prompting me (and many others) to wonder what’s wrong.

As it turned out, either nothing was wrong, or whatever it was could be easily fixed. Because since those four starts Sabathia has thrown 230 innings – more than most pitchers throw in a full season. And over those 230 innings, Sabathia has been nothing short of incredible. In fact, here is how CC Sabathia’s last 230 innings compares to some of the other best pitching performances since 1996:

Name	Year	IP	ERA	BB	K	HR	BABIP
CC Sabathia	2008	235	1.88	45	237	14	0.285
J. Peavy	2007	223	2.53	68	240	13	0.273
P. Martinez	2000	217	1.74	32	284	17	0.236
P. Martinez	1997	241	1.90	67	305	16	0.258
K. Brown	1996	233	1.89	33	159	8	0.259
G. Maddux	1997	232	2.20	20	177	9	0.280
R. Clemens	1997	264	2.05	68	292	9	0.294

Remember, overall offensive levels are lower this year than in previous years. Also, we obviously can’t give Sabathia a complete mulligan for his awful four starts at the beginning of the season. But that being said, CC’s performance this year has been historically good.

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Peavy? P. Martinez? Brown? Maddux? Clemens?

Never heard of ’em.

by R.J. Anderson on Sep 29, 2008 1:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

C.C.'s N.L. numbers are COMPLETELY overrated

Hey, I give the guy all the credit in the world for what he’s done over the last 10 days, going on short rest three times in pretty much “must win” situations. And he’ll likely throw on short rest at least one more time this year (Thursday).

But has anyone actually taken the time to see who he’s faced since joining the Brewers? He’s made 17 starts and EIGHT of them – nearly half – were against the Pirates, Padres, and Reds. Those are three of the 10 worst teams in the league against left-handed pitching, and three of the 10 worst teams in the league, PERIOD. He threw two games against a playoff team (Chicago Cubs; and I am throwing out his game on Sunday because the Cubs were on total cruise control) and he gave up eight runs in 14 innings. Besides that, he had two quality starts against the Cardinals and Astros. I give him credit for that. But beyond that he was acing teams like the Nationals and Giants, so let’s not get carried away with what Sabathia did with the Brewers.

by Doc's Sports Predictions Guy on Oct 1, 2008 11:04 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The Padres boast nearly a league-average offense, overall.

Although the L/R split is a good one.

BPro’s quality of batters faced report puts Sabathia’s opponents at .710, third easiest for pitchers with at least 90 NL innings, fyi. Tim Redding is far and away the leader at .758, .013 points ahead of the second-toughest opponents. Average looks to be about .730 or .735. .025 points of OPS easier than average is about .030 points of ERA.

http://baseballprospectus.com/statistics/sortable/index.php?cid=417742

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Oct 1, 2008 11:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs