Yankees: Does CC Sabathia Have A Hall of Fame “LegaCCy”?
A Case for CC Sabathia to the HOF (2/5)
Yankees LHP CC Sabathia never had a year where he was indisputably the best pitcher in the game (though you can make an argument that his 2008 season outdid the three other pitchers who have legitimate cases for that year). What he was, was an elite starter who consistently gave you top-tier production.
He was in the top-four in his respective league in innings pitched each year from 2007-11. His K/9 had him in the top-nine in the AL eight different times. His FIP and ERA+ were each in the top-10 eight different times.
You may not be able to pinpoint a specific season wherein Sabathia absolutely dominated the league. That being said, if you take his body of work from the approximate middle-third of his career (2006-11), the separation becomes more apparent.
According to Fangraphs, 15 starters in that period of time posted a WAR between 20-32. Two stood head-and-shoulders above them: Roy Halladay and CC Sabathia.
As I mentioned before, Sabathia was never an elite strikeout machine. He did the basics, he just did them better than practically anyone else. He was ninth among qualifiers (204 starters) in WHIP, allowing just 1.16 baserunners per inning. It sounds dumb simple, and that’s because it really is.
His fastball was a top-20 velocity in the game, and his two other pitches moved so vastly different from his fastball and at such different speeds that the level of filth with which he was able to give batters fits on a consistent basis. According to Brooks Baseball, Sabathia would regularly be able to release all three of his main pitches somewhere between 6-6.5’ in the air.
His velocity separation would disrupt hitters’ timing. A four-seam was typically coming at 94.6-95.2 MPH. He would deliver his changeup anywhere between 86.7-87.6 MPH. His sliders were offered up at 81.2-83.2 MPH. He had about 7-9 MPH (10.3-13.2 ft/s) differentiation between his fastball and changeup, and 11-14 MPH (16.1-20.5 ft/s) split between the heater and his breaking ball.
This doesn’t sound like much, but when the ball is only going about 55 feet, it gives the batter a fraction of a second to determine whether to swing at one of three pitches that all look the same, but the timing discrepancy between which can vary anywhere from 0.187 seconds to double that at 0.374.
We also must give credit to Sabathia in the postseason, particularly his 2009 statistics in the Yankees’ last title run. He pitched at least 6.2 innings each time out, combined for a 1.98 ERA in his five starts, and played a pivotal role in the Yankees winning game four in order to take a 3-1 lead in the series despite pitching on only three days’ rest.