Debunking the "CC's Velocity Is Down" Myth

I saw a few places yesterday that played up the myth that Sabathia's velocity was down on Monday and that coupled with the use of a heating pad on a cold day it must mean that he is injured.

This story from today's Daily News continues to play up this folly. Fortunately we have fangraphs.com, a brilliant site that provides actual research and statistics to back claims that they make (imagine that!). In the humorously titled article "Sabathia Does Noth Throw No Hitter; Yankees Season Over" that was posted yesterday, author R.J. Anderson cites the actual data and shows that Sabathia's average fastball was a tad over 93 mph, while he dialed it up as high as 95 at one point. More importantly Anderson shows us that over the past three seasons Sabathia's average fastballs were 93.7, 92.9, and 93.7. All of which indicates that his poor outing on Monday had nothing to do with decreased velocity.

In a perfect world journalists, the people who get paid to report news to us, would use actual facts to report the news, rather than write articles that can match titles that are meant to alarm readers and sell papers. I know, it's a really revolutionary concept.

-Brian

CHOKERS?!?!

CC, Teixeira Gag in Yanks Debuts, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira fail to live up to the hype in Yanks debuts...

These are just two of the national headlines that I saw today.  The first one courtesy of espn.com, the latter courtesy of cnnsi.com.  Seriously?!?!  It's funny because the NY media gets a rap for "the sky is falling" type of coverage when it comes to local baseball.  Yet a quick check of national headlines this morning shows that they aren't much better.

Anyway, I am not worried.  Just a reminder, Sabathia was 1-5 on May 3rd last year.  He went on to become the best pitcher in baseball.  Teixeira, a notorious slow starter, went 0-4 with 5 runners stranded.  You know what?  That's probably not the last time he'll do that this year either.  But more often he is going to wear down pitchers with long counts, draw walks, and give the Yankees the best switch hitter they have had in a while.  So everybody should calm down.  There are 161 games left.

That being said, there were some things that should be cause for alarm, or at least concern:

1. Brian Bruney couldn't throw strikes.  This may have been the most disconcerting thing of the day for me.  Sabathia couldn't throw strikes, but he has a long track record of success.  Bruney, who we are leaning heavily on, has a track record of overthrowing.  The poorer Bruney performs, the more we will hear the shrieks of "WE NEED JOBA IN THE PEN!!!!" 
2. Cody Ransom makes a key error on a double play ball in the 5th and we get no outs out of it.  Then he goes 0-3.  If this guy isn't gonna hit then maybe people will start to realize it's actually an advantage to have a third baseman who has hit  .306/.389/.578 over parts of 15 seasons.
3. Xavier Nady, our 4th best outfielder, as the starting rightfielder (sorry I just can't help bringing this up continually).

Now, hopefully tomorrow Wang will throw 8 innings of 1 run ball, filled with ground balls hit right at Derek Jeter (wink, wink), Swish will get a start and contribute to a5-1 Yankees win...

-Brian

Opening Day

Headed to the top of the 8th right now, Yanks trail 6-5. A few observations so far...

• Obviously a subpar outing by CC... I'm not even slightly worried.
• Impressive work by Albaladejo and Coke.  The more quality innings this bullpen throws up, the less of the ridiculous "Joba should be in the bullpen" arguments we should hear.
•  Cody Ransom's error in the 5th was almost as unimpressive as his 0-3.
• Nady hurt us twice...on the bases and his inning ending DP in the 7th.
• Swish Nicker...clutch pinch hit double...and shows some fire...gotta love it.  Too bad Girardi would rather play the lesser rightfielder.

Updated...

Yankees lose 10-5 after bullpen implodes.  Scratch my hoping that the Joba to the pen rhetoric will end.  Brian Bruney did his best to summon the ghost of Kyle Farnsworth with his .1 IP 1 H 2 BB and 2 R line.  He actually threw a Farnsworthian 9 balls and only 8 strikes.  I get the feeling that by game 162 Mark Melancon and Coke will replace Bruney and Damaso Marte as the top lefty and righty in the pen (not counting Mo of course).

It makes no sense to get crazy over 1 game.  But I will say that we can't afford a repeat of the last few years when we wallow around the .500 mark for most of the first half.  That's a sure way to guarantee that we are out of the race by July.  It's imperative that this team gets out of the gates quicker.  Although Wednesday is far from a must win, it is important that Wang rights the ship and gets us in the 'W' column.

-Brian