Jared Max: Has CC Sabathia's Age And Size Finally Caught Up To Him?
By Jared Max
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They might be the butt of jokes, but pitchers can succeed despite their extra large cabooses and midsections.
While most who register on obesity charts are unlikely to make careers in professional sports, several top-tiered baseball players since the beginning of time have been candidates to sweat to the oldies with Richard Simmons. Whether it was Babe Ruth or David Wells, Sid Fernandez or Mo Vaughn, Prince Fielder or John Kruk, CC Sabathia or Bartolo Colon, some folks who would be mistaken for fried dough eating champions have defied the odds, using their extra mass to fatten their stats.
While Sabathia was in the midst of getting deep battered and fried in the second inning of his season debut on Thursday against the Blue Jays, I snapped an unflattering photo of the one-time ace starter and posted it on Twitter and Facebook. There was no need for me to comment. It is one of those "pictures worth a thousand words." So, I opened the comments to the public.
While Colon pitched splendidly in his 2015 debut earlier in the week, Sabathia took a bath. Carsten Charles looked like he might have indigested an armload of Charleston Chews before taking the mound against Toronto. He allowed five runs (four earned) in 5 2/3 innings. Supporting a behemoth of a body, CC's Achilles seems the same as in decent times — opposed to his surgically repaired right knee.
As the case has been for the last couple of seasons, Sabathia's pitching lines have been greatly effected by single innings gone awry. On Thursday, during the Blue Jays' second turn to bat, their first four hitters stroked singles. Toronto scored four runs before CC settled down. He went on to strike out eight.
Was the second inning rust? Nerves? A blip? An anomaly? The new norm?
Sabathia sounded optimistic after absorbing his first loss.
"It's something to build on. No walks. Not a lot of good contacts. So I think I threw the ball pretty good. It was just, you know, bad luck," he said.
Was it? Or, is Father Time and a hanging belly catching up to him? When he pitches in Baltimore this Tuesday, will Sabathia give Yankees fans reason to believe he has more heat than fat pitches left?
Not all professional athletes have athletic builds. Big pitchers and chubby hitters are like out-of-shape place kickers. They are the exceptions to the rule.
Do you think Sabathia is done? Or, can he revive his career with the same nine-lives approach that has followed another former Indians ace, ageless Mets right-hander Colon?
Tweet Jared at @jared_max
