CC Sabathia puts himself out there
New York Yankees' CC Sabathia, No. 52, enters the game in the fourth inning of ALDS Game 5 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. (Oct. 6, 2011) Credit: John Dunn
If I didn't love Twitter enough already - it's been well over two years now; I think this relationship has legs - then it proved itself all over again yesterday.
As you can see from this Newsday story, CC Sabathia and his wife Amber responded to my feature on the Sabathias by tweeting their love for New York. Many of the Sabathias' tweeps responded - some with support, others not so much.
If nothing else, by professing how much they enjoy New York, the Sabathias provided bulletin-board material should the upcoming negotiations for extension turn sour and the big lefty heads elsewhere.
I'm not surprised, though. I believe that the Sabathias have every intention of staying with the Yankees. They have their plans for the PitCCh In Foundation mapped out for years to come. Jon Heyman reported earlier this year that Sabathia, thinking ahead, pitched his old Brewers buddy Prince Fielder - the impending free agent - on the merits of the Yankees.
(Oh, and by the way, Fielder's Brewers defeated St. Louis in NLCS Game 1 yesterday.)
That doesn't mean that Sabathia and his representatives will kowtow to the Yankees; it is a business, as Amber Sabathia said in my story, and CC Sabathia has considerable leverage here.
As for the widespread discussion point that Sabathia had a bad second half? Eh. Check out his splits. Not as bad as advertised. Look at his game log, too. He had a handful of bad starts in the second half. Basically, in the second half, he fell short of matching his brilliant first half.
We'll see where the next month or more takes the Yankees and Sabathia. But if nothing else, Sabathia and his family score some points for public-relations boldness. They're took on some unnecessary risk yesterday. My bet, again, is they'll be rewarded with a new deal.
