Girardi trying to preserve CC's arm, but lefty isn't worried

TAMPA, Fla. - CC Sabathia isn't ready to start talking about arm preservation at this point of his career.

"It's too soon to even think that way,'' Sabathia said Saturday after throwing his first bullpen session of spring training. "I feel like I want to take the ball every time I get an opportunity, so three days' rest, whatever, I feel like I'm good to go, so I'm not worried about saving my arm or not throwing as many innings. I guess you have to use it while you got it.''

Sabathia used plenty of it last season, logging 230 innings in the regular season, then becoming the Yankees' horse in the postseason, pitching 361/3 innings and making two starts on three days' rest.

His left arm has received plenty of use in recent years; he threw 241 innings in 2007 and 253 innings for Cleveland and Milwaukee in 2008. He added a total of 19 postseason innings those two seasons.

Sabathia, however, said his arm didn't feel as if it needed a break when the 2009 season ended.

"I felt pretty good,'' he said. "I've pretty much been doing the same thing the past three or four years, so I felt pretty good. Hadn't pitched as long into the season [into November]; took like three weeks off before I started playing catch again. I can't take too much time off. My arm gets in a funk.''

Manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach Dave Eiland, however, decided that all of the starters, especially Sabathia, will be "eased'' into spring training. Sabathia didn't throw Thursday when camp opened and didn't make his first bullpen session until yesterday.

Looking a bit leaner than he did last season, Sabathia threw 30 pitches, all fastballs and changeups. "First time out, it felt good,'' he said. "Just making sure my body feels good and my arm feels good, so it felt good today.''

Sabathia said he's happy to "take the days off'' when they're offered but that he doesn't need them.

Girardi said one reason Sabathia hasn't felt any ill effects of the workload of recent seasons is the stress-free way he works through most innings.

"I think one of the things you see in CC, he's very big and strong, number one, and number two, he's very efficient,'' Girardi said. "When he's throwing his 100 pitches to 110 pitches, it's usually 12, 15 an inning. He's not throwing 20, 22 pitches every inning and he's not laboring usually out there. Quick and crisp innings. Similar to what the Madduxes and Glavines did when they would log all those innings year after year.''

But Girardi said he's going to apply some preventative medicine. "We just thought that it's not going to hurt and we'll have him ready for his first spring training game and have him ready for Opening Day, and if we can ease him into this year, let's do it. He threw an extra 30 or something innings last October and November and we think it's important that we do that.''

Girardi also said it is a topic that will be broached every offseason.

"I think it's something you have to address every year going into spring training because he is a guy that gives you usually seven innings every time out,'' he said. "You start multiplying that over 34 starts, you're looking at a lot of innings every year. So it is something that we will look at every winter and evaluate what we need to do.''

Sabathia is just worried about the 2010 season. If the workload needs to be the same and he needs to pitch on three days' rest again in October and November, that's fine by him.

"I'll do it every year,'' Sabathia said. "I got no problem with that.''