CC Was On Something Last Night

I pretty much spent the entire day yesterday bashing CC.  Talking about how he's the worst player on the team and how I can't wait until Cashman jettisons him from the rotation.  And after last night I'd bet you think I feel pretty stupid right now.  But I don't.  Because the guy who pitched for the Yankees last night was not CC Sabathia.  At least not 2013-2015 CC Sabathia.  The guy who pitched last night was somebody else entirely.  And that guy was brilliant.  Six innings, eight strikeouts, one earned run.  Yea it was against the Red Sox who are awful but they're always a tough match-up when these teams face off.

I couldn't even recognize CC last night.  He was involved in so much bizarre behavior that I can only conclude that he was on something*.  I don't know if it was PED's or recreation drugs but something foreign was running through his bloodstream.  If you didn't watch, here's what I'm talking about...


 * Not sure where I'm going with any of this.  At first I thought it was all going to come together nicely and prove my point and then I realized that I was just so perplexed by him having a good outing that my brain couldn't digest it properly. 


Exhibit A -  He was pumping 93-94 fairly regularly 

CC's average fastball velocity this year is 89.8 mph.  I know that guns vary on different nights and no reading is entirely accurate but last night he was throwing WAY harder than he had all season long.  For a guy who doesn't have a wide range of plus pitches, being able to touch 94 regularly is huge.  Guys were showing far more respect for his fastball than they have been and he was getting knee-buckles on his slider all night long.  What makes you throw harder than you usually would?  PEDs, that's what.


Exhibit B - Exchange with Rob Drake

I didnt' find this as strange as everything else, but it was still notable.  On a 2-2 pitch to Hanley in the 4th CC hit the inside corner with a fastball and Drake called it a ball.  CC turned around as Murphy tried to throw him the ball back and paced around the mound for a bit.  After CC got Hanley to ground out, Drake came out to the mound to give him a new ball and spoke to him about the pitch.  CC got upset and began demonstratively protesting the call and then got into it again with Drake after the inning ended.  Out of character for CC?  Yes.  Roid-rage?  Most definitely possibly.


Exhibit C - Explosion after striking out Papi

I don't know where that reaction came from.  Maybe it was drugs.  Maybe it was frustration in himself.  Maybe he was pissed that Papi stood at home plate for a home run he hit off a 21-year-old the night before.  Either way.  This may have been my favorite CC Sabathia moment ever.  Screaming "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE" to David Ortiz after you BLOW HIM AWAY with a fastball is just about as satisfying as it gets.  Plus roid rage.

Exhibit D - Sweat

GIF: CC Sabathia's hat is dripping... pic.twitter.com/jW9292Jyif

— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) August 7, 2015

I know he's a big dude, but it was like 70 degrees last night and CC was sweating like Patrick Ewing.  I legit thought he was going to have to be pulled in the middle of that inning and rushed to the hospital.  Do PEDs make you sweat?  They don't not make you sweat.


Overall, I guess I'm not sure CC was on something last night but I hope he was because that guy is a guy who can help you win a championship.  The guy who had been pitching for 4 months prior to last night cannot.  It's a can't lose situation for the Yankees.  You either get a roided up CC throwing gas in the playoffs, sweating beads on a 45 degree October night.  Or he gets caught and gets suspended for the rest of the year and doesn't have to pitch anymore.  It's a win-win for everyone (except CC).

PS - Hey Rob Drake, how about you cut CC some slack.  He's had an awful year.  I'm sure he realizes that in a way he's holding the team back with the way he's pitched and now he's probably fighting for a rotation spot with Severino here.  Tex and A-Rod are having resurgent seasons and he hasn't been able to get his game back.  Bottom line is, CC's been around long enough where if he needs to blow off a little silent steam after your shitty call than you let him do that.  Don't go out and antagonize him in the middle of his own personal hell.  Umps like Rob Drake help manufacture incidents like these way too often.

Yanks Look To CC For A Series Win

Listen, I hate ragging on CC.  He's one of my favorite Yankees of all time.  But he stinks.  If the Yankees lose tonight it's probably going to be because CC sucked.  He's literally the worst player on the team and for at least the next month they'll keep running him out there every fifth day.  There's really nothing else left to be said.  The dead horse has been beaten.  He's going to keep pitching because of the money he's making and there's nothing we can do about it. 

There is going to come a point in the season where winning games is going to take precedents over protecting financial investments.  If the Yankees didn't have such a comfortable 6 game lead in the loss column over Toronto would CC still be pitching?  Not sure.  But if things start to get hairy as we inch closer to October losses like last night may not be as affordable.  And when that moment comes, CC has to go.  I'd like to hope that when Pineda comes back Cashman will do the right thing and jettison him to the bullpen.  But I don't know when that's going to be or what shape the Yankees will be in when it happens.

I've been hoping and praying CC could channel his former self start after start this season and it hasn't happened so I'm done asking for it.  I'm just gonna close my eyes, hold my breath and hope for a win.

Yanks Lose In Severino's Debut

Anytime you lose and can only muster one run against a pitcher who you know is not that good it's frustrating.  On the flip side, Severino looked great.  He looked composed, confident and his stuff was filthy.  He made one mistake to Papi.  Got into a dangerous count with a dangerous hitter, challenged him and got burnt.  But he went right back to attacking the very next batter and you had to love to see that.  The difference in the game ended up being Headley's error extending that inning and giving the Sox a chance to score and run up Severino's pitch count a little bit.  All in all a very promising debut.  5 innings, 1 earned run, 7 strikeouts and no walks.

As for the offense, the Sox showed them a different look with Steven Wright.  They'd seen him before but his knuckler was really dancing tonight.  That's the thing about those guys, they may not be on all the time but when they are they're impossible to square up.  The good news is the Yankee lineup is still technically on a roll because they didn't face an actual real pitcher tonight.  Make sense?  Great.

The Luis Severino Era Begins Tonight

What a night to be a Yankee fan.  15 games over.  7 games up in the loss column in the AL East.  Bats absolutely scalding.  And now the biggest pitching prospect for this team in a decade making his major league debut on national television against the Red Sox under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium.

Oh how I've longed for this.  The Yankees and their fans have had a lot of things to root for over the years but good, young, homegrown prospects have not been one of them.  I'm not gonna sit here and act like there isn't any pressure on Luis tonight.  There is.  I'm sure he's fully aware of the hype.  He also probably knows this team is counting on him to take the ball every fifth day at least until Michael Pineda gets back.  But this is the PERFECT game for him to get his feet wet.  The Red Sox absolutely suck.  The Yankees are probably going to score a thousand runs tonight.  So hopefully he'll be able to just relax, rear back and do what he does.

PS - Tonight's game isn't getting any buzz because of the Mets and what they're doing.  I get that.  I actually like it.  Let the Yankees lie in the weeds and just keep mowing through teams.  Keep drowning in all of your Mets hype New York, you deserve it.  Because just when you think you've taken the town over you're going to look up in October to find your older brother exactly where he always is, two steps ahead of you.

  

Two Daughters Are Taking Their Dead Dad To Court Because They Can't Collect $20 Million In Inheritance Until They're 35

DAILY MAIL - Two sisters who cannot access their $20million inheritance until they are either married with children or turn 35, are taking their case to court.  

Millionaire Maurice Laboz, who died earlier this year aged 77, decided daughters Marlena, 21, and Victoria, 17, will each be given $10million.  

But the New York City real estate mogul stipulated that the pair can only collect it under his strict terms including getting married and graduating from an 'accredited university', if they want it before their 35th birthdays.

  

The siblings now hope to challenge the rules in a Manhattan court on August 12, the New York Post reports.  Laboz set out several rules for his daughters, where they can earn various thousands of dollars for completing his wishes.

For example, if she marries before 35, Marlena will get $500,000, but only if her husband signs a sworn statement that he will not touch the money. 

She will earn another $750,000 if she graduates 'from an accredited university' and writes '100 words or less describing what she intends to do with the funds'. Trustees overseeing the money and appointed by Laboz must approve the essay. 

Starting in 2020, each daughter will be guaranteed an annual payout of three times the income listed on their personal federal tax return. 

They could earn the same amount if they act as 'a caregiver' for their mother, Ewa Laboz, 58, whom their father was in the midst of divorcing when he died. 

Ewa Laboz received nothing in the will and has also said that she plans to contest it. 

Laboz justified leaving her out of the will by citing a 'prenuptial agreement, which limits her rights'. 

'People try to control from the grave, but I've never seen it as bad as this,' said lawyer Raoul Felder.

  

First of all, calling these rules "bizarre" and "strict" is ridiculous.  It sounds like this guy just wanted his daughters to graduate college and get married and not blow $20 million on coke and shoes.

But these girls have a point here.  Their father has effectively taken all of the fun out of the $10 million by attaching all of this responsibility to it.  Get a job? Take care of mom? Write a coherent paragraph that has to be approved by a board of trustees?  No thanks.  What exactly is the point of having money if you have to do things?  If I'm them I'm fighting this tooth and nail. 

This was a great move by the dad btw.  Because make no mistake, handing over a 21-year-old one $10 million lump sum payment for doing nothing is an absolute death sentence. 
 

Same Shit, Different Day

Business as usual.  Nothing to see here, just another ho-hum 13 run bludgeoning of some poor pitching staff.  All this team does is score touchdowns.  They've scored 90 runs in their last 10 games and 9 of those games were played on the road.  Think about that.  Now they're back in the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium and I'm legitimately scared for Steven Wright and Eduardo Rodriguez.  These guys are just rookies.  If the Red Sox are smart they'll spot start these next two games with a couple of journeymen veterans because the buzz-saw they're about to walk into might just destroy their confidence forever.

As far as Tanaka is concerned, he couldn't have looked any better through the first four innings.  He sort of unraveled in the fifth and gave up the big home run to Sandoval in the 7th so Girardi pulled him after just 88 pitches.  I was fine with that because I love our chances with a lead and just 9 outs to get between Wilson/Betances/Miller but I have no clue what he was doing pulling Wilson with a 1-2 count against a lefty in Jackie Bradley who is hitting .109.  I love Betances and trust him implicitly but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this crazy move actually threw him off.  For a second it looked like it was about to backfire when he threw about 4 pitches in the dirt past McCann but he got through it and took Joe off the hook.

I also have to tip my cap to Henry Owens.  He was this close to losing the game in the 1st but he beared down and got out of it just having given up one run and pitched really well the rest of the way.  But the Yanks got him out of the game in the 6th and that was all she wrote.  Can't throw middle relieves against this lineup right now.  You'll get flattened 100 times out of 100.  

60 wins, 15 games over with no signs of slowing down and Severino on the way tomorrow.  This team isn't peaking, they're just getting started.

The Best Rivalry In Sports But Not Really Anymore...Yankees, Red Sox. Series Preview.

I remember the days these series used to give me goosebumps.  So much juice.  So many stars.  So much bad blood and both of these teams were really, really good.  These next three games obviously don't have the same buzz as a mid-2000's Yanks/Sox series and there are a number of reasons why.  Almost all of the big names are gone.  Players have gone back and forth between teams and are much friendlier towards one another now.  But the biggest reason IMO is that the Red Sox suck.  I mean they really suck.  They've probably been the worst team in baseball for the last two seasons and were just as bad in 2012 when they were coming off the greatest regular season collapse in major league history in 2011 (it just so happens that they integrated a championship campaign in between all that sucking).

This series is more of the same.  The Yankees are trying to preserve a healthy 5.5 game lead in the division as the Red Sox languish at the bottom of the American League.  A couple of the more exciting Red Sox players, Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia, will be absent this week due to injury.  However, there's a little more buzz to this series than usual and that mostly has to do with the debut of Luis Severino.  Watching the Mets bring up phenom after phenom is wearing me thin so I'm absolutely salivating at the thought of having our own, homegrown stud come up at the age of 21 and shut down the Red Sox under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium.

Pitching Match-Ups

Tonight, 7pm

Masahiro Tanaka (7-4, 3.80) vs. LHP Henry Owens (MLB debut)

If you were looking for an ace performance out of Tanaka his last go around against the Rangers then you were disappointed (6 IP, 4 ER, 9 hits and a loss).  We're still looking for Tanaka to hit his stride.  He's shown flashes this year but he hasn't been consistent enough.  If the Yankees are going to make a run at this thing than Tanaka has to be one of the guys that carries them there.

Rick Porcello was supposed to start this game but the Red Sox caught a break when he hit the DL with a triceps issue.  He's probably the only pitcher in the American League worse than CC Sabathia.  If he started this game he would have gotten chased before the National Anthem.  As for Henry Owens, I haven't heard that much about him.  I see he was like the 44th ranked prospect in baseball before the season and he had a 3.18 ERA in Pawtucket.  Scouting report on him is that he doesn't throw particularly hard and he doesn't have great control making him pretty much the most meh call-up in major league history.  

Wednesday, 7pm

Luis Severino (MLB debut) vs. RHP Steven Wright (4-4, 4.53 ERA)

Not since Phil Hughes back in 2007 has a Yankee starting pitcher's major league debut been this highly anticipated.  Severino surprised everyone in Spring Training and flew up the minor league pipeline this year, dominating batters in Scranton even more so than he did in Trenton.  There have been a number of key, memorable moments during this 2015 campaign that have inspired hopes of a World Series Championship and Wednesday night may add to the list if Severino can deliver right away.

He'll oppose Steven Wright who throws a knuckleball and sucks at baseball.

Thursday, 7pm

CC Sabathia (4-8, 5.54 ERA) vs. LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (6-3, 4.34)

Eduardo Rodriguez was one of the most highly touted prospects in the Red Sox system heading into this year and you saw why early on.  He's cooled off considerably since coming out of the gate red hot and has inflated his ERA up to over four runs per nine.  For what it's worth, he did pitch well his last time out against the Yanks on July 11th (6.1, 2 ER and a win).

On the other side, the Yankees continue to hand the ball off to Sabathia every fifth day to give him a chance to lose them games.  Those are just the facts at this point.  He's gotten a longer leash than anyone in history because of his track record and the fact that he's making about a billion dollars.  I'd love to sit here and tell you that I like the Yankees' odds against a guy with a 4.34 ERA but every time CC toes the rubber he gives you a great chance at losing a baseball game.  With Michael Pineda out until September at the earliest, the Yankees will have to endure at the very least another five starts or so from one of the worst pitchers in baseball.