Larry Brown Sports

After putting together an outstanding June and emerging as one of the best teams in baseball, the news was not good for the Yankees on Wednesday. In the span of about 24 hours, New York lost both Andy Pettitte and C.C. Sabathia to the disabled list. Sabathia’s injury is believed to be only a strained muscle in his leg that should cause him to miss two starts. Pettitte, on the other hand, suffered a broken ankle and is expected to miss at least six weeks.

At age 40 and coming off a year in which he didn’t pitch at all, Pettitte had somehow managed to become a rock in the Yankees’ rotation before going down. He has a 3.22 ERA and pitched six or more innings in every start except his most recent one where he suffered the injury. New York has become as reliant on him this season as they were in the early 2000s. And Sabathia is, well, Sabathia.

So what do these injuries mean for the AL East going forward? The good news for the Yankees is the season is young. Assuming Sabathia only misses two turns in the rotation, New York still has the option of pursuing trade options at the deadline to fill in for Pettitte. However, with the way the Orioles have played this season there is not much margin for error in the division.

The Red Sox are also slowly making a charge. They have won 11 of their last 14 games and are catching fire at the perfect time with Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Bailey all set to come off the DL over the next month. While other teams will be looking to make trades to improve around the deadline, Boston can stand pat and simply get healthy. With all five teams in the AL East currently above .500, Pettitte’s injury could turn out to be a significant blow to New York.

Photo credit: The Star-Ledger-US PRESSWIRE

If you don’t think C.C. Sabathia is serious about staying in better shape and keeping the weight off this season, well, I can’t say I blame you. What I can tell you is that it appears he is already making an effort. According to the Star-Ledger, Sabathia has been bringing his own meals to Yankees camp in a brown paper bag — elementary school style. The reason? Controlling how much he eats.

Sabathia said doing it this way helps with portion control. Today’s breakfast offering was sausage and eggs and came in a container about the size of a small TV dinner. It’s also easy for Sabathia to direct his chef to prepare healthier offerings when needed.

“A lot of guys do it,” said Sabathia, who admitted that poor eating habits helped contribute to his weight gain last year. “It just sort of happened that it could work out this way.”

On second thought, maybe it isn’t elementary school style. Our moms and dads did a decent job of making our school lunches for us, but they probably don’t add the flare that C.C.’s personal chef adds. After all, he is probably being paid good money to prepare these mobile meals.

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Brian Cashman and the Yankees approached Sabathia recently to talk about his weight. Many believe he was out of shape after the All-Star break last season, which contributed to his performance faltering a bit. Skipping the buffet line and not joining his teammates when they go out to eat is probably a good place to start.

Fist pound to Hardball Talk for the story

In order to assure C.C. Sabathia that he was a part of the Yankees’ long-term plans and their ace of the future, New York added an extra year and another $30 million to his contract. Sabathia is the rock of the Yankees’ staff and they certainly could not afford to lose him. C.C., however, could afford to lose something — weight. He won 19 games and finished tied for third in the A.L. Cy Young voting last season, but Sabathia showed some signs of slowing down in the second half of the year.

The Yankees’ ace gained weight as the 2011 season progressed, and G.M. Brian Cashman would not rule out the possibility that the extra pounds contributed to his faltering performance.

“I can’t tell you it did or didn’t (affect Sabathia),” Cashman said according to ESPNNewYork.com. “I just know we thought it was important enough to have the conversation because obviously in the second half he got bigger after the All-Star break.

“You wonder, is it the excess weight, is it just the season, is it because he had that knee surgery? No one has those answers. The best you can do is try to eliminate possibilities.”

Sabathia, who says he is back down to 290 pounds after losing 10 or 15, was not offended by the conversation. In fact, he acknowledged that it is important for him to do a better job of working on his conditioning.

“I just got to make sure I stay with Dana (Cavalea, the team strength and conditioning coach), do the right things on the road, make sure I eat the right things in the clubhouse,” C.C. said. “So that shouldn’t be hard.”

Sabathia is a power pitcher, so his size is part of what has made him so effective over the years. At age 31, however, he and the Yankees have to keep the weight issue in check to avoid injury. As the years pass, C.C.’s lower body will have a tougher time withstanding the size of his upper body. Unless he makes staying in shape a focal point, he could be at risk of having to fight through a number of nagging injuries.

You know how when people lose weight other people tell them how great they look and it makes them feel even better? Brian Cashman is not one of those other people. Either that or Buster Olney’s sources lie to him.  Olney recently Tweeted that a source told him C.C. Sabathia lost 30 pounds this offseason and looks great.  Cashman said that’s a load of b.s.

According to Hardball Talk, Cashman told ESPN that he has seen Sabathia in person and there’s no way he lost 30 pounds. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “I saw him at the B.A.T. dinner and he didn’t look like he lost 30 pounds to me. Maybe half that amount. We haven’t weighed him so I don’t now where that number comes from.”

It should be noted that Cashman went on to talk about how Sabathia is a tremendous athlete and has done a good job of keeping the weight under control, but am I the only one getting the impression that the Yankees GM is becoming bitter?  The Yankees are still an obvious contender, but Cashman missed out on Cliff Lee and did nothing noteworthy to bolster the starting rotation this winter.  When New York brought in one of the top relievers on the market, Cashman was quick to note that he wasn’t in favor of the signing.

Maybe he’s sick of the big market spotlight and wants to try his hand at a small market team.  Maybe we’re reading too much into it.  Either way, it hasn’t been an offseason to brag about for Brian Cashman.

Nick Swisher and Joanna Garcia are going to have a little leftover — check that, a lot of leftover — filet mignon at their wedding in Palm Beach this weekend.  Swisher’s teammate, 300-pound hurler C.C. Sabathia, won’t be attending the couple’s wedding.  The reason: he can’t find a babysitter.

Ben Maller brought our attention to a mini interview Sabathia did with Jill Martin of the NY Post at the Knicks-Timberwolves game on Monday night.  “We can’t get a babysitter.  I have four kids at home,” Sabathia said.  “My mother doesn’t want to come out and babysit.  We’re going to have to just send a gift.”

This almost sounds like some kind of inside joke between Sabathia and Swisher.  First of all, C.C. makes his mom sound a little cold.  Instead of saying “she can’t come out” he said “she doesn’t want to.”  I don’t know about you, but that sounds to me like he’s unhappy with her for not helping out.  Second of all, how does a guy who makes $23 million a year not have the world’s greatest nanny?  Maybe the Sabathias are against leaving their children with someone who was at one point a stranger.

Either that, or C.C. and his wife, Amber, just have no desire to attend the wedding.

As much as we rip on umpires for getting calls wrong (and insist upon instant replay), they actually do a good job. When you consider how fast the game is played and how difficult it is to get in the right positions to make calls, they get it right more often than not. The problem is when they get things wrong, we know about it because we have HD cameras and instant replay from every angle, making missed calls inexcusable. Well, because we’ve pointed out all the mistakes the umpires have made in the playoffs, I’d like to point out a call they got right.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, CC Sabathia launched a pitched over Jorge Posada’s glove. Nelson Cruz, the runner at third, decided to bolt him to try and score on the wild pitch. Posada got a great bounce off the brick wall, relayed to Sabathia who tagged Cruz out. Cruz appeared to beat the throw (and he did), but replays showed Sabathia tagged him out high before Cruz’s foot touched the plate (as you can see in the picture above).

The play didn’t seem to matter for most of the game because Texas had a three-run home run from Josh Hamilton earlier in the inning and got a two-run double from Michael Young in the 4th to lead 5-0. Once the Yankees took the lead scoring five runs in the 8th, they sure could have used that run. Good call by the umps on the play.

C.C. Sabathia, New York Yankees (20-6, 3.05)

Sabathia will win the American League Cy Young at the end of the season.  With a 21-6 record, he’s certainly a worthy candidate.  The fact that he plays for the New York Yankees has made him a shoe-in, however.  Not to take anything away from Sabathia, but the Yankees offense deserves plenty of credit for his success this year.  There are a ton of pitchers in the A.L. who would be worthy of the Cy Young Award any other year.  Those same pitchers would be worthy of it this year if they played for the Yankees.

Sabathia also helped his own cause by pitching deep into games.  That, on the other hand, is not owed to his teammates.  The Yankees’ workhorse has thrown 224 innings so far this season, which is second only to Felix Hernandez.  To be able to pitch at such a high level with that large of a workload is truly remarkable in this day and age.

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