Sabathia’s Transformation

Need an example of how quickly someone’s post-season reputation can change? Look no further than a certain player on the New York Yankees. No, not Alex Rodriguez; at least he enjoyed some success in the post-season since 2002. Instead, the player is CC Sabathia.

In 2007, Sabathia had seen elimination and failure come in very personal manner as he allowed 15 runs in 15 innings. A year ago Sabathia’ Milwaukee Brewers were eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies in the Divisional Series. The tall lefty with an appetite for outs would make a single start in the series, pitching three and two-thirds innings of un-Sabathian ball: four walks, five strikeouts, and five earned runs. The last time Sabathia pitched well in the post-season was 2001 against the historic Seattle Mariners. The (then) 20-year-old appeared in one game, going six while walking as many as he struck out against a team that won 116 regular season games.

Sabathia has started three games for the Yankees this October, winning each start and allowing a total of three earned runs. In the matter of a month he’s won more post-season games than he had in his entire career. Nifty, right? Here are his post-season stat lines for easier comparison:

Era	GS	IP	SO%	uBB%	ERA
Pre	5	25	9.8	14.3	7.92
NYY	3	22.7	23	3.4	1.19

For further perspective, Sabathia’s post-season FIP are as follows: 3.88, 7.09, 7.22, and 2.44. That’s a drastic change and one that has wiped away any grumblings of Sabathia not being a big-game pitcher or one afraid of the bright lights of the post-season. Not that anyone – minus Twins or Angels fans – should be complaining about this development. If nothing else, it saves the rest of us time from defending Sabathia much like we have that previously mentioned Rodriguez fella over the past few years.