April 7th, 2009

CC Sabathia struggled in his Yankees debut, going 4 1/3 innings walking 5 and not recording a strikeout. He gave up 5 ER and was handed a loss. Don’t read too much into this start. Sabathia did not appear to be injured as his velocity was at normal level and Girardi kept sending him out there. He had absolutely no command of the strike zone, but he had a nice spring, and last year he started off slowly as well. 

Brandon Webb (my other pre-season Cy Young pick) also pitched poorly in his first outing before leaving the game with “shoulder stiffness” after 4 innings. Webb was entirely ineffective with a 2/2 k/bb ratio and 2 homers aloud. He gave up 6 runs in his 4 innings of work. Webb is not worried about his shoulder, and of course this is only one start, but there is some reason to worry about his shoulder.
Brett Myers “bad” start wasn’t actually all that bad. He went 6 innings Sunday night, giving up 4 runs and 2 home runs, but he also had 6 ks and only 1 (intentional) walk. His GB% (45%) indicated that those 2 homers were a bit unlucky. Of course in only one start there isn’t much to take out of the numbers except to say that Myers is still one of my favorite breakout pitchers for the 2009 season. 

Adam Lind went 4-5 with a homer and 6 rbis againts Justin Verlander on Monday. He continues to be one of the best BA-Power breakout candidates, and his posthype cost has made him an atractive option on draft day. If his hot start continues don’t sell high – this guy’s for real.

Justin Verlander and Roy Halladay also got hit around a bit (although the latter pitched well for most of the night). Halladay is of course not someone to worry about. Verlander on the other hand needs to start turning it around. The lack of command – and an inability to keep the ball in the park – hurt Verlander last season and untill he fixes that I would stay away from him. He has some upside, but even before last season he didn’t have any elite skills. The risk is too high here.