The New York Yankees reportedly have a deal on the table that would make CC Sabathia the highest paid pitcher in all of baseball. The deal, which is reportedly for six years and a total of $140 million, would surpass the contract the New York Mets gave Johan Santana last season.

While Sabathia is a good pitcher who can oftentimes be great, signing Sabathia to a mega contract would be a colossal mistake for the Yankees. It’d go down alongside the signing of Barry Zito by the San Francisco Giants as the biggest wastes of money in baseball history.

The first problem is that Sabathia doesn’t pitch well under pressure. Examples can be found in many places. To start off the 2008 campaign, Sabathia struggled mightily due to the pressure of his pending free agency. In his career, he has also been horrid in the postseason.

Not being able to handle pressure will not go over well in New York. Everything he does will be under the microscope and each and every game will feel like a playoff game. Sabathia might have good stretches but he’ll get worn down by the pressure and eventually crack.

Secondly, Sabathia obviously doesn’t take the best care of his body. The 28-year-old 300 pounder will balloon up even more once he reaches his 30’s. His metabolism will slow and he will suddenly begin to tilt the scales at 350 instead of 300.

Last but not least is the fact that Sabathia has a ton of mileage on his arm already. In his eight years in the majors, he has pitched more than 1,650 innings. In the last two years ago, Sabathia has pitched more than 500 innings.

If the Yankees were smart, they’d be bargain hunting this winter. However, it appears that instead the Yankees will once again waste millions of dollars.

Tags: baseball, baseball trades, cc sabathia, MLB, New York Yankees

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Visited 116 times, 2 so far today and is filed under MLB - Major League Baseball, New York Yankees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.