The Bronx, NY – Big news in Yankeetown this week is the injury to the portly ace, CC Sabathia. CC hurt his groin, presumably during sexy time while making love to a honey-glazed ham. Sabathia is now on the shelf for a couple of weeks and will miss two starts. He will also miss the All Star Game. Some think that this was the intention all along. The conspiracy theorists are speculating that CC isn’t actually hurt and the Yankees are taking him out of the rotation for two weeks to keep him fresh for the stretch run and keep him out of the All Star game.
I’m not sure this is a phantom injury. I do think there is a groin issue. I don’t think it was bad enough to warrant a DL stint. The Yankees have been playing well and management probably figured better safe than sorry with CC. I don’t think that Sabathia would have gone on the disabled list if the Pettitte injury had happened a day earlier. I do know that CC will stick to eating the honey-glazed hams from now on.
While CC was nursing his groin, Andy Pettitte was making a kick save (and a beauty). For a minute on Wednesday, Pettitte thought he was Nikolai Khabibulin and misremembered to get out of the way of a line drive. Kind of like how Chris Brown thought he was Henrik Lundqvist and tried to block a bottle thrown by a Canadian with his head. It’s a shame that Pettitte is not the “Bulin Wall” as the line drive fractured Andy’s ankle. Now he is on the shelf for a couple of months. And at 40 years old, who knows whether Andy will be able to get back to form to help the Yankees down the stretch.
The Yankees had caught lightning in a bottle when Pettitte got sick of spending every day with his family and decided to return to baseball. The veteran southpaw fit right back into the Yankee rotation and helped the Yankees to go on a tear during May and June. The Bombers now have a five game lead in the AL East and are a robust 17 games over .500. Time will tell if the Yanks have enough breathing room to stay on top while Sabathia and Pettitte are out.
The Bombers have relied on the long ball to build their lead. It seems that the Yanks can’t win a game without homering. The home runs are bound to dry up eventually and time will tell if the Yankees will be able to scrap for victories without relying on power. The signs aren’t good. The aging Yanks have a distinct lack of speed with Brett Gardner and his busted elbow on the DL. The good news on Gardner is that he will begin taking dry swings in Tampa next week. I know Tampa is a good town for wet swinging, also. If I were Gardner, I’d prolong that stay in Tampa.
The Yankees are not a team built to use small ball to scratch out a run which will certainly hurt down the stretch and into the playoffs, should the Yankees get there. The Yankees can be very happy in their position right now but they should proceed with caution considering the number of injuries at present. As they say, it’s still all to play for.
Come back for The Public Professor tomorrow.
