How Good Is CC Sabathia?

Remember when the Yankees signed CC Sabathia? Remember how Red Sox Nation arrogantly laughed and mocked how much the Yanks spent in the off-season between 2008 and 2009, adding Sabathia and Mark Teixeira? What fools we were.

Since then, the Yankees have made the playoffs 4 straight years, and even won a World Series. The Red Sox made the playoffs once in that same period, losing an ALDS in 3 games.

As a Yankee, Sabathia never wore out and got injured like we in Red Sox Nation figured he would. He's 74-29 in New York, with a 3.22 ERA. He's a 3 time All-Star and finished in the top 5 of Cy Young voting 3 times.

In that same time frame, Josh Beckett won 41 games for the Red Sox. With a 4.21 ERA. Sabathia has also thrown about 200 more innings than Beckett these last 4 years. And even though he weighs around 300 pounds, I'd argue that Sabathia is in better shape than Beckett.

We were so arrogant after 2008. The Sox had won a World Series in '07 and were close to getting to another one in 2008. Maybe the Red Sox as a team were just as arrogant. The players, the GM, the manager, and the owners all thought they had the winning formula in place.

They plainly did not. The Yankees did, and do.

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AP Photo

Red Sox Back to .500

The Red Sox are 51-51, thanks to beating the Yankees 2 times out of 3 this weekend. But as much fun as it is to win a series in Yankee Stadium, we all need to take a step back and look at the larger picture.

The Sox have played 102 games and are a .500 team. Why should we expect them to be anything better in the 60 games they have yet to play?

In the first game of the series, Aaron Cook and Mark Melancon were battered around. Melancon has proven to be utterly useless.

In the second game, Jon Lester outpitched CC Sabathia. And typically that would be impressive. But Sabathia sucked, and Lester was mediocre. So while he was better than Sabathia, he was not great.

It was important for Lester to not have a bad start. It was important for him to not get a loss, and for the Sox to win a game he started. It wasn't a very good start though. He gave up 2 homers and 4 runs in 6 innings. He still needs to improve.

Last night Prince Felix Doubront did a very good job, and the Sox squeezed a win out. Alfredo Aceves blew a save but recovered nicely.

If you've allowed yourself to ride the Red Sox emotional roller coaster this season, then right now you might be feeling positive. However, as a whole, they're a strictly .500 team. We're still waiting to see Beckett pitch consistently, and we're waiting for Lester to return to the stable rock he once was.

The Tigers are in town starting tonight. Clay Buchholz faces Max Scherzer. Scherzer is 10-5. He started the season poorly but has pitched well the last two months.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo