CC Sabathia Worth Picking Up in All Leagues
By Bill Pivetz
Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia has been pitching well in the month of May. He has two divisional matchups this week, but is still worth adding.
Entering this season, the New York Yankees starting rotation was thought to be a weakness to the team. With season-shortening injuries affecting most of the starters, there was not a lot of optimism for the staff. However, after a bad first month and a stay on the DL, CC Sabathia looks like his old self. If you need help this week, or in the future, pick him up.
In his first four starts of the season, Sabathia allowed three runs in each of them. He went six innings in two and 4.2 innings in the others. The big problem was the amount of baserunners he allowed, an average of eight baserunners per game.
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He missed some time early while recovering from a groin injury, but that hasn’t stopped him. In his three May starts, 20.0 innings, he has a 0.45 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and a 21:4 K:BB ratio, improving his season stats to 3-3 with a 2.83 ERA and 1.23 WHIP.
CC Sabathia’s most recent start was at home against the hit-or-miss Toronto Blue Jays offense. He pitched seven shutout innings with two hits, one run and seven strikeouts. His next start will be on Tuesday on the road against Toronto.
After that, he faces the Baltimore Orioles on the road on Sunday. The last time he faced Baltimore, he pitched another seven shutout innings and allowed six hits, two walks and six strikeouts.
His strikeout and walk rates have improved greatly in May, 4.0 K-BB rate in April to 22.4 in May. While he is allowing more fly balls, he hasn’t allowed a home run since April 16. His swinging rates are pretty much in line with his 2015 rates, which could cause some concern, but he is keeping the ball in the park.
Even with his recent success, CC Sabathia is owned in just 16.7 percent of ESPN leagues. It is up, however, 10.9 percent over the last week. Like I mentioned earlier, he has two questionable matchups, but has outmatched them both.
There are definitely other starting pitchers I would rather have, but if you are in a deeper league or need to drop a struggling pitcher, Sabathia should be available.