CC Sabathia - Player Profile

Player Profile

Despite throwing with his left hand, Sabathia is right-handed. Sabathia has four plus pitches: a fastball (92–94 MPH), a more rarely used two-seam fastball (90–92), a slider (80–83) (which Sabathia calls a "cutter"), and changeup (87–88). Once ahead in the count, he primarily uses his changeup to strike out right-handed batters, and his slider to strike out left-handers. He also exhibits good command of his pitches, posting a 5.65 K/BB ratio in 2007.

Sabathia holds a lifetime postseason record of 5 wins and 4 losses in 10 games. He has pitched a total of 61 ⅓ postseason innings, giving up 61 hits, 25 walks and 30 earned runs resulting in a 4.40 ERA. He also struck out 56 batters. In the 2007 ALCS he beaned 3 batters.

As of the end of the 2010 season, Sabathia has acquired 25 hits in 101 plate appearances, making him one of the more successful pitchers from a hitting standpoint. On one occasion, Sabathia hit a 440-foot home run on June 21, 2008, off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park. He commented later, saying "I told everybody I was trying to hit homers today because I had two singles last year and everybody was all over me, saying I was a singles hitter. It was awesome." On July 13, 2008, in his second game with the Brewers, Sabathia hit his second home run of the season off Cincinnati Reds pitcher Homer Bailey, becoming the third pitcher in history to homer in both leagues in the same season and the first since Earl Wilson did it in 1970 with Detroit and San Diego.

Sabathia's reputation of pitching a high number of effective innings each season has led to sports broadcasters often referring to him as a workhorse.