Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia was so angry that Eduardo Nunez bunted in the first inning last night that he wanted Nunez to apologize for forcing him to field a ground ball! For the second consecutive start!
Sabathia: "Let's go. Let's play. Swing the bat."
Rob Bradford (WEEI) thinks Sabathia is delusional (as do I):
This isn't about the unwritten rules of the game, because bunting in the second at-bat of the game won't be found in anybody's unwritten, written, or morse code version of the baseball handbook. ...Nunez:
Sabathia has bad knees. Sabathia is grossly overweight. Sabathia doesn't want to move around hardly at all. ... He doesn't want to be forced to field a bunt. Let me repeat that: He doesn't want to be forced to field a BUNT. This wasn't throwing at somebody's head, or sliding into knees. This was having to field a bunt.
That's my game. I cannot change my game. We know he has a bad knee. That's not my problem. ... [I]f he has issues with bunting, they have to work on that. ... We don't have power. We have to work. We have to bunt. We have to hustle. ... [I]f I had to bunt four times in a row, I do it. I don't care if he's mad or not. ... He's had three surgeries, and we know he was on the DL for the knee. He doesn't want people to bunt. ... That's not my fault.Sabathia also implied that he was willing to fight the Red Sox over this point:
I don't give a fuck about their reaction. I don't care what they have to say. I'm out there early every day. If they've got something to say, we can meet in center field.NESN's Jim Rice said that Sabathia was being "stupid":
What is he talking about? Bunting is part of the game. You try to get on the base any way you can. If you tell him to leave some of that chicken, that donut and that burger weight — maybe his leg will be OK that he can field that baseball.Tom Gatto, The Sporting News:
CC couldn't let the bunt go after the game. He called the Sox "weak" and "scared" for not just going up to the plate and hacking. ...The New York Times noted that Sabathia got annoyed two years ago when Seattle's Kyle Seager had the temerity to drop down a bunt.
"It shows me what they've got over there," he also said. ...
Oh, come on, CC. What "they've got over there" is a first-place team that's leading your team by 4.5 games in the American League East with a month to play.
What they've got over there is an offense with the fourth-highest on-base percentage in the AL.
What they've got over there is a team that's playing to win. ...
I'm thinking the Red Sox's response should be: "Challenge . . . ignored."
No, wait: The response should be: "Standings."
It's a shame that Sabathia won't face the Red Sox again this season (and his Yankee contract is up in one month), because I'd want them to drop a dozen fucking bunts down in the first three innings. Make CC scamper left, right, left, right, left - until he either snapped or collapsed.
SoSH:
ReplyDeleteSmiling Joe Hesketh
They're not trying to injure him, they're taking advantage of a perceived weakness. That's not bush league: as the legendary Herm Edwards once told us, "You play to win the game." If there was a catcher who had the yips throwing back to the pitcher, taking second on such a throw would also be perfectly acceptable.
CC has shut the Sox down all year, so trying new strategies to get runner on against him would be smart even if he wasn't battling a bum knee.
Had the Yankees bunted all over Schilling during the bloody sock game, that would have been perfectly acceptable (hell, it would have been very smart).
Baseball players are, in general, enormous babies. CC is merely following the trend here.
StuckOnYouk
Just another instance where the Yankees get to show their ahole smugness and teach others how to "play the game". It never ends with them.
Marbleheader
When it's not the Yankees, it's the Orioles. So nice to have two such impeccable organizations in the division to show everyone how it's done.
drleather2001
And the Rays are merely dormant in this regard.
PaulinMyrBch
It's ridiculous, imagine if Girardi tells Farrell when exchanging lineup cards "Hey, CC has still got that popping sound in his knee, so can you guys hold off bunting until we get a relief pitcher in the game?" and John replies "But with Elsbury, his arm just sucks right, I mean, he's healthy and all? So we're good to take 3rd" JG - "Yeah, you're good"
CC can be pissed we led off the game bunting, and he can be happy he put up 2 K's to get out of it. But to expect us to do things his way is crazy.
jayhoz
Shut the fuck up and pitch you fat fuck. Why the hell wouldn't a team try to take advantage of every perceived weakness they can find? What's next, not going 1st to 3rd because Ellsbury has a noodle arm? Should a team not steal on a catcher recovering from a shoulder injury?
bankshot1
Perhaps if CC made the play without an E-1 batters would not bunt on him.
LogansDad
I'm pissed that they didn't do it more. These guys get paid millions of dollars to go out there and try to win a championship in any way (within the rules) that they can, not cater to the needs of an opposing player who might get his feelings hurt if they make him do something he isn't comfortable with. The fact that it worked, and they didn't go back to it later in the game, is more of a condemnation of the Red Sox than the fact that they did it once.
They haven't been able to hit this asshole all year, and that's part of the reason they haven't been able to put the division away. They need to be finding any way they can to beat these guys, and if that means making CC burn a few extra calories, then so be it.
Curt S Loew
He's just pissed that he has to do something. If that was a donut rolling towards him he wouldn't bitch.
glennhoffmania
It's incredible that CC is bitching about this. There's absolutely nothing about bunting against a fat, immobile pitcher that could be viewed as bad sportsmanship or trying to injure him. That's beyond absurd. I bet that Girardi is pissed too since he whines about everything that doesn't go their way.
EvilEmpire
He's embarrassed being shown up because he's a fatass. I don't think it is any more complicated than that.
Old Fart Tree
What a fucking pathetic tool. Field your fucking position, fatass.
Lose Remerswaal
I agree with the prior post that when this worked for Nunez the SOX SHOULD HAVE KEPT DOING IT!. Jeez, Farrell. When something works and it gets under the skin of the other SP, DO IT AGAIN.
It's also as if the Yankees never stepped out repeatedly against Pedro Martinez.
sabata, loose some weight, stop being a cry baby
ReplyDeleteToday:
ReplyDeleteSabathia on Jim Rice's comments: "I just hope when I'm that age I'm not that bitter."
Nunez: "It's a joke. Play in. If you play back I'll bunt.
&
Tweet from @ByChrisMason:
"Joe Girardi says CC's comments are because he's a competitor. Called it old-school mentality that Gibson, Clemens or Nolan Ryan would have."
Oh, man. Those Jim Rice quotes are solid gold. Rice is so often criticized for not really saying anything or contributing much in his pre/post-show appearances. (Criticisms which, by the way, aren't without merit.) With that in mind, those hilarious, sick burns have got to be some of the best things he's ever done behind the NESN desk.
ReplyDelete