Should we be concerned with CC Sabathia's velocity loss?

By: Gavin Ewbank | Lead Writer

CC Sabathia made his second start of the spring yesterday in Viera against the Washington Nationals, and the results looked a lot like the kind of outing we would have seen from Sabathia last season, his worst year in professional baseball.

Sabathia looked very hittable, and velocity was an issue once agains with him topping out at 88 mph on his fastball.

After the game, Sabathia said that he "sucked," and it would be great if we don't have to hear him say that very often after game this season.

"I was kind of erratic, like all over the place," Sabathia said. "I couldn't get my delivery down, and try to push off, try to get some leverage throwing downhill, it was just hard for me. I don’t know if I was just jumping off the mound, leaving too early. From my point of view, I just felt like I was rushing."

While we might have reason to, I'm not concerning over anything yet. It's spring training. This is the time when pitchers continue to build up their arm strength and iron out the wrinkles before the regular season starts.

As I mentioned before, this was only CC's start start of the spring, and he'll have a few more before facing the Houston Astros on the opening series of the season.

I'm going to give him until the end of the spring before starting to concern myself over thing like velocity. Even though it is important, we're not at that point yet. While I'm at it, I asked Yankees fans on Twitter what they have to say about CC's velocity and pitching concerns:

@YanksBeatBlog 91 was an issue, but hes having trouble cracking 90..hes looking like a number 4 out there
— Vince (@vinny__m) March 11, 2014

@YanksBeatBlog stick w/ the cutter and hit your spots @CC_Sabathia . We r not worried. Vets adjust. Moose did it, Andy did it. You can do if
— Dan McKillen (@DanMcK3) March 11, 2014

@YanksBeatBlog he will find it difficult to pitch without power stuff but have the confidence he will figure it out
— Steve Carosella (@Carosella22) March 11, 2014

@YanksBeatBlog happens to all pitchers but was hoping CC would have stayed in low to mid 90's a little longer
— Aaron Koepping (@AKoepping7) March 11, 2014

@YanksBeatBlog Hoping he is pitching pain free.. #Yankees
— Bill Francis (@BillWillisf3) March 11, 2014

@YanksBeatBlog more concerned about the control over velo... can get away with a lot if you can touch edges of the zone
— Draft 2 Dynasty (@Draft2Dynasty) March 11, 2014

@YanksBeatBlog If he throws a Pettitte cutter with good breaking stuff, he can still dominate. It's just on him to evolve as a pitcher now
— Mr. Entertainment (@newkingofmedia) March 11, 2014

@YanksBeatBlog not happy would be different if fastball had movement but it's flat, which effects his other pitches average pitcher at best
— Gary novakowski (@Gnovs30) March 11, 2014

Thanks to everyone that shared their thoughts with us, and we hope to continue this discussion on Twitter, so go hit us up @GavinEwbank or @YanksBeatBlog. Or even use the comment section below!

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