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CC Sabathia hits an elite milestone, George Springer is barely disciplined, and the yips strike again.


There are quite possibly too many stories to pick from these days -- but, like a good buffet, let's try and touch on as many of these as we can.  
  • CC Sabathia is a member of an elite group now.  He's the 17th pitcher to throw 3,000 strikeouts and is only the 3rd lefty to do so.  He's in the same conversation as Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Steve Carlton.  The question raging now, however, is where does CC Sabathia fit on that list?  Some argue he's not elite, but how can you make that statement when it's in the company of elite talent?  You're either elite, and doing elite things, or you're not.  CC Sabathia may not have had the status or stature of some of the people on that list, but that's in large part due to the way he played the game: slow, steady, and consistent.  He's only won 20 games once in his career, but he is on the verge of winning 250 games for his career.  His ERA was never particularly elite, but, he has a career ERA of 3.69.  For reference, Greg Maddux had a 3.16 ERA and John Smoltz had 3.33.  Sabathia will make it to the Hall of Fame because he's in an elite group, but several writers will make it hard for him because he hasn't reached the peaks of some elite pitchers.  Thing is, not many elite pitchers have had the career or sustained success of Sabatha and that is why he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
  • George Springer was "disciplined" this week for hurling an inappropriate, homophobic slur at umpire Angel Hernandez.  I've already voiced my opinion on issues in this stratosphere -- as unpopular as they may be.  Let's just lay this out right here and now.  Tim Anderson receives a suspension for a slur and George Springer does not.  Where exactly are the boundaries here?  I do not think, even for a second, that these two situations were handled in a consistent manner.  I understand the part, if you're inclined to disagree, where you argue that Tim Anderson started a brawl between the benches.  However, Major League Baseball said--specifically--that Anderson's suspension was for the slur only.  So where is George Springer's suspension?  
  • The yips strike again, in several ways.  A few weeks ago, we wrote about the odd occurrence that is the yips.  It's a hard thing to explain and an even harder thing to overcome.  It's not exactly a straightforward issue to overcome.  We've seen it in a few different ways.  Earlier this year, it hit Chris Davis pretty hard.  His story is quite infamous and, ultimately, unfortunate.  More recently, the yips have hit Trevor Rosenthal and his ERA of infinity.  In fact, the "wait it out" strategy only worked so long and the Nationals were forced to find a way to send Rosenthal to the minor leagues.  The yips have now hit Oakland, where Jurickson Profar has 7 errors so far this season and seems nowhere ready to overcome the mental block.  Is there any real solution to the yips other than waiting it out?  There seem to be only a few legitimate options for a manager:  (1) leave him where he is and wait it out (possibly to the detriment of his club); (2) move him to another position, in hopes that he re-frames his mind and game (possibly to the detriment of his club); (3) send him to the bench for a week to clear his head (possibly to the detriment of his club); or the unlikely scenario, (4) send him to the minor leagues and a short assignment (possibly to the detriment of his club).  There is no easy answer here, but if I had to vote, I would go for the second option: moving the positions around.  Sometimes we all need to be removed from a particular situation and have space away from it to get back to clarity.  This is no different.  Keep him close enough to retain his value, the morale of the club house, but far away enough to give him time to move past the ordeal.

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