KTTC Classics – Page 3 – Keefe To The City

Jan 29, 2019

There Will Never Be Another Mariano Rivera

One day I will tell my kids about the guy who threw one pitch and got everyone out, but I don’t expect them to believe me.

One day I will tell my kids about the guy who threw one pitch and got everyone out.

It will be the way younger generations hear stories of how things were in the old days. Like how my dad tells me how he would go across the entire town of West Haven, Conn. with his hockey bag on his shoulder to get to school and practice — a feat that seems impossible. And the way I find it hard to believe he did such a thing, I expect my kids and their kids to listen to my stories about the greatest closer ever, but I don’t expect them to believe me when I tell them about Mariano Rivera.

“There was this pitcher who would throw one pitch that everyone knew was coming and they still couldn’t hit it.” Yeah, that sounds believable …

Rivera’s success, career and statistics are myth-like and staring at his Baseball Reference page, especially the postseason section, in amazement doesn’t do how good he was justice and won’t do it justice for future generations. The way I laugh at all of the bold numbers on Mickey Mantle’s Baseball Reference page is the way I expect those who didn’t get to experience Rivera to laugh.

Thankfully, there’s the Internet and YouTube, but still, there’s something to be said for being in the Stadium on a cold October night, clinging to a crucial lead, but at the same time knowing it was safe. No Baseball Reference page or video can capture the feel of seeing the bullpen door open with the first few notes of “Enter Sandman” causing your chest to vibrate as Bob Shepard calmly announces, “Coming in to pitch for the Yankees, Number 42, Mariano Rivera, Number 42.” The game was over then. Rivera jogging in from the outfield, throwing his warmup pitches and then getting the final outs of the game was essentially a formality.

Rivera is now a first-ballot Hall of Famer and the first-ever unanimous Hall of Fame selection. (It’s rather ridiculous it took until 2019 for a player to unanimously be voted into the Hall of Fame, but we’re also talking about a sport which regain its popularity thanks to performance-enhancing drugs and now destroys the credibility of anyone who has ever used performance-enhancing drugs.) But if someone had to be the first-ever unanimous selection, Rivera is the perfect choice as a dominant, humble athlete, who is the best player ever at his position and the greatest relief pitcher in history, and who has been every bit as impressive off the field in his life as he has been on it.

The common phrase when it comes to Number 42 has always been “There will never be anyone else like him” and it’s true because no one is reaching the majors with one pitch to their name and no one could be successful in the league for 18 years with a single pitch. But really there won’t be anyone else like him because there won’t be anyone else completely unfazed by pressure, who reacts the same way after the final out of the World Series as he does when he blows a save in the regular season. There won’t be anyone with such a cool persona and the combination of a perfect delivery and pinpoint control. There won’t be anyone like Mariano Rivera ever again.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

The book details my life as a Yankees fan, growing up watching Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams through my childhood and early adulthood and the shift to now watching Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge and others become the latest generation of Yankees baseball. It’s a journey through the 2017 postseason with flashbacks to games and moments from the Brian Cashman era.

Click here to purchase the book through Amazon as an ebook. You can read it on any Apple device by downloading the free Kindle app.

Jan 1, 2019

I Never Want to See Jacoby Ellsbury Play for the Yankees Again

Given contract and performance, Jacoby Ellsbury is the worst player in Yankees history and there’s no debate.

I never wanted the Yankees to sign Jacoby Ellsbury. No Yankees fan did. No one thought the Yankees’ decision to bid against themselves and give a 30-year-old outfielder, whose game is based on speed, a seven-year, $153 million contract was a good idea. No one outside of Boston.

The worst contract in the history of the Yankees was one that never made any sense. This wasn’t the Yankees competing against several other contenders to add Carl Pavano or even Jaret Wright after the 2004 ALCS collapse. This wasn’t the Steinbrenners overruling Brian Cashman to give A-Rod a 10-year, $275 million after his second MVP season in three years. This wasn’t the Yankees continually upping their offer to CC Sabathia to put so much money in front of him that he would have to say no to California. This wasn’t the Yankees giving A.J. Burnett $82.5 million because he led the league in strikeouts once (with an above-4 ERA). This wasn’t the Yankees stepping in and stealing Mark Teixeira away from the Red Sox with an eight-year, $180 million deal. This was the Yankees deciding to pass on their own homegrown, All-Star talent to sign essentially a one-year wonder to a seven-year, $153 million contract (with a $5 million buyout for an eighth season, which we can’t forget) when NO ONE ELSE was bidding.

Given the contract and performance, Jacoby Ellsbury is the worst player in the history of the New York Yankees. Pavano is not a counter argument. There is no argument. And all of the weird injuries and issues aside, Ellsbury made more in his first two seasons with the Yankees than Pavano did in his four, and two years from today, Ellsbury could still be a Yankee, weakly grounding out to the right side, hitting for no power, stealing no bases and blocking prospects with real baseball talent from reaching the majors.

In five seasons as a Yankee, Ellsbury has played in 520 of a possible 810 regular-season games (64.2 percent) and missed the entire 2018 season. He has hit an anemic .264/.330/.386 and averaged a .716 OPS and has averaged 9.8 home runs, 49.5 RBIs and 25.5 stolen bases when he has played. He was benched for the 2015 AL Wild-Card game, and then in the 2017 postseason, he went 0-for-9 with three strikeouts and two walks, sharing time with Chase Headey as the designated hitter before losing that part-time job the way he lost his full-time one in center field to Aaron Hicks.

The Yankees have paid him $105,714,285.75 for that performance and he will “earn” $21,142,857.15 in 2019 and another $21,142,857.15 in 2020. And then in 2021, instead of paying him $21 million for his age 37 season, the Yankees will have to buy him out for another $5 million.

The idea that having Ellsbury and Brett Gardner hitting first and second at the top of the order was what the Yankees needed after the disastrous 2013 season was such a bad idea that it makes choosing Gary Sheffield over Vladimir Guerrero look good. Like that Sheffield-Guerrero decision, maybe this decision also wasn’t Brian Cashman’s call after the 2013 season since ownership had to watch the Red Sox win their third World Series in 10 years while the Yankees put together the 2006 All-Star team with Ichiro, Travis Hafner, Kevin Youkilis, Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay. If it weren’t for Alfonso Soriano’s MVP-like return in the middle of the summer to string Yankees fans along until early September, maybe the front office would have done something more drastic than signing Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran. Maybe they would have also signed Shin-Soo Choo to a seven-year, $140 million deal. (Unfortunately, that’s not a joke as Cashman and Co. did offer Choo a seven-year, $140 million deal.)

I never thought I would find a hitter streakier than Gardner, but Ellsbury has been that, except his hot streaks last a quarter of the time of his cold streaks. Yes, the Yankees’ plan was to put the two streakiest hitters in the game back-to-back at the top of their lineup in hopes that hot streaks would occur at the same time. Why would you want to do that? If you know the answer then maybe you can also tell me why you would want two Brett Gardners on the same team? And then maybe you can also tell me why would you want to pay the real Brett Gardner $13 million per year and the bad Brett Gardner $21.1 million per year?

If the decision wasn’t Cashman’s then it needs to be made public. I can’t sit here five-plus years later with potentially two seasons left of Ellsbury (his third season will be bought out) and not know whose decision this was. Cashman has gotten a lot of praise in the last year and a half after he tore down a team he built and netted valuable assets like Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield and Dillon Tate. But if the Ellsbury signing was Cashman’s decision, I need to know. If it was someone in his front office then I need to know that they are no longer making decision for the New York Yankees. And if it happened to be ownership’s decision, well, that would make the most sense since Hal Steinbrenner and Randy Levine’s smart decision-making track record starts and ends with the Rafael Soriano signing. And if it weren’t for Mariano Rivera shagging fly balls in Kansas City, they wouldn’t have a smart track record.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whose decision it was. What does matter is that it can be fixed. The person responsible for the worst contract in Yankees history, which produced the worst Yankee in the team’s history, can salvage the monumental mistake that cost the franchise $153 million (plus his $5 million buyout for 2021) and Robinson Cano. And it’s very easy. Release Jacoby Ellsbury.

No team wants Ellsbury, not even for pennies on the dollar. Unless the Yankees eat a significant portion of his remaining $47 million and attach a prospect or prospects to him, no one is touching the one-year wonder, and after that was made abundantly clear last offseason, it has been reinforced in this one.

The Yankees aren’t getting out of this mistake. They can’t pay Ellsbury to play for another team through a trade like they did with David Justice or A.J. Burnett or Brian McCann. The only way out is to release him and find out which team is the dumbest in the league. If the Yankees release him and he signs with another team for the league minimum, which he most likely will, so be it. He’s not going to become the player he was for one season of his 12-year career. That one season also happened EIGHT YEARS AGO! He’s not going to be rejuvenated and revitalized with a change of scenery and more playing time because he isn’t good. He’s not going to come back to hurt the Yankees. He will most likely play like a Hall of Famer against them when he faces them because every ex-Yankee does, but he’s not going to be the missing piece of another contender, and he’s not going to get some big hit or make some big play against the Yankees that ruins their own championship aspirations. Because in a game of that magnitude, Ellsbury will be on the bench, like he was for the 2015 Wild-Card Game and like he was for nearly the entire 2017 postseason aside from a few DH at-bats, in which he went 0-for-9 with three strikeout and two walks.

Ellsbury’s comical injury saga of 2018 should be the fitting end to his Yankees tenure. He has no place on this team, other than to give the Yankees front office an out when they choose to not sign Bryce Harper, citing a “crowded outfield” as their reason. Ellsbury has no place on this team even if a series of unfortunate injuries or a rash of underachieving decimated the team. Even having him in spring training as a potential depth player is an insult. There’s no need to try to salvage even one penny of his remaining contract.

2013 was an embarrassment. 2014 was a disappointment. 2015 was great until the trade deadline and awful after it. 2016 sucked until after the trade deadline. 2017 was unexpected and the most fun I have had as a Yankees fan since the moment before Derek Jeter’s ankle was ruined in Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS. 2018 was enjoyable for the first three months of the season before a second half of .500 and embarrassing postseason ruined the year. But even with the disappointing end to last season, the Yankees are back to playing like the pre-2013 Yankees where winning a World Series every season was an attainable goal. If the Yankees don’t win a championship this season it will be a disappointment like it was for eight years after 2000 and again for three years after 2009. Ownership likes to apologize to the fans when the goal of winning a championship isn’t met and they promise to do better and do the things necessary to win moving forward. Getting rid of Ellsbury is doing better and doing something necessary. It doesn’t matter if he’s the last man on the bench or the 25th man on the roster. He’s there and he’s a reminder and holdover from the run of disappointing seasons from 2013-2016 and the bad contracts that led to those disappointing seasons.

It’s just money, and it’s just $47 million at this point. The other $105 million-plus has already been wasted. Sure, the Yankees could have used the Ellsbury contract to sign Cano, or give 765 New York City high school students $200,000 towards college, or give a $100 ticket or food credit at the Stadium to 1.53 million Yankees fans, or done anything other than give a one-year wonder on the wrong side of 30 a seven-year contract to play Major League Baseball. But they did and now it’s time to fix it. Release Jacoby Ellsbury.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

The book details my life as a Yankees fan, growing up watching Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams through my childhood and early adulthood and the shift to now watching Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Aaron Judge and others become the latest generation of Yankees baseball. It’s a journey through the 2017 postseason with flashbacks to games and moments from the Brian Cashman era.

Click here to purchase the book through Amazon as an ebook. You can read it on any Apple device by downloading the free Kindle app.

Blogs • KTTC Classics • Yankees

Apr 30, 2018

CC Sabathia Is Not Done

In 2015, it looked like CC Sabathia’s career was over. But three years later, he’s dominating as a finesse pitcher.

On Sunday night in Anaheim, CC Sabathia dominated the Angels. His line: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. It was his second dominant start in a row, lowering his season ERA to 1.71 and WHIP to 0.949. But this is nothing new for CC Sabathia 2.0. This is who he has been since the start of the 2016 season, and it’s time I said I was sorry.

Back on June 23, 2015, CC Sabathia got knocked around by the Phillies. He lasted 4 2/3 innings, allowing six earned runs on eight hits with two walks and two home runs. He didn’t get a decision in the game, but he deserved a loss, which would have been his eighth of the year. He picked up that eighth loss in his next start anyway.

After that loss to the Phillies, Sabathia’s ERA was sitting at 5.65. I despise the stat “quality start” (at least six innings pitched and three earned runs or less) because how can any start be “quality” when you can post a 4.50 ERA and have it be called “quality”, but through 15 starts in 2015, Sabathia had six quality starts and was making $23 million for the season. This after he pitched to a 4.78 ERA in 32 starts in 2013 and a 5.28 ERA in eight starts in 2014. I had seen enough. CC Sabathia was done.

On June 26, 2015, I wrote “CC Sabathia Is Done”. At the time he was done. He could no longer throw hard and was seemingly too stubborn to turn into a finesse pitcher for the final seasons of his career. But what is now the third season in his transformation from fastballs right by you to cutters in on your hands, it’s time to look back at what I wrote and see how it’s changed.

Next season, Sabathia’s salary increase to $25 million for the season, and when you consider his 2011 ERA (33 starts) was 3.00, his 2012 ERA (28 starts) was 3.38, his 2013 ERA (32 starts) was 4.78, his 2014 ERA (eight starts) was 5.28 and his 2015 ERA (15 starts) is 5.65, well, where is this going to go? It could go through the 2017 season, as Sabathia has a $25 million vesting option, which will vest if he doesn’t finish the 2016 season on the disabled list with a left shoulder injury or if he doesn’t spend more than 45 days in 2016 on the disabled list with a left shoulder injury or if he doesn’t make more than six relief appearances in 2016 because of a left shoulder injury. (There is a $5 million buyout if any of these things happen, so the Yankees will have to pay him $5 million to not pitch, which is better than $25 million to pitch and not be good). So the only way the Yankees are getting out of paying Sabathia $50 million in 2016 and 2017 is if he injures his left shoulder, and when he’s not even going five innings in starts, that’s not going to happen. The only way to not throw away $25 million in 2017 is for Girardi to start leaving Sabathia on the mound to throw 150-pitch complete games, or hope that he retires and walks away from the money, and that’s not happening. So if you think this season has been bad or 2014 and 2013 were bad, it’s not going to get better.

The biggest problem Sabathia at the time (aside from not giving the Yankees a chance to win in most of his starts) was the money he was owed. No Yankees fan wanted Sabathia to get hurt, but everyone was hoping the Yankees would instead use the $5 million buyout on him for 2017 to pay him to go away.

Sabathia turned it around in 2016, just in time for the Yankees to decide to not buy him out. And in the span of two years, he went from looking at being bought out and retiring to starting Games 2 and 5 of the ALDS against the Indians and Games 3 and 7 of the ALCS against the Astros. Sabathia’s line in those four postseason starts: 19 IP, 16 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 10 BB, 19 K, 1 HR, 2.37 ERA, 1.368 WHIP. I still can’t believe the same person whose career seemed over when he made only eight starts in 2014 and pitched like his career was over when he did pitch was given the ball to start a game in 2017 with a trip to the World Series on the line.

I have written several times that Sabathia needs to find a way to get outs without overpowering hitters the way his former teammate Andy Pettitte and supposed best friend Cliff Lee were able to do. With the Yankees in Houston, it was made known that Pettitte and Sabathia have talked frequently as Sabathia’s velocity and repertoire has changed, and if this is true, when are the changes going to take place, or are they ever? And do we know Sabathia and Pettitte are even talking about pitching when they talk? They could be talking about anything.

It took three seasons of a 4.81 ERA and leading the league in earned runs allowed in one of those seasons for Sabathia to finally give up on trying to be the pitcher he had been since 2001. Sabathia finally went through with the advice of Pettitte, who he now mirrors in his starts, both with his stuff and his performances, and it has revitalized his career. Sabathia is once again among the league leaders in soft contact with his soft stuff, and while he might not be the hard-throwing, seven-plus inning ace anymore, he doesn’t need to be to get productive results.

At this point, I treat every Sabathia start like a trip to the casino. If you plan on spending $500 at the casino then you’re going into it assuming you’re going to lose that $500 and anything you don’t lose or if you happen to end up winning, it’s an unexpected bonus. When Sabathia takes the mound, I assume the Yankees are going to lose, and if they aren’t blown out, he will certainly blow a lead they have given him at some point in the game. If he comes out in a tie game, with the Yankees winning, it’s the unexpected bonus. That’s not how it should work for starting pitcher making $23 million this season, $25 million next season and possibly another $25 million in 2017.

Since 2016, the Yankees are 37-25 in games started by Sabathia, so he’s no longer an expected losing trip to the casino. In today’s market, as a No. 5 starter making $10 million, he’s more than living up to his current contract, and if he keeps it up, he can make up for a percentage of the money he “earned” from 2013 to 2015.

During the 2011 season, I said “Jorge Posada is like the aging family dog that just wanders around aimlessly and goes to the bathroom all over the place and just lies around and sleeps all day. You try to pretend like the end isn’t near and you try to remember the good times to get through the bad times, and once in a while the dog will do something to remind you of what it used to be, but it’s just momentary tease.” Well, that aging family dog has become Sabathia.

The aging family dog might be 21 now, but it still has a few years left!

The next time Sabathia puts the Yankees in a hole before they even come up to bat for the first time, I will try to remember his first four seasons with the Yankees when he went 74-29 with a 3.22 ERA. The next time, he lets the 7-8-9 hitters get on base to start a rally, I will try to remember his win in Game 1 of the 2009 ALDS, his dominance over the Angels and winning the ALCS MVP in 2009 and his role in beating the Phillies in the 2009 World Series. The next time he can’t get through five innings, forcing the bullpen to be overused, I will try to remember his Game 5 win in the 2010 ALCS against the Rangers to save the season. And the next time he blows a three-run lead the inning following the Yankees taking that lead, I will try to remember his wins in Games 1 and 5 against the Orioles in the 2012 ALDS to get the Yankees out of the first round.

No matter what happens for the rest of Sabathia’s career, I will remember it in three parts. (Well, three parts as of now.) Part I being 2009-2012 when he went 74-29 with a 3.22 ERA, made 13 postseason starts and one postseason relief appearance and helped the Yankees win the 2009 World Series. Part II being 2013-2015 when he went 23-27 with a 4.81 ERA and made $69 million for 69 starts. Part III being 2016 until whenever he retires when he made the transformation from power pitcher to finesse pitcher and saved his career. (Let’s hope there isn’t a Part IV where he becomes the 2013-15 pitcher again). At this point, the Yankees should just keep re-upping him at $10 million per season until he either doesn’t want to pitch anymore or his knee or another body part won’t let him. Because this version of CC Sabathia can seemingly pitch forever.

I will try to remember the good times CC Sabathia once gave us nearly every time he took the ball because they hardly happen anymore and they are only to going to become more rare. I wish there were more good times to come, but there aren’t.

I don’t have to wish anymore because as long as Sabathia’s knee holds up, there are plenty of good times to come.

Blogs • KTTC Classics • Yankees

Feb 10, 2016

CC Sabathia Is Still Done

It wouldn’t be February without overly optimistic stories. And who better to start up this round of stories than CC Sabathia?

It’s almost time for pitchers and catchers to report and spring training to officially start, and it wouldn’t be early February without some overly optimistic stories. Each year at this time, the fairy tales that “(Player Name) is in the best shape of his life” or “(Player Name) feels the best he has in (number) years” are written. And who better to start up this round of stories than CC Sabathia?

“I feel the best I have in three years. I am excited to get to Tampa with a clear head and a healthy body.”

That’s what Sabathia texted to the New York Post on Tuesday after a workout, and in two simple sentences, Sabathia has given a lot of false hope to those who believe him. I don’t.

Last season, I did over/unders for the Yankees, and for Sabathia I set his ERA at over/under 4.50. Here’s what I said:

Sabathia is going to need to find a way to get outs without overpowering hitters the way his former teammate Andy Pettitte and supposed best friend Cliff Lee were able to do. (Let’s hope he talked to them.) Given the health concerns of Tanaka and Pined every pitch they throw, Sabathia is going to need to be relied on. That makes me uncomfortable, but … optimism!

Yes, I took the under and believed that a former ace making $25 million could pitch to a quality start ERA. He finished the year with a 4.73 ERA. It was down from his 5.28 in 2014 and his 4.78 in 2013, but it was nowhere near the 3.22 he posted in his first four years with the Yankees.

Sabathia once again let Yankees fans down as if was once again unable to turn into former teammate Andy Pettitte or supposed best friend Cliff Lee and instead tried to sneak fastballs past hitters sitting on his mid-to-high-80s stuff. He put together back-to-back quality starts three times in 29 starts and never had three in a row. It was another disappointing season from the former Cy Young winner, who lost his first four starts and didn’t get his first win until May 11 to improve to 1-5, as he didn’t win in April, won twice in May, once in June, once in July, didn’t win in August and won twice in September.

So now on Feb. 9, after having not pitched since Oct. 1, four months ago, and having spent a month in rehab for alcohol abuse, Sabathia says he feels the best he has in three years. Of course he does! He hasn’t pitched in 131 days and finally received treatment for what he said had been an ongoing problem. He’s never going to feel as good as he does right now before pitchers and catchers report and before the daily grind of being a soon-to-be 36-year-old Major League pitcher sets in.

My biggest question from Sabathia’s two sentences, is what he means by “three years.” If he means calendar years, well, three years ago right now he was about to begin a season in which he went 14-13 with a 4.78 ERA and led the league in earned runs. If he means seasons, then OK, because three seasons ago was his 2012 season when he went 15-6 with a 3.38 ERA and beat the Orioles twice in the ALDS. (Better known as his last good season.)

Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York wrote that Sabathia is “fighting” for his job in the rotation, which couldn’t be any less true, so I tweeted that I hope no one really thinks Sabathia’s rotation spot is in question.

I hope no one really thinks CC Sabathia is fighting for a rotation spot when he's owed $25 million this year. https://t.co/YZWebtIwc1

— Neil Keefe (@NeilKeefe) February 10, 2016

When I tweeted Matthews about how ridiculous of a concept that was, he replied:

https://twitter.com/ESPNNYYankees/status/697545815473008640

So then, I replied:

I wish that were the case but he stayed in rotation last year when he couldn't cut it and Warren went to the bullpen https://t.co/P0OIEHg1XX

— Neil Keefe (@NeilKeefe) February 10, 2016

That’s the truth. If Sabathia could remain in the 2015 rotation despite having an ERA of at least five until Sept. 14 and having just four wins in 26 starts through Sept. 14, while Adam Warren was sent to the bullpen, why would anyone think that Sabathia would be fighting for his job this season, against Ivan Nova of all pitchers? As long as Sabathia keeps making about $700,000 per start, which he will make this season AND next season, he’s going to start.

For the guy who basically won every five days for four years, he has now held Jorge Posada’s former title as the Yankees’ family dog for three seasons. If you forgot what I wrote about Posada in 2010 and 2011, well …

Posada is like the aging family dog that just wanders around aimlessly and goes to the bathroom all over the place and just lies around and sleeps all day. You try to pretend like the end isn’t near and you try to remember the good times to get through the bad times, and once in a while the dog will do something to remind you of what it used to be, but it’s just momentary tease.

Take out Posada and insert Sabathia and you have 2013-2015 Sabathia and what we will once again get in 2016 for $25 million and unfortunately again in 2017 for $25 million.

As the family dog, I’m sure Sabathia will give us a few throwback performances this season. Maybe he’ll beat the Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball or outpitch Matt Harvey at Yankee Stadium. Maybe he’ll retire Jose Bautista with the bases loaded or get Adam Jones to ground into a double play to hold a lead in a big spot. There will be times when Sabathia makes you think it’s 2009 or 2010 or 2011 or 2012 again, but they will be rare. Don’t believe what he texted the Post. It pains me to say again, but like I said last June, CC Sabathia is done.

Blogs • KTTC Classics • Yankees

Jun 26, 2015

CC Sabathia Is Done

CC Sabathia isn’t returning to the dominant starter he was and it’s hard to see him becoming an average starter at this point.

When the Yankees don’t win the World Series, which is something they have only done once since 2001, Hal Steinbrener, like his father, issues an apology to Yankees fans. Last season, following a second straight postseason-less year for the Yankees, Steinbrenner offered this apology to fans:

“I apologize. We did not do the job this year. We know what you expect of us, and we expect the same thing of ourselves.”

As the Yankees are currently constructed and as the way this season has gone, much like the last two, the goal for the Yankees each season has shifted from winning the World Series to just making the playoffs. And if the Yankees keep going the way they have with their unpredictable swings and lengthy winning and losing streaks, Steinbrenner will be apologizing for the sixth straight season for not bringing a championship to New York and for the third straight season for not even giving Yankees fans a single playoff game.

If Steinbrenner does hand out his now annual apology in the first week of October after Game 162, it will be as much of a joke as CC Sabathia has become. No one wants to hear that ownership and the front office “expect the same things” as the fans while they continue to send Sabathia to the mound every fifth (or now every sixth!) day as the league leader in earned runs and home runs allowed because of his salary, which is exactly why Sabathia pitched on Tuesday night against the Phillies and why he will pitch again next week against the Angels.

Joe Girardi admitted as much after Sabathia’s latest disaster (4.2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR) that the former ace will remain in the rotation because of money.

“He is a starter for us. That’s what he is and that’s what we are paying him to do and that is what he is going to do.”

Sabathia is making $23 millon this season. If he makes 34 starts, that’s $676,470.59 per start. If he makes 33 starts, that’s $696,969.68 per start. If he makes 32 starts, that’s $718,750 per start. So let’s call it $700,000 per start. That means on Tuesday night, Sabathia did the equivalent of showing up to work at noon, immediately going to lunch, returning to his desk to send one email followed by taking a one hour power nap, waking up and watching the first episode of Ballers on HBO GO at his desk, calling his boss fat and then leaving at 4:00. And he made $700,000 to do that.

It only get worse when it comes to the 34-year-old lefty, who will turn 35 in July. Next season, Sabathia’s salary increase to $25 million for the season, and when you consider his 2011 ERA (33 starts) was 3.00, his 2012 ERA (28 starts) was 3.38, his 2013 ERA (32 starts) was 4.78, his 2014 ERA (eight starts) was 5.28 and his 2015 ERA (15 starts) is 5.65, well, where is this going to go? It could go through the 2017 season, as Sabathia has a $25 million vesting option, which will vest if he doesn’t finish the 2016 season on the disabled list with a left shoulder injury or if he doesn’t spend more than 45 days in 2016 on the disabled list with a left shoulder injury or if he doesn’t make more than six relief appearances in 2016 because of a left shoulder injury. (There is a $5 million buyout if any of these things happen, so the Yankees will have to pay him $5 million to not pitch, which is better than $25 million to pitch and not be good). So the only way the Yankees are getting out of paying Sabathia $50 million in 2016 and 2017 is if he injures his left shoulder, and when he’s not even going five innings in starts, that’s not going to happen. The only way to not throw away $25 million in 2017 is for Girardi to start leaving Sabathia on the mound to throw 150-pitch complete games, or hope that he retires and walks away from the money, and that’s not happening. So if you think this season has been bad or 2014 and 2013 were bad, it’s not going to get better.

I have written several times that Sabathia needs to find a way to get outs without overpowering hitters the way his former teammate Andy Pettitte and supposed best friend Cliff Lee were able to do. With the Yankees in Houston, it was made known that Pettitte and Sabathia have talked frequently as Sabathia’s velocity and repertoire has changed, and if this is true, when are the changes going to take place, or are they ever? And do we know Sabathia and Pettitte are even talking about pitching when they talk? They could be talking about anything.

At this point, I treat every Sabathia start like a trip to the casino. If you plan on spending $500 at the casino then you’re going into it assuming you’re going to lose that $500 and anything you don’t lose or if you happen to end up winning, it’s an unexpected bonus. When Sabathia takes the mound, I assume the Yankees are going to lose, and if they aren’t blown out, he will certainly blow a lead they have given him at some point in the game. If he comes out in a tie game, with the Yankees winning, it’s the unexpected bonus. That’s not how it should work for starting pitcher making $23 million this season, $25 million next season and possibly another $25 million in 2017.

During the 2011 season, I said “Jorge Posada is like the aging family dog that just wanders around aimlessly and goes to the bathroom all over the place and just lies around and sleeps all day. You try to pretend like the end isn’t near and you try to remember the good times to get through the bad times, and once in a while the dog will do something to remind you of what it used to be, but it’s just momentary tease.” Well, that aging family dog has become Sabathia.

The next time Sabathia puts the Yankees in a hole before they even come up to bat for the first time, I will try to remember his first four seasons with the Yankees when he went 74-29 with a 3.22 ERA. The next time, he lets the 7-8-9 hitters get on base to start a rally, I will try to remember his win in Game 1 of the 2009 ALDS, his dominance over the Angels and winning the ALCS MVP in 2009 and his role in beating the Phillies in the 2009 World Series. The next time he can’t get through five innings, forcing the bullpen to be overused, I will try to remember his Game 5 win in the 2010 ALCS against the Rangers to save the season. And the next time he blows a three-run lead the inning following the Yankees taking that lead, I will try to remember his wins in Games 1 and 5 against the Orioles in the 2012 ALDS to get the Yankees out of the first round.

I will try to remember the good times CC Sabathia once gave us nearly every time he took the ball because they hardly happen anymore and they are only to going to become more rare. I wish there were more good times to come, but there aren’t.