What's Wrong With C. C. Sabathia?

The start of the 2008 season has not been kind to C.C. Sabathia. After getting knocked around for 12 hits and 9 earned runs in 3.1 innings against the Athletics on Friday, Sabathia's numbers now sit at 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA after his first three starts. C.C. hasn't even seen the 7th inning of a ballgame yet, as his longest performance thus far has been 5.1 IP in his first two starts, and he's only pitched 14 innings total.

Not exactly the kind of production you would expect from the reigning American League Cy Young winner. So what's the deal?

The obvious answer to that question would be Sabathia's contract situation. Since the beginning of last season, C.C. has seen the Indians give contract extensions to Jake Westbrook, Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, and Travis Hafner. All the while he's been sitting there twisting in the wind. None of us can ever really be sure of how it feels to be in C.C.'s situation, but I'm pretty sure if I didn't know FanHouse wanted me back next year, it would probably affect my writing a bit. (I'd be writing posts about how Pablo Ozuna is the best player in baseball. Bar none. I know Ozzie Guillen would agree with me.)

Now it's not all the Indians' fault, because C.C. broke off contract talks with the team once the season started because he didn't want it to become a distraction. In spite of such sound logic, I think it's safe to say it's become a distraction.

I'm already convinced that Sabathia will not be in an Indians jersey come next season, and with the way he's pitching right now, along with the Indians somewhat slow start to the season, there's a chance (Albeit a slim chance. I'm not dumb enough to write the Indians off after only 10 games.) he may not be an Indian come August 1st. With the amount of money the team just invested in Carmona, and the money they've already invested in other contracts, there just isn't enough cash in the coffers to keep Sabathia around.

There's a part of me that's convinced Sabathia will figure things out eventually, get back to dominating, and push the Indians back to the top of the division where they belong, but I'm not completely convinced. For the most part, he's generally gotten off to very strong starts in April, and faded as the season progressed, and that big body of his begins to wear down. Though I guess if we want to look for the silver lining, we could just say that his lack of innings so far will keep him fresher for the stretch run.