In case you haven’t noticed, CC Sabathia is back. The 35-year-old left-hander, after numerous injuries and his own personal battle with alcoholism, is back on the mound. For the first time since game five of the 2012 ALDS, he seems like the Sabathia we once loved.
He’s not the same pitcher, of course, because a nearly four mph drop in velocity is enough to warrant a change in pitching style. No, Sabathia is not the flaming lefty with nasty stuff, but more like a Mark Buehrle-esque starter with a crafty repertoire. People have talked about "learning to pitch" as a euphemism for compensating a lack of stuff with better command, and that’s a good way of putting it.