Buster Olney says that CC Sabathia has lost 30 pounds this winter. To which I say: wow.
Still, I’m not going to slap with this with “best shape of his life” for a couple of reasons. Most directly, because I remember when CC was a young Cleveland Indian, and it would probably take more than a 30 pound loss for him to truly be in the best shape of his life.
But more to the point: Sabathia is one of the few guys in baseball who probably didn’t have a big need to lose weight. Oh, this will help -- his knee is getting wonky and the less weight on it the better -- but if it weren’t for that, he could probably do fine with some extra poundage. So much of Sabathia’s weight is below his waist, and that provides him with some serious stumps for planting.
Or not. Maybe someone who knows a lick about physical fitness and pitching mechanics can tell me I’m wrong. It just seems that Sabathia has had less of a struggle with stamina or any of the other problems one would think being big would cause than most big guys do. Indeed, he’s had more stamina than most pitchers in the game.
Either way, though, good for him for dropping some pounds.