Sabathia done for 2014: knee surgery

jon abbey

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Complained of pain in his landing knee, MRI today, fluid on his knee, to the DL. 
 

jon abbey

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They're not going to move Betances or Adam Warren (although they should stretch out Warren at this point).
 
Aceves or Chase Whitley (scratched from his minor league start today), Matt Daley up for emergency relief help for now.
 

orphan

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A 3 billion dollar team and they don’t even have replacement level pitchers at hand. How the heck do the Braves do it when they’re also usually atop their division?  
 

Doctor G

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This is probably the real reason for the weight loss over the last two years. 
 

EvilEmpire

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Backups have done a decent job so far, even with 2/5 of the rotation out already.  My guess would be Aceves until Pineda gets back.  The timing of CC going down sucks, but the depth hasn't been too bad. 
 
Right now I'm not even sure they need a replacement-level pitcher to improve on what CC has done.
 

Ed Hillel

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Doctor G said:
This is probably the real reason for the weight loss over the last two years.
A bum knee? Wouldn't that make him fatter?

Given the amount of weight he lost in the period of like a month, I'm going with some form of gastric bypass.
 

derekson

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Ed Hillel said:
A bum knee? Wouldn't that make him fatter?

Given the amount of weight he lost in the period of like a month, I'm going with some form of gastric bypass.
 
I assumed he had gastric bypass or maybe lap band surgery. There's no way he lost that kind of weight without some kind of help.
 
The knees may have been what spurred Sabathia to try to lose weight and ultimately get that procedure (if he indeed did). I think he started having some knee issues 2 or 3 years ago.
 

derekson

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jon abbey said:
"Girardi said neither Adam Warren nor Dellin Betances would be rotation candidates right now."
 
http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2014/05/11/pregame-notes-133/
 
 
I don't know why they don't stretch out Warren, but not stretching out Betances seems smart. The guy has finally settled into a role where he's doing pretty well as a reliever. Putting him back into a rotation after all the control issues he had in the minors as a starter over multiple seasons just seems foolhardy.
 

jon abbey

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ThePrideofShiner said:
How has Banuelos been doing so far this season? Any chance he comes up?
 
He has been limited to three inning outings so far and just got promoted to AA, he is months away in the most optimistic scenario.
 
I actually meant to post a week or two ago that they should stretch out Warren with Phelps and Nuno already in the rotation, they have some other relief options in the minors they could go to (Montgomery for one). They should still do that now, although it doesn't seem like they want to. And agreed about Betances that they should just leave him be, although moving Warren to the AAA rotation for a few weeks would also push Dellin into a more important bullpen role (which I am also all for, the sooner the better). 
 

jon abbey

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They don't know the cause, the cortisone shot is designed to help with symptoms so he can go back to pitching. As with any cortisone shot, they'll know more in a few days. 
 

Sampo Gida

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jon abbey said:
They don't know the cause, the cortisone shot is designed to help with symptoms so he can go back to pitching. As with any cortisone shot, they'll know more in a few days. 
 
On the contrary, a degenerative change is common in osteoarthritis and is a result of the breakdown of cartilage which allows bone on bone contact.  As an overweight guy who had knee surgery to repair a meniscus he is a prime candidate for this.
 
How he lost that much weight with an arthritic knee is beyond me, since cardio workouts must be difficult.  Most likely an HGH cocktail of some sort which burns fat
 
As for CC's future, I think it may be in the pen at some point. However, maybe he does ok starting for awhile if they can get the swelling down, but 100 pitches a game at his size takes a toll
 

EvilEmpire

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How he lost that much weight with an arthritic knee is beyond me, since cardio workouts must be difficult.  Most likely an HGH cocktail of some sort which burns fat
Most likely? That is the weakest PED speculation I've ever read around here. What nonsense.
 

jon abbey

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Yep, most likely a tummy tuck of some kind, as we talked about in the offseason. 
 

glennhoffmania

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EvilEmpire said:
Most likely? That is the weakest PED speculation I've ever read around here. What nonsense.
 
Yeah I agree.  That was pretty dumb.
 
Here's some more on CC:
 
“His knee stability is fine, so there’s no ligament damage or anything like that,” Cashman said. “His knee is stable; but he does have some degenerative changes.”
 
 
 
 

We have current players and we’ve had past players that have dealt with this in the past,” Cashman said. “There have been a number of successes throughout that process; hopefully CC will be in that success, also.”
 
The Yankees remain hopeful that Sabathia will be ready to go when he’s eligible to return from his 15-day stint on the disabled list, but Cashman said he’ll wait to hear what Dr. Andrews has to say before making any such predictions.

 
 
 

Corsi

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CC Sabathia will be out until at least July, Brian Cashman told The Post.
 
“It will be no sooner than six weeks from now,” Cashman said in discussing a potential return date for Sabathia.
 
Sabathia received a stem cell treatment injection in his inflamed right knee from Dr. James Andrews late last week. Cashman said the Yankees were informed that if the process works, it would be a minimum of six weeks. Which means the Yankees would be without the lefty until July.
 
http://nypost.com/2014/05/19/yankees-cc-sabathia-out-until-at-least-july/
 

Sampo Gida

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Surprised no mention of a viscosupplementation treatment which injects a gel into the knee to provide lubrication. Randy Johnson used it for years since he had a similar problem although he had less weight to support.
 
Not sure CC would agree, but a bullpen role really makes the most sense for him.   THis could free up Warren or Betances for a return to starting
 

Sprowl

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Sampo Gida said:
Surprised no mention of a viscosupplementation treatment which injects a gel into the knee to provide lubrication. Randy Johnson used it for years since he had a similar problem although he had less weight to support.
 
Not sure CC would agree, but a bullpen role really makes the most sense for him.   THis could free up Warren or Betances for a return to starting
Good Mikey Lowell got one of those injections back in the day (2008 or 9) when his hip was seizing up on him. The word back then was that it was 'a shot of puppy love', but they wore off after a few weeks, and couldn't be repeated in the same season. To use it is to use him up. IANAD, but has viscosupplementation advanced much in five years?
 

radsoxfan

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The Synvisc-type injections are not generally thought to be very useful.  The studies are a bit all over the place, but the majority of the data points to minimal to no benefit.  
 
The combination of his weight and the prior meniscus tear led to cartilage damage, and it's not going to heal itself.  They could go the microfracture route, though that doesn't work very well either.  
 
Without seeing his MRI and just how bad the cartilage loss is, it's impossible to speculate how much of a factor it will be for CC going forward.  Obviously it's not ideal for the Yankees given the number of years he has left on his contract.  Pitching out the bullpen might cause less wear on his knee, but I have to imagine he is going to get every chance to start.
 

HriniakPosterChild

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radsoxfan said:
Obviously it's not ideal for the Yankees given the number of years he has left on his contract.  Pitching out the bullpen might cause less wear on his knee, but I have to imagine he is going to get every chance to start.
 
They would surely like to give him the best chance to blow out his left shoulder so that they can get out of their 2017 commitment. 
 

jon abbey

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He was so bad when he was in there that I'm not sure that this doesn't actually help NY. The other injuries make it harder, but hopefully Pineda will be back before too long at least.
 

derekson

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ronlt40 said:
Article on ESPN.com about a Japanese candy that the Yankee players are hooked on. http://tinyurl.com/olfruwd
 
"There is debate about who is the most addicted. Kuroda said it was CC Sabathia."
 
Awesome. 
 
You buried the lede. This is apparently just the Yankees copying the 2013 Red Sox:
 
 
 
"I was first introduced to Hi-Chew in Boston last year," reliever Matt Thorntonsaid. "When I first saw it come into the clubhouse here, I knew immediately that it would be a huge hit with the guys. 

"There is something about them. I don't know if there is some sort of illegal substance in them or something like that [that] makes them so addictive, but they are definitely one of those things where you can knock down 10 and not even realize it. I had a steady diet of them going on in the playoffs last year. They are good. They are kind of a newer candy over here." 
 

glennhoffmania

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Sabathia was roughed up in his rehab start for Double-A Trenton on Wednesday night, lasting 3 1/3 innings, allowing five runs (three earned) on five hits. He had another MRI on Thursday and has been shut down indefinitely, according to manager Joe Girardi.
 
 
 
"It's not what you want," Girardi said of Sabathia. "We were hopeful the swelling would stay away and he'd be in our rotation fairly soon, but that doesn't appear to be the case."
 
 
 
Link
 

moly99

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I have knee tendinosis and it spurred me to lose the fat. (Although in my case it was 190 down to 160.) I wouldn't be surprised if the knee problems finally convinced Sabathia to try and lose weight.
 
I have to wonder how long the Yankees malaise is likely to last. It certainly doesn't look like they will fix their pitching problems this year, but will they be able to salvage the rotation next year?
 

jon abbey

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Depends if they can build around both Tanaka and Lester, or just Tanaka. :)
 

ronlt40

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Newsday: "CC Sabathia will likely not pitch again this season, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, due to the right knee issue that has limited him to eight starts with the Yankees this year."
http://tinyurl.com/ln85esf
 

21st Century Sox

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If Sabathia indeed needs microfracture surgery, his career would certainly be over. Too large/old to recover from that.
 

Plympton91

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Much as I like it when bad things happen to the Yankees, that kind of sucks. Sabathia likely just needed to add to his counting stats to be a HOF guy.
 

DaveRoberts'Shoes

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jon abbey said:

https://twitter.com/JackCurryYES/status/490254544421412864"]11s

link to tweet[/url]

Sabathia will have arthroscopic knee surgery. If that's unsuccessful, Cashman said microfracture surgery could still be possibility.


Odds of this working are extremely low, but a microfracture at his age and weight would necessitate at least a year off and probably end his career
 

jon abbey

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HriniakPosterChild said:
Too bad for NYY he didn't stay opted out...
 
Him and A-Rod both. It's not the opt-outs that hurt NY, it's the new contracts they choose to sign after that.
 

axx

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Maybe he should go see that German "Doctor" that Andrew Bynum is?
 

Harry Hooper

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Is Sabathia's weight still down these days, or has he been adding pounds as the season progressed?