Prior to the opening of the weekend Subway Series against the New York Mets, the New York Yankees’ ace pitcher CC Sabathia appeared on the Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio in New York to discuss the team. The Yankees, of course, took two of three from the Mets.
Some of what Sabathia spoke about applies just as well after the series as before. Sports Radio Interviews has the full transcript. Here are a couple of excerpts:
This Yankees team has gone through a lot of stuff. Everyone is wondering what a guy like you feels about the whole Jorge Posada situation. What is your opinion on it? How are the guys handling it in the locker room?
“I think the rest of the team is fine with it. It hasn’t affected us at all. It’s just one of those things that happened and Posada has been here a long time. He’s a veteran guy. It’s just one of those things. He is one of the leaders on our team, so we all support him and have his back and you know we’ll keep going.”
Do you feel confident that the Yankees have a chance to be a real good team this year?“Oh yeah. I think we have a chance to be a great team. This is a long baseball season. You’re going to have a week or two where you’re not going to play well, but what happens after that is what counts. We won three in a row and like I said we have a lot of veteran ball players on this team, a really good team, it’s just up to us to go out there and do it.”
Do you feel confident about the rest of the rotation behind you and A.J. Burnett?
“I do. You look at the way that Bartolo [Colon] has been throwing the ball. I mean he fills up the strike zone every time out. Freddy [Garcia] knows how to pitch. He doesn’t have the stuff that he used to, but he definitely knows how to pitch and knows what he’s doing, so [Ivan] Nova is going to come along. He’s going to have some ups-and-downs cause he is young, but he’s got a great arm and a lot of talent and we look for him to be good for us this year.”