CC Sabathia became the 17th pitcher in MLB history to record his 3,000th strikeout

In Tuesday’s game in Phoenix against the Diamondbacks, CC Sabathia became the 17th pitcher and 3rd lefty in the Major League Baseball history to have 3,000 strikeouts. His milestone strikeout came in the bottom of the 2nd, after previously striking out the first two batters, when he struck out former Yankee catcher John Ryan Murphy swinging to end the inning.

Sabathia is now the third African American pitcher with 3,000 strikeouts. The other two are Bob Gibson and Fergie Jenkins. Those are three are members of Black Aces,

There was a pause in the game where he got hugs and congratulations from his family and teammates and cheers from the Diamondbacks fans. He said after the game that getting to 3,000 had been on his mind since the beginning of the season and now he will be able to concentrate more on winning games and helping the Yankees win a World Series in his final season.

Sabathia, who made his debut all the way back on April, 8 of 2001 with the Cleveland Indians after being drafted with the 20th overall pick in the 1998 draft by Cleveland, recorded his 1,000th strikeout against Hall of Famer and future Yankee teammate Ichiro Suzuki and his 2,000th strikeout against the great center fielder Torii Hunter.

Sabathia, who is 38 and in his 19th MLB season, signed a one-year, $8 million contract for his final season. After making his fourth start in his final season, he has 247 wins, 154 losses, a 3.69 ERA, 542 starts, 3,490.1 innings pitched, 3,002 strikeouts, 38 complete games, 12 shutouts and a 1.253 WHIP. The lefty from Vallejo, California finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to Ichiro in 2001, has been an All-Star six times, won the Cy Young in 2007 and finished top five in Cy Young voting five different times.

Sabathia currently leads all active major leaguers in career innings pitched and career strikeouts.

In 2007, when he won the Cy Young in the middle of his prime with the Indians, he was 19–7, made 34 starts, pitched a 241.0 innings (pitchers don’t pitch this many innings anymore), had a dominant 3.21 ERA, 209 strikeouts and a 1.14 WHIP.

He was even better the next season after pitching 18 starts with the Indians and 17 with the Brewers. He made many starts on three days rest and was an integral part on the Brewers making the playoffs and he looks back on that stint with Milwaukee as one of the highlights of his career.

With the Indians in 2008, he had a 3.83 ERA, but with the Brewers to close the season he had a sensational 1.63 ERA in 17 starts to have likely a top five 17 game stretch for a pitcher in the last 30 years. Overall in 2008, he had a 2.70 ERA, 17 wins, five shutouts, a career-high 251 strikeouts, 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings and a 1.115 WHIP.

After his very dominant two months with the Brewers, he signed a seven-year, $161 million contract with the Yankees. The big lefty was a major reason the Yankees won the ALDS, ALCS and won their 27th World Series in 2009 in his first season on the team. In the ALCS, Sabathia had a 1.13 ERA in two starts and in the World Series he had a 3.29 ERA in two starts.

His peak lasted from 2006 through 2012 where his ERA was at or below 3.38 in every season. He also had at least 172 strikeouts in each of those seasons with at least 197 strikeouts six times.

Sabathia struggled in 2013, 2014, 2015 and to a lesser extent 2016 due to injuries and surgeries and not having the mid to high 90s velocity he had during his peak. In 2013, his season ended early due to a strained hamstring and finished with a 4.78 ERA for a full season.

He had major right knee issues in 2014 causing him to only make eight starts (5.28 ERA), and he based some of his worse performance on his decreased weight due to change in diet. In 2015, he had knee issues again leading to a subpar 4.73 ERA, but he started to wear a knee brace in the beginning of September leading to better results in September.

He was able to overcome off the field issues at the end of the 2015 season when he checked himself into an alcohol rehab facility leading him to miss the Wild Card Game, which the team would lose. This has not been an issue since then and he has been able to improve that aspect of his life.

Sabathia has very impressively been able to overhaul his pitching and change his pitching repertoire after the 2015 season with help from Andy Pettitte. The long time very productive Yankee lefty has been a mentor for Sabathia helping him emphasis his cutter and change up and rely more on pin point control now as opposed to before before when he was a power pitcher who could rely on his fastball to dominate games.

Sabathia has said that he enjoys pitching more now and wishes he knew earlier in his career what he knows now. He has also said that in the last few years he has learned how to control his emotions better than before.

The 300-pound lefty has had very productive ERAs of 3.69 and 3.65 in the last two seasons and has shown somewhat of a career resurgence. He struck out 140 batters last season, which was twenty more than the previous season in only two more starts (29 starts in 2018, 27 starts in 2017).

His success in 2017, 2018 and so far in 2019 (2.66 ERA in four starts) means that he will get to retire on his own terms and not to due extreme regression like some pitchers. He can’t pitch as deep into games as he used to as he is basically a five inning pitcher now but he has been able to find away to throw the ball exactly where he wants it and establish his cutter as a pitch to rely on.

On June 12, 2018 Sabathia recorded his 1,500 strikeout with the Yankees in a 3–0 win, which allowed him to join Pettitte, Whitey Ford, Ron Guidry and Red Ruffing as the only pitchers in Yankees history to reach that mark. Sabathia has locked up being in the Hall of Fame since with only three more wins he will have 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts in his career.

Sabathia is currently tied with Bartolo Colon, who pitched 21 seasons and last appeared in the big leagues in 2018, and Jack Quinn, who retired in 1933, for 49th on the all-time wins list.

If Sabathia wins seven more games the rest of the season that will put him tied with Carl Hubbell at 253 and if he wins nine more games the rest of the season (256) that will put him in 42nd place on the all-time list and in a a tie with his friend and former teammate Andy Pettitte.