My co Yankees MVPs of the postseason so far are Tanaka and Gregorious. David Robertson, who has been phenomenal in the bullpen, finished third in my personal balloting.
Hungry, CC may be 37 but he had his best statistical season since 2012. He developed a cut fastball under the tutelage of his good buddy Andy Pettite, who was a very crafty lefthanded pitcher. More importantly, he got a new knee brace and managed to stay healthy with only one or two short DL stints when he missed a start or two. If you watch CC regularly this year, he completely neutralizes lefthanded hitters with his slider. The Kipnis 3 pitch strikeout last night was a good example. However CC is not the horse capable of 7 innings or better every time out like he was in 2009. The good news is that with the historically deep bullpen the Yankees have in which an All Star pitcher this year (Betances) is currently 5th in the pecking order, CC doesn't need to go deep.
The Yankees bullpen is the deepest they have ever had, including in the late 1990s when they had a core of Mariano Rivera, Jeff Nelson, Mike Stanton, Ramiro Mendoza and Graeme Lloyd. The main difference with the current bullpen is they all throw harder and nasty vicious sliders, which is why Sanchez led the AL in passed balls this year. Sanchez also has a bad habit of stabbing at sliders with his glove sideways, which is bad blocking technique. A catcher blocking a vicious slider has to show the ball the entire face of the mitt. If it's sideways there is less glove to block ball. I think this will be fixed. He only does it with wild sliders on his right side, or those used on the outside against righties by guys like Gray, Tanaka, and Robertson, who all throw nasty shit off the plate.
