Originally, I had planned to use C.C. Sabathia as the subject of Fantasy Felony today. He was a ridiculously obvious buy low, and I would venture to say that upwards of 40% of his owners were desperately looking to move him; it's not difficult to find fantasy expert mailbags galore where people are being consoled about their ownership of The Buffett. Anyway, C.C. got straight dialed last night, pitching six scoreless innings (102 pitches), allowing four hits, issuing two walks and striking out a whopping 11 batters. He picked up the win as the Indians left poor Gil Meche bloodied and battered on the pitching mound, the victim of nine hits and eight earned runs through 33.1.
You may hear some people talk on Wednesday that "the Royals are good for what ails ya!" and other nonsense. C.C. just got his groove back. (Okay, you might hear that cliche type thing too.) The point is that Sabathia looked sharp as hell last night. He was hitting his spots, his fastball was dialed up and his breaking stuff was snapping in front of the plate. In other words: he is fine. Pitchers, even fantasy aces, don't go the entire season with near perfection. But a lot of people thought Sabathia was straight finished. So it's ironic that he got hot on a night when two other aces -- Brandon Webb and Jake Peavy -- struggled.
I don't think you can get Webb or Peavy on the cheap by any means. But I think that because it's early in the season, if you look at the freakout that Sabathia's struggles caused, you have to least inquire about both of them at some point today. Peavy didn't get the win; Webb did. But both guys didn't post huge numbers, which makes their owners at least somewhat vulnerable. You don't get many chances -- again, C.C. was one -- to land aces at a discount. But usually it's after they struggle and it's at the beginning of the season. So make sure and do your due diligence now.
