This article explores the profound impact Carl Willis had on the development of CC Sabathia, from his early days in the minor leagues to his stardom in the MLB. Willis, a former player turned coach, meticulously worked with Sabathia, refining his pitching mechanics, expanding his arsenal of pitches, and instilling in him the mental fortitude necessary to excel at the highest level.
Joe Noga, cleveland.comSabathia told reporters Tuesday that Willis was responsible for every aspect of his development as a professional pitcher. “Literally everything that I learned as a pitcher, mentality-wise, delivery-wise, even down to holding the baseball, Carl Willis was responsible for,” Sabathia said. Lessons learned from the Buckeyes’ championship; Joe Flacco or Kirk Cousins? 1 Cavs stat to watch: Terry’s Talkin’ podcastSee our list and how we ranked them.
Sabathia was a 17-year-old from Vallejo, California, when Willis and Burlington Indians skipper Joe Mikulik picked him up from the Raleigh airport in North Carolina after Cleveland made him the No. 20 pick in the first round of the 1998 draft. “My first impression was, ‘I love this guy,’” Sabathia said. “We drove over to Burlington and I had the chance to spend time with him.” From his very first bullpen session after that 1998 draft, Sabathia soaked in everything Willis had to show him. And from the beginning, it was clear that there was a lot of work to do.Sabathia’s response was incredulous. “I was like, ‘What do you mean four-seamer? Like, I grab the ball right here in the middle and I throw it like this,’” Sabathia said. “‘When I want to throw a slider, I drop down here.’ He was like, ‘Oh, we’ve got a lot of work to do.’” Willis, 38 at the time, had enjoyed a successful nine-year playing career, but was just getting his feet wet as a coach at the time. He recalls being nervous about the responsibility of working with a first-round pick, and somebody blessed with Sabathia’s “physical gifts” in just his second year on staff. “It was a little bit nerve-racking, but yeah, I remember like it was yesterday,” Willis said. “It was obvious the arm strength, the velocity the athleticism, but I noticed you know he would throw one pitch in the middle of the rubber one pitch to the side, there was no consistency where he started his delivery.” So Willis, who has coached five Cy Young Award winners beginning with Sabathia in 2007, slowed the young phenom down and the two worked together to build a delivery from the ground up. “His strength, and the velocity all that it was off the charts, but we fine-tuned some of the basics,” Willis said. “I was a little nervous, but at the same time it was fun.”“He literally broke down my delivery and taught me how to deliver the baseball and how to be efficient at it,” Sabathia said. “He taught me pitch-sequencing.”Willis guided Sabathia all the way to the major leagues at every step of his development. Once he established himself as an All-Star and one of the top arms in the league, his development continued at the major league level. On a 2006 road trip to Oakland, Sabathia needed a pitch that would be tough on right-handers and miss left-handed bats. He decided to add a cutter to his repertoire, and asked Willis to show him the pitch. Willis said early on, he learned that Sabathia had a pretty good changeup, but he had never needed to use it much in high school because his fastball was so dominant. Gradually, his breaking pitches came along, as well. “The idea was we’re gonna add a cutter, so we went out and showed him a cutter grip,” Willis recalled. “He starts to throw it and he’s just throwing this ridiculous slider. I mean I referred to it as a Steve Carlton slider. That language is so important because what we told CC what a good slider it was he kind of lost it because his mindset went from throwing a cutter to really spinning the baseball.”“I end up with this 83-mph slider out of that bullpen,” Sabathia said. “Really, from that second half of 2006 until the end of my career, that was one of my plus-plus pitches.” Willis said he was blessed to have been the guy responsible for introducing Sabathia to professional baseball in 1998, but added that any of the coaches in Cleveland’s organization at that time would have been fortunate to work with him. “The blessing was mine in terms of being there with him,” Willis said. “What stands out is his competitiveness. Later in his career when he lost a bit of his power, when he lost some velocity and he pitched the last few years of career sinking the baseball, throwing a cut fastball along with the sliders, that’s difficult to do for a guy who you don’t have the type of power in his arsenal like when he was younger.” But what stands out to Willis to this day about Sabathia is what a good person he is. When he joined the Yankees in 2009, Willis recalled talking to New York coaches about what a tremendous human being he was in the clubhouse and off the field. “He changed the culture of their clubhouse,” Willis said. “It was a whole new dynamic and a whole new feel for their team and how they got along in the clubhouse. I’m as proud of that as I am of anything he did on the field. He’s Hall of Fame caliber but he’s a Hall of Fame person, and I want people to know tha
CC Sabathia Carl Willis Cleveland Indians New York Yankees Pitching Coach Baseball History Hall Of Fame
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