sabathia proving his worth

the way sabathia is pitching these days, mariokart fans will be calling him 150 cc - a level reserved for only the very best.

since joining the brewers, sabathia is 9-0 in 11 games started and has allowed more than 2 earned runs in just one of his past 10 starts, giving up 3 to the seemingly unstoppable cubs. his ERA has dropped to 1.43, which would be the lowest in the national league by over a run if he had enough innings to qualify. still not convinced? how's this for a clincher: sabathia leads the NL in complete games (5) despite having spent just two months in the league. (CORRECTION: sabathia actually has six complete games; the espn stats page i was referring to had not yet been updated.)

sabathia was not a deadline deal - he came over to wisconsin from cleveland in early july - but he is the kind of impact player that conniving general managers hope to pick up as the summer wraps up to make a difference in a pennant race. after sabathia threw what may still turn out to be a no-hitter tonight, the brewers are 10-1 in games started by their new ace and have a 5.5-game lead in the wild card. the rays may be the underdog darlings of 2008, but the brewers have to be the feel-good story in the national league.

at this rate, sabathia will be moving on to mirror mode pretty soon.