When CC and Cliff last pitched together

As the Cliff Lee rumors pour in on a seemingly minute-by-minute basis, I wanted to take a look at how Lee and former (and perhaps soon-to-be new) teammate CC Sabathia fared the last time they were rotation-mates.

The year was 2008, and Lee was coming off a disastrous 2007 that saw him pitch to a 6.29 ERA over 97.1 innings before being banished to triple A for most of the remainder of the season. It's difficult to fathom that Lee -- whose postseason resume is already the stuff of legend after a mere two Octobers -- wasn't even included on the Indians' postseason roster for either the ALDS or ALCS that year. Sabathia, on the other hand, had established himself as both the ace of the Indians' staff and a mammoth workhorse, tossing 1,165.1 innings of 3.95 ERA ball (185 starts) since breaking into the rotation in 2001. Sabathia was of course handed Opening Day duties, while Lee didn't pitch until the team's 6th game, on April 6.

Courtesy of Baseball-Reference, here are their gamelogs from 2008 up until the point Sabathia was traded to the Brewers. First up is CC:

Rk	Gtm	Date		Opp	Rslt	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	WPA
1	1	Mar 31		CHW	W,10-8		5.1	6	5	5	3	7	2	8.44	100	-0.218
2	5	Apr 5	@	OAK	L,1-6	L(0-1)	5.1	6	4	4	4	2	1	7.59	107	-0.211
3	10	Apr 11		OAK	L,7-9	L(0-2)	3.1	12	9	9	2	4	0	11.57	91	-0.391
4	15	Apr 16		DET	L,2-13	L(0-3)	4.0	8	9	9	5	1	2	13.50	93	-0.366
5	20	Apr 22	@	KCR	W,15-1	W(1-3)	6.0	4	0	0	2	11	0	10.12	102	0.167
6	25	Apr 27		NYY	L,0-1	L(1-4)	8.0	4	1	1	1	8	1	7.88	111	0.304
May				Opp	Rslt	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	WPA
7	30	May 3		KCR	L,2-4	L(1-5)	6.1	10	4	4	1	4	0	7.51	103	-0.074
8	35	May 9		TOR	W,6-1	W(2-5)	7.0	6	1	1	2	9	0	6.55	106	0.250
9	40	May 14		OAK	W,2-0	W(3-5)	9.0	5	0	0	2	11	0	5.47	117	0.578
10	45	May 20	@	CHW	L,1-4	L(3-6)	7.0	7	2	2	1	8	2	5.14	110	0.156
11	50	May 25		TEX	L,1-2		7.0	5	1	1	2	5	1	4.74	98	0.301
12	55	May 31	@	KCR	L,2-4	L(3-7)	8.0	8	4	4	0	4	1	4.72	102	-0.147
June				Opp	Rslt	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	WPA
13	60	Jun 5	@	TEX	L,4-9	L(3-8)	6.0	9	5	4	3	8	0	4.81	119	-0.196
14	65	Jun 10		MIN	W,1-0	W(4-8)	9.0	5	0	0	0	5	0	4.34	106	0.762
15	70	Jun 15		SDP	W,7-3	W(5-8)	8.0	6	3	3	1	10	0	4.26	112	0.155
16	75	Jun 21	@	LAD	W,7-2		7.0	5	1	1	1	10	1	4.06	116	0.279
17	80	Jun 27		CIN	W,6-0	W(6-8)	8.0	4	0	0	2	11	0	3.78	116	0.383
July				Opp	Rslt	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	WPA
18	85	Jul 2	@	CHW	L,5-6		8.0	7	5	4	2	5	2	3.83	123	-0.252
							253.0	223	85	76	59	251	19	2.70

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/7/2010.

And here's Lee:

Rk	Gtm	Date		Opp	Rslt	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	WPA
1	6	Apr 6	@	OAK	W,2-1	W(1-0)	6.2	4	1	0	1	4	0	0.00	108	0.230
2	12	Apr 13		OAK	W,7-1	W(2-0)	8.0	2	1	1	0	8	0	0.61	102	0.401
3	17	Apr 18	@	MIN	W,4-0	W(3-0)	8.0	2	0	0	1	8	0	0.40	109	0.395
4	22	Apr 24(2)	@	KCR	W,2-0	W(4-0)	9.0	3	0	0	0	9	0	0.28	120	0.634
5	28	Apr 30		SEA	W,8-3	W(5-0)	6.0	8	3	3	0	3	1	0.96	97	0.234
May				Opp	Rslt	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	WPA
6	33	May 7	@	NYY	W,3-0	W(6-0)	7.0	6	0	0	0	7	0	0.81	103	0.412
7	38	May 12(2)		TOR	L,0-3		9.0	7	0	0	2	5	0	0.67	117	0.702
8	44	May 18	@	CIN	L,4-6	L(6-1)	5.2	10	6	5	1	2	2	1.37	96	-0.291
9	49	May 24		TEX	W,5-2	W(7-1)	6.2	7	2	2	4	8	0	1.50	113	0.157
10	54	May 30	@	KCR	W,5-4	W(8-1)	6.0	10	4	4	1	3	0	1.88	101	-0.080
June				Opp	Rslt	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	WPA
11	59	Jun 4	@	TEX	W,15-9	W(9-1)	5.0	9	6	6	2	8	1	2.45	112	-0.383
12	64	Jun 9	@	DET	W,8-2	W(10-1)	5.0	6	2	2	2	5	0	2.52	88	0.075
13	69	Jun 14		SDP	L,3-8		6.1	8	2	2	0	6	1	2.55	105	0.125
14	74	Jun 20	@	LAD	W,6-4		7.1	6	1	1	1	3	0	2.45	104	0.329
15	79	Jun 26		SFG	W,4-1	W(11-1)	8.0	4	1	1	1	11	0	2.34	111	0.321
July				Opp	Rslt	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	WPA
16	84	Jul 1	@	CHW	L,2-3		8.0	6	1	1	1	3	0	2.26	106	0.435
							223.1	214	68	63	34	170	12	2.54

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/7/2010.

Coming off his Cy Young-winning 2007, Sabathia famously struggled through his first four starts of 2008, putting up a 13.50 ERA. However, he pitched out of his mind from his fifth start on, posting a 2.16 ERA over 104.1 innings until the trade to Milwaukee. He of course then went on to make mince meat of the National League, pitching the Brewers to their first playoff appearance in 26 years.

Lee was even better than Sabathia in 2008, surprising the heck out of everyone while pitching to a sub-2.00 ERA through his first 10 starts of the season and never letting it get higher than 2.58 all year. Lee gave up more than three runs only seven times in 31 starts, notched four complete games and two shutouts and flat-out destroyed the competition, ultimately clocking in at a Major League-leading 7.3 bWAR and winning the 2008 Cy Young.

CC and Lee weren't slotted back-to-back in the Cleveland rotation until May 24, 2008, but over the 16 back-to-back starts they made from that date until Sabathia was traded to the Brew Crew, the duo combined to pitch to a 2.86 ERA over 113.1 innings, striking out 105 batters while walking only 23.

So yeah, it would be pretty great to slot Lee right in next to Sabathia again, for old times' sake.