TAMPA — The changeup felt good and a couple of sliders irked him.
Welcome to CC Sabathia’s initial experience of live batting practice, which took place on Field 2 of George M. Steinbrenner Field on Thursday morning.
“This is the first time facing hitters and seeing how your pitches are doing,’’ said Sabathia, who is preparing for his 18th big league season. “I feel good. No problems health-wise and I look forward to getting back out there in a couple of days.”
When Sabathia made the conversion from power pitcher to more of a finesse hurler, the changeup was a big part of the process.
“The changeup felt good and it has not been really good in my bullpens, but today it was good so that is encouraging,’’ said Sabathia, who faced Ronald Torreyes, Didi Gregorius and Aaron Hicks.
Two misbehaving sliders that bounced in the dirt annoyed Sabathia, who said he will throw a bullpen session and a simulated game next. He didn’t know when he would work an exhibition tilt.
“Not yet. I am going to talk to Larry [Rothschild] and go over the schedule,’’ Sabathia said of the Yankees’ pitching coach.
Sabathia has been through enough spring trainings to know what it takes to be ready when the season opens, and it mainly centers around avoiding a physical problem under the palm trees.
“For me it’s just staying healthy and being out there,” Sabathia said. “The more reps I get, everything starts to come back.’’
In an effort to get more off days into the 2018 schedule, position players reported shortly after pitchers and catchers. That has provided a different vibe in camp.
“This is quick, usually when the players get here we had a week. This is weird starting [Friday],’’ Sabathia said of the exhibition season opener against the Tigers at home four days after the first full-squad workout this past Monday. “It’s kind of weird getting started so quick.”