C.C. Sabathia has been unworldly since joining the Milwaukee Brewers in early July. In 11 starts, Sabathia is 9-0 with 6 complete games, a 1.43 ERA, and 85 strikeouts in 88 innings. He's put himself in the fringe of the NL Cy Young discussion despite only a half season of work in the NL, and he's a big reason the Brewers enjoy a solid 5 game lead in the Wild Card.

Sabathia, with the encouragement of Ned Yost, had dominated without really worrying about pitch counts, a necessary or destructive influence on modern day baseball, depending on your perspective. Yost has even let Sabathia in during games where Milwaukee has the win well in hand, allowing Sabathia to throw what are essentially unneeded pitches. Sabathia's pitch count by start.

Date	Result	IP	Pitches
Jul. 8	W 7-3	6	97
Jul. 13	W 3-2	9	122
Jul. 18	W 9-1	9	110
Jul. 23	W 3-0	9	106
Jul. 28	L 4-6	6.2	124
Aug. 2	W 4-2	8.1	109
Aug. 8	W 5-0	9	103
Aug. 13	W 7-1	7	114
Aug. 18	W 9-3	9	130
Aug. 24	W 4-3	6	96
Aug. 31	W 7-0	9	117

The starts in bold in particular indicate that having Sabathia go the distance probably wasn't necessary.

However, does it really matter to the Brewers? Pitch counts mostly exist to prevent team's multi-million dollar long term investments. C.C. Sabathia is far from a long term investment for the Brewers. He is a free agent this winter and will command an asking price the Brewers can't afford. They trade their best prospect to get him. There is no real reason for Milwaukee to conserve Sabathia's arm. If he gets hurt next year, who cares? It's not the Brewers' problem.

There's just one problem with that plan. So far this season, Sabathia has thrown 210 1/3 innings in both leagues combined, which is already the second highest total of his career. Last year, he threw 241 innings. All those innings were a big part of how he won the Cy Young over Josh Beckett. Fast forward to the playoffs though. Beckett was brilliant, while Sabathia looked tired and struggled at the worst possible time.

Given how he's been used, it's very possible that Sabathia will exceed his innings totals last year. After last season, that seems dangerous, especially since the Brewers might need him more than last year's Indians did.

C.C. Sabathia's 2009 performance means nothing to the Brewers. But his October 2008 performance very much does, and their handling of him could be jeopardizing that. After all, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.