The meltdown continues

A caller phoned the show of local sports radio yakker Greg Brinda on WKNR AM/850 in Cleveland this morning. He tried to liken the struggles of Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia to those of Jaret Wright five, six and seven years ago.
Wright, you might remember, was the darling of the 1997 postseason for Cleveland. He beat the Yankees twice in the division series, and won Game 4 of the World Series. He became the second-youngest pitcher ever to start Game 7 of the World Series. His arrogance, bravado and 98-mph fastball made him a boy wonder at age 21. His 8-3 record during the regular season blinded people to his ERA, which approached 5.00.
In October 1997, Wright was on top of the world. We should have seen it coming, but that would be his 15 minutes of fame. The ensuing years brought shoulder surgeries and exposure as the one-trick pony he really was. Without that 98-mph fastball, he wasn't much of anything on the mound.
He rebounded with a 14-win season last year under the watchful eye of pitching guru Leo Mazzone in Atlanta, but is back on the disabled list after signing a contract with the Yankees.
In retrospect, Wright was an overblown creation of hype. He was never going to be as good as people expected him to be after his run in 1997, even without the shoulder problems. He lacked the maturity and pitching arsenal to be a staff ace.
The same, Brinda's caller suggested, could befall C.C.
C.C. gave up eight runs in Monday night's 13-4 drubbing at the hands of the Athletics. The Indians were in an 8-0 hole in the third inning when Rafael Betancourt relieved.
Monday's outing was the latest in a monthlong string of poor pitching by C.C. It's been a month in which he has all but abandoned everything Indians coaches and management have tried to teach him since his rookie year in 2001. He has lost his patience easily, opting to throw harder in tough situations instead of trying to make better pitches. His arrow-straight fastballs have been denting outfield walls as a result.
When he is pulled from a game after a rough outing, he opts to get into verbal sparring with heckling fans as opposed to ignoring them. Fox Sports Ohio microphones picked up C.C. dropping F-bombs toward the crowd following an early exit several weeks ago.
C.C. is crumbling under the pressure of being the organizationally-ordained "staff ace." He is crumbling under the pressure of an $18 million contract extension handed to him earlier this season, which was pretty much the Indians telling their young pitcher "lead us to the promised land."
Like Jaret Wright, he lacks the maturity and pitching prowess to lead the Indians to where they want to be taken. This is the danger of trying to christen messiahs before they have proven themselves. The Indians were in such a rush to appease the fans after the implosion to rebuild three years ago, so eager to show everyone how bright their future is, that they might have given C.C. more than he can handle.
A 17-win season as a rookie is far more attributed to run support than C.C. impersonating Randy Johnson. Other than that, his numbers have been average-to-good, but nowhere near ace-caliber. There would be nothing wrong with C.C.'s development if he had been branded as, say, a future middle-rotation pitcher. But he wasn't.
Now that the Indians have staked their reputation as talent evaluators and C.C.'s reputation as a pitcher on his ability to transform into a Cy Young Award candidate, there is no turning back. C.C.'s career, and possibly his mental health, might be getting run over in the process.