When last seen, Carsten Charles Sabathia was walking Brett Myers, who is a pitcher, and then giving up a grand slam to the Phillies' Shane Victorino in the Division Series.

You would have sworn somebody had given him a new six-year contract.

Oh, that's coming soon enough. CC rides into free agency with an 11-2 record for the Brewers, which has blinded baseball moneymen from the 6-8 record he put up for Cleveland in the first half.

Sabathia did pitch 253 innings and strike out 251 batters. He'll get $140 million or so. At 28 he might even be worth it. There is only one Sabathia, a 6-foot-6, 290-pound left-hander who moves like a panther and, as the Dodgers learned this summer, can hit a home run.

They say he's an exceptional athlete. If Sabathia actually makes good on all that money, he will surely be an exception.

If you give a pitcher a penthouse contract for six years, the record shows you will be lucky to get four good years. Four healthy years is a stretch.

You don't have to dig through the Doug Drabek and Andy Hawkins archives. You can confine your research to today's active pitchers, the ones who have sent more money into the wind than a Wall Street cyclone.

This waste line of pitchers with four-year contracts, or longer, is in no particular order.

It does bring a cumulative weight:

Carl Pavano, Yankees. He signed a $39.9 million contract for four years in 2005. He pitched 100 innings that season, none in 2006 111/3 in '07 and, as he warmed up to the possibilities of a new deal somewhere, 341/3 this year, with a 4-2 record.

Mike Hampton, Rockies. This left-hander might be known forever as the final pitcher to get an eight-year deal. The Rockies gave him $126 million in '01. He did pitch 267 2/3 innings that year, going 14-13, and neared 200 innings each of the next three years, when he went an aggregate 34-32.

Two of those years came with the Braves, who astutely swung a deal for Hampton and got Florida to kick in half of his salary in '05 through '07. Their wisdom became apparent when he worked 691/3 innings in '05, missed all of '06 and '07, and returned for a cameo this season.

Chris Carpenter, Cardinals. The former Cy Young winner is going for the Robert Young, named for the actor who played "Marcus Welby, M.D." Carpenter signed a five-year, $63.5 million contract in '07 and has gone 0-2 since in 211/3 innings.

Barry Zito, Giants. Both club and player have been ridiculed for this epochal $126 million, seven-year contract because it has become a baseline for future deals like Sabathia's. But at least Zito has been out there pitching, if not very well. In his two years of aristocracy, Zito is 21-30 with ERAs of 4.53 and 5.75, but he has also thrown 1962/3 and 180 innings.

Jarrod Washburn, Mariners. The ex-Angel signed for $37.5 million for four years in 2006 and is 24-43 since, with innings dwindling each season.

Carlos Silva, Mariners. Silva came from Minnesota, throwing strikes. In the first year of a four-year, $48 million deal with Seattle, he threw too many, going 4-15 with a 6.46 ERA.

Pedro Martinez, Mets. They knew they weren't getting Martinez's prime years when they gave him $53 million for four years in 2005, but they did imagine he might win more than 17 games over the past three seasons.

Jeff Suppan, Brewers. Desperate for a stabilizer, Milwaukee gave Suppan $42 million for four years in '07. He doesn't miss starts or, unfortunately, bats. He was 12-7 and 10-10, with a 4.96 ERA in 2008.

Ted Lilly, Cubs. So far, so good on a four-year, $40M deal Lilly gleaned two seasons ago. He has been 15-8 and 17-9 since, and topped 200 innings both times.

A.J. Burnett, Blue Jays. They took a sizeable gamble with $55M over five years, starting in '06, and Burnett has delivered, culminating in an 18-10 season with 2211/3 innings. That miraculously coincides with an opt-out clause in his deal that he might or might not activate this month.

Johan Santana, Mets. They traded to get Santana from Minnesota, tore up his contract and gave him a new one for $137.5 million over six years last winter. (Just wondering — was the extra .5 million the deal-sealer?) Santana repaid them by pitching a career high 2341/3 innings with a career-low 2.53 ERA.

All he has to do to redeem himself is do it five more times.

The conclusion: You can set up a new health care system in this country with the money that Major League Baseball has squandered on currently employed pitchers.

Fortunately for them, patients with pre-existing conditions are eligible.