1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

What happened? Joba out of Yanks rotation?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by thebiglead, Dec 21, 2007.

  1. thebiglead

    thebiglead Member

    Per Buster Olney (You'll need insider)

    http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=olney_buster

    Heard this: If all goes well in spring training for the Yankees, Joba Chamberlain is likely to start next season in the Yankees' bullpen, as part of the team's effort to limit his innings. Chamberlain will go to spring training and, at the outset, prepare to pitch out of the rotation, along with five other rotation candidates -- Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes, Mike Mussina and Ian Kennedy. Assuming that none of the other five has a physical or performance breakdown, Chamberlain would then open 2008 in the bullpen, as a set-up man, for at least the start of the season -- under the Joba Rules.

    The Yankees want to restrict the number of innings Chamberlain throws, and working him out of the bullpen for at least a couple of months will allow them to do that. Chamberlain may return to the rotation sometime in the middle of the season, depending on the Yankees' needs.
     
  2. PHINJ

    PHINJ Active Member

    Perfectly reasonable.
     
  3. Guy_Incognito

    Guy_Incognito Well-Known Member

    I don't think it's a backtrack - they still see him as a starter, they're just cautiously following the Santana model for how to bring him along. As long as he's in the rotation by July, I have no problem with this.
     
  4. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Can somebody explain the reason for the babying of Joba Chamberlain?
     
  5. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Makes perfect sense. Girardi has reference point of '96 Yankee team he played on. With Rivera and Wettland pitching 7/8/9 the Yankee starters were 6 inning pitchers all year.
     
  6. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Time for MLB teams to stop babying these kids and let them pitch.

    The Yanks created their own problem here by limitting Joba to 80 pitches in Double A before they moved him to the pen in Triple A.

    Big kid, throws hard, but doesn't have the arm strength or stamina to be a big league starter because of stupid Joba rules.
     
  7. hockeybeat

    hockeybeat Guest

    If he doesn't have the strength or stamina to start, do they mold Joba into a closer?
     
  8. Gold

    Gold Active Member

    If the Yankees hadn't stated their intention to make him a starter, this isn't a problem. But I don't know if you can change him into a starter during the middle of the season without some troubles. It would seem easier to control his innings as a starter.

    Why would the Yankees try to be so careful? I think that in New York more than most places, there might be some mania to use him a lot. I remember in the dark period of the 1980s, Dave Eiland had a couple of good starts and some people started thinking he was the next Ron Guidry.
     
  9. thebiglead

    thebiglead Member

    Really, Gold?

    http://www.nypost.com/seven/11212007/sports/yankees/joba_not_a_lock_to_start_next_season_159966.htm?page=0

    A month ago, before Joe Girardi replaced Joe Torre and Dave Eiland took over for Ron Guidry, Hank Steinbrenner said Chamberlain would be in the rotation and that's the way the organization is tilting, but . . .

    “It's not 100 percent but I think we are leaning that way,'' Eiland said yesterday about using Chamberlain as a starter. “We haven't had long discussions on that part of it yet. I am sure we will in the near future. We are leaning that way and that's where we would like to see him.''

    and ...

    http://mybaseballbias.com/category/hank-steinbrenner/

    “I can tell you this: With Mariano back, Joba will not be in the bullpen,” Steinbrenner said. “I’m not going to waste Joba as a setup guy, period. That’d be crazy. We all want to see what he can do as a starter.”
     
  10. Gold

    Gold Active Member

    The constant theme from last year was that the Yankees were grooming Joba to be a starter. The problem was that he was so successful as a set-up man, now you would be moving him from a role where he was successful to a role where success is not assured.

    I know more about baseball than Hank Steinbrenner.
     
  11. ThomsonONE

    ThomsonONE Member

    If you extend this babying of pitchers to its logical conclusion, pitchers would never actually be allowed to throw a baseball. Joba is a young man and should be physically able to throw 200 innings. The reason he can't is because he doesn't throw enough, not because he needs to throw less.
     
  12. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    He may be more valuable to the Yankees as a closer than a starter. A closer can impact 50-60 games versus 30 for a starter.

    Rivera doesn't have that much time left, has shown some chinks in the armor, and who knows how quickly the wheels could fall off. If Joba starts, who replaces Rivera?
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page