Everyone keeps talking about how Joba must go to the bullpen, because he’s had two bad starts, well I’ve resisted this notion for quite some time, but off these outings, I’ve had an epiphany. Joba must go to the bullpen, yes, but is that enough? By extension of this reasoning, examining CC Sabathia’s last three starts reveals the awful truth. With two of CC’s last three appearances being stinkers, it’s obvious, isn’t it? CC Sabathia must be moved to the bullpen!
How similar have the two pitchers been, lately? Well, in CC’s two starts, he’s allowed 11 earned runs in 12 1/3 innings, while Joba has yielded 7 earned runs in 8 innings: almost identical earned run averages!! CC gave up 4 walks and 19 hits to Joba’s 2 walks and 18 hits. CC clearly can’t handle starting anymore and must be moved to a relief role with Joba. Imagine how good CC would be in the eight inning, people! If Joba and Hughes throw 3-4 mph harder out of the pen, CC would regularly be pegging 98-99mph!
But why should it stop there? Andy Pettitte has lost some of the bite on his cutter and his velocity is down, too. Clearly the extra mph on his heater would make him better as a reliever. Ditto for Wang, certainly. Aceves has obviously been better in the pen, and AJ Burnett really only has two top pitches, with his fastball and curve. Doesn’t that make him ideal for a setup job?
Let’s trade for Halladay – he’s a guy with a clear track record as a starter… but if he has a bad outing, then just think about what a filthy long reliever he’d be! Since clearly everyone would be better served in a relief role, Maybe we can just petition Bud Selig to shorten the games to three innings. That way we could get a nice, steady bullpen rotation going. This is clearly the only solution, since it’s obviously completely unacceptable for our starters to have a couple bad outings.
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10 Responses to Sabathia Must go to the Bullpen!!
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TIQ IQ
I’ve wondered for a while if switching more to a low-level minor-league style of 3 or 4 inning outings every three days would be an improvement for teams. That is, there would be pitching tandems that work together every three days. For example, CC would be paired with Wang, AJ would be paired with Andy, Joba would be paired with Hughes (in order to maximize the differences between pitchers, throwing off the ability of the opposing manager to match lineups to handedness of the starter).
Pitchers should be able to get more out of their pitches if they know they’re only pitching a couple of innings, making “weaker” starters (e.g., Phil Coke, Al Aceves, etc) more attractive. It would actually make the bullpen more efficient — think about it – your pitching staff would be 6 “starters”, a closer, and an eighth inning guy (in case one of the “starters” only goes 3), and a long man (in case one of the “starters” blows up). You could even through another guy in the bullpen and not lose anything:
Right now, for the Yankees it would look something like:
CC & Hughes
AJ & Andy
Joba & Aceves
Rivera
Coke
Bruney
Robertson
Is this going to happen? No chance. But a weaker team (e.g., Pirates) should really take a stab at this. The starters would resist because frankly it’s different, but it would really help maximize the use of the talent.
I do not like it. Why minimize your innings from guys like CC and AJ?
Ummmmm, you guys realize I was kidding, right? :-)
You’re kidding, right??
Well, apparently I have some foresight:
http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9228
So what do you actually believe? Joba to the pen?
Yes it is unacceptable. Here is what we have and here is what they(Red Sox) have we have two good pitchers CC AJ. They have two great pitchers(Beckett and Lester) We have a cowardly shell of himself at 23-giving up three run bombs to Kendry Morales, excuse making and generally does not care #3 pitcher(Joba) they have a flame throwing soon tobe closer who actually is not afraid to throw the ball(Bard) we have a lousy April awesome May mediocre June and pretty bad July 1st baseman (Tex). They have an above 300 hitting clutch hitting clutch walking 1st baseman(Youk) and I could go on but by some divine miracle we are three games out. You spend enough money to send a baseball team to the moon and what do we get? a team that cant beat the freaking VLAD AND TORYLESS Angels.
Yeah, you’re right, we should just concede the season.
My point is that everyone has to relax and not freak out over one or two badAstarts or perhaps getting swept by the Angels. Joba’s a starter, folks.
Yes he is! Very well put.