-If you support the Yanks careful handling of Joba Chamberlain (and believe in medical science) then prepare for a long day. It hit the blogosphere and talk radio by early Sunday night that the Yanks are ruining his career and the entire situation is a joke. I disagree, as does Joe P of River Ave and Brian Hoch of MLB.com, while Mike Vaccaro of the NY Post remains agnostic.
I’m sure the ‘just let him pitch’ crowd won’t care, but his career high before this year was 118.2 IP in 2005, his first year in Nebraska. As it is, 160+ innings represents a huge jump over that total and last years total of 100.1 IP, so going slowly makes sense to me. Call it ‘babying’ all you want, at 23 years old Joba is still a baby by MLB standards. These guidelines aren’t just isn’t something Brian Cashman or Tom Verducci dreamed up, it’s the result of years of studies by Orthopedic surgeons like Dr James Andrews. If you want the Yanks to ‘be tough’ and are dismissive of these findings, that would put you in line with what Omar Minaya and Tony Bernazard were saying in April of this year. Omar and Tony were chiding their players to be more tough and gritty like their rival Phillies, to ignore minor aches and pains and play through injury, and we all know what happened next.
Doctors orders, ignore them at your own risk.
-BP’s John Perrotto says the Yanks would like to give Austin Jackson another year in AAA, and resign Johnny Damon on a 1 year deal. Sounds good, but coming off this season I think Johnny will have multi-year offers out there to consider. If I had to bet, I still think he walks when the Yanks draw the line on what they’re willing to pay him, though I’d like to see him come back for one more season.
-NoMaas has a different take on Dellin Betances getting Tommy John surgery.
-Jorge Posada’s return behind the plate yesterday apparently went well.
-Blogfather Peter Abraham had his annual outing with 85 of his blog readers at Sunday’s AAA Scranton Yankees game.
-Highly recommend this Tom Verducci piece from SI. Too much good stuff in there to even get into.
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0 Responses to Random Thoughts-Game 130
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TIQ IQ
Well Steve, I believe in medical science but don’t support the way the Yankees are handling Joba so I don’t know to which “crowd” you want to try to assign me. ;-)
I would have him work out of the pen to get his last innings completed, not starting every five days and working 2 to 3 innings … or I would have him starting every 7 to 8 days, ignoring Joba’s whining, and have him get his innings that way. Working as a “short starter” is not how I would go.
He’s struggling with rest, he’s also struggling on a 5 days schedule – so something is going on.
You can’t pitch him out of the pen otherwise how are you going to stretch him out for the playoffs? Who is taking his pitching rotational spot? How is he being prepared to start going forward this post season and regular seasons to come if he always ends up in the bull pen at the end of every year just because you were to lazy to pitch him as a starter and figure out a good plan?
I am not following your logic. How is limiting him to three innings as a starter stretching him out for the playoffs? Answer is that it isn’t. Pitching him for the 6th 7th and 8th is the same as pitching him for the 1st 2nd and 3rd.
Also, the kid has lost something, clearly – so I don’t see him as a viable starter for October nor the need to build him back up as one for October. I see CC, AJ and Andy as the go-to arms for the postseason.
You usually need 4 starters in a 7 game series. Limiting him to 3 innings, then jumping to 4, then 5, and so on, stretches him out for the postseason.
I didn’t say limiting his innings to 3 would stretch him out and that is my problem with him only pitching 3 innings no matter where it is! He may have lost something but who do you want to be the 4th starter? Sergio Mitre? Chad Gaudin? I will take Chamberlain over both in the playoffs!
I wouldn’t make Joba a reliever again (now or long term) but if the Yankees are only going to use him for 3 innings at a time then maybe he could piggyback a starter like Mitre.
That way Joba is on a set schedule and gets to pitch some potentially meaningful innings. He can also warm up at his own pace in the bullpen. Obviously there is some downside to this, but I don’t see too much difference than if he just starts the game.
Chamberlain’s biggest problem this year has been the first inning in most of his starts so you don’t want him coming out of the pen and pitching his first pitch to a lineup on there second go round. If you are going to be a starter you need to have a feel for starting the ball game and putting a team on your back and preventing the other team from beating you. Going only 3 innings is a joke but it’s better than him ever going back to the pen.
I don’t think they are babying him and I do agree he shouldn’t throw more than 150-160 innings this year but they are doing it the wrong way… if this was the way things were going to get handled you should have kept him pitching every 5 days but make every start he did 5 innings and no more and that would have solved the problem if they had just decided to cut his outings shorter since the all star break. Right now they are messing with his mind and in turn that is messing with his velocity, I think there is a very good chance Joba will never throw more than 90-92 on the average again and that they may be ruining his pitching mind which is worse than messing with his arm.
To be clear, I’m not saying the way the Yanks have handled this is ideal. It’s pretty obvious they’re feeling their way in the dark. But they have remained committed to giving Joba plenty of rest, and that’s the most important thing from a medical standpoint.
I think next year, when they’re facing the same situation with Hughes, they may approach things differently. Personally, I hope they leave Phil in extended Spring training and have him join the team in mid-May. That way, he can start every 5 days like everyone else but not be in danger of exceeding his innings limits.
Live and learn, I suppose.
I have said it before Joba is the first rat of an experiment the Yankees are using to develop players, the only problem with that is Joba has a lot of potential that could very possibly be ruined with this “plan” that they don’t have and are making up as they go along. I truthfully would not be surprised if they change the Joba rules once again and have pitching 1 inning at the begging of every game and then change to him throwing 2 innings but only at the end of blow outs and then change to him throwing a CG every 3 days no matter how long it takes to finish.
I would hope they give Austin another half a year in Scranton and he gets called up sometime after next years all star break, I also really doubt Johnny gets anything more than a two year deal. GMs for the most part aren’t stupid and realize that the only reason he is breaking his career numbers this late in his career isn’t because he found some power he never used it is because of Yankee stadium, if the Yankees offer him a contract for a year and more than table scraps he will sign and not think twice about another location.
That’s a great way to win an argument…Do you want to do what the Mets would do? I didn’t think so.
Ha! Nobody wants their fingerprints anywhere near that disaster area.
As the old line goes, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan”
Rob A from BBD Who is that directed at?
No to Joba in the pen!
His 3 inning start will be upped each game by 1+ innings each time he pitches. I don’t see a problem with this.
If any mind games are preventing Joba from throwing his fastball as before, he is in big trouble.
The good part about all of this is; he will have no limits next year so he will (can) go out each game and throw as many innings or as long as he keeps them in the game.
If we don’t like it, that’s tough because they are the Yankees and we are not.
I’m really concerned you are right because if it is in his head he may never be worth anything ever again, and if it is in his head going to the bull pen won’t all of a sudden make him throw harder as some seem to think, he will still have the same injury concerns and will still be trying to protect his arm and as long as he is doing this he will not fulfill his potential.