Last night we saw an old friend, one we haven’t seen in quite a while. Someone who many of us wondered if he even existed anymore. One who lit up radar guns and set the world of Baseball on fire back in 2007. A pitcher who blew away hitters with his high 90s fastball and buckled their knees with a devastating high 80s slider. Yankee fans welcomed him with glee and opposing batters would be greeted with his patented ‘Good morning, good afternoon, and good night’.
The first batter he faced was Scott Sizemore, and he went 96-97-97-97 and struck him out on three swings and misses. The next batter was Gerald Laird, who managed to see 6 pitches and foul off two but struck out looking. The final batter was Adam Everett, who looked completely over matched, striking out swinging on 4 pitches. All totaled Joba threw 14 pitches and hit 98 three times during Adam Everett’s at-bat.
Questions were raised on air by Kay about the radar gun, which also seemed to have every Detroit reliever throwing somewhere between 97-101 MPH. But don’t shortchange that Tigers bullpen, it’s currently the best in Baseball and the best in the AL by a wide margin. Zumaya throwing triple-digit heat should surprise no one, he’s been doing it for years. Gameday had Joba sitting at the same 96-98 MPH with little variation pitch by pitch. It was for real, and hopefully was a sign of things to come.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
11 Responses to 07 Joba makes appearence in Yankee loss
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
Uh, did you look at those flags?
They were blowing in towards home plate, giving all the relievers extra giddyup on their fastballs.
I wouldn’t go by last night.
Joba is probably still throwing 94-95.
Doubt that other guy throws 101 usually in 40 degrees weather either and their closer doesn’t throw 96 normally either.
P.S. Hope I’m wrong.
Pet Peeve. Kay called the pitch that struck out Laird a slider. It was most definitely a curve. It had a 12-6 break and it was nasty.
to be fair i could do that to Sizemore, Laird, and Everret, and my fastball tops out at about 33. I wonder if he would of looked anywhere near as impressive against Magglio or Cabrera
So no one’s willing to admit that Joba looks like a more effective pitcher coming out of the pen?
I have to eat some crow for being (so far) dead wrong about Brett Gardner, and I’m happy to, but no one can admit that at least so far it appears Joba is better suited to get out there and “let it fly” for an inning than he is to try and navigate through major league lineups multiple times over the course of three hours? Come on, fellas.
Only if you if pretend like 2008 never happened. Joba was dominant as a starter until he injured his arm. He’s been pedestrian in any role since.
What Dave said. He looked quite dominant as a starter in 2008. All pitchers look better in the bullpen. Now, if they put him back in the rotation and he started throwing 91 again after touching 98 in the pen, I would say that you have a case.
How long did it take Mike Pelfrey or a million other young pitchers to make it look like they could succeed as starters?
I have little doubt that Pelfrey who throws 95-96 as a starter could have gotten it up to 98 as a reliever and blown some people away and looked better as a reliever 2 years ago and last year too.
Now he’s “Gotten it” as a starter.
When Joba was throwing 89-92 as a starter and 92-93 as a reliever he didn’t look very good at either.
Maybe his problem is not being in great shape always and not being very professional in the off season.
Right now, he makes sense as a reliever, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have developed as a starter eventually also had Girardi satyed with him there.
Frankly, before he relieved last year, Hughes looked liked a marginal starter, now he appears to be a legit future #2-3 guy on anybodies staff.
This part is what confuses me about the B-Jobbers at this point. We JUST saw Phil Hughes perform better as a reliever than he had, to that point, as a starter, yet none of the B-Jobbers want Hughes in the ‘pen, because now they see that he’s developing into a good starting pitcher. I mean, no sh*t Joba dials it up a bit more out of the ‘pen – everyone does. I don’t understand why people view this particular pitcher differently than they view other pitchers. I share the concerns about Joba in the rotation, when he’s a low-90s starter and a low-mid 90s reliever… But if the guy is back to dialing it up to the high-90s as a reliever, there’s a chance he’d be able to get back into the mid-90s as a starter, and that’s what we saw in 2008 when he was awesome in the rotation. Why anyone wouldn’t want to see that again is beyond me.
In addition, the Hughes example SHOULD help people realize that sometimes these things just take time. Hughes dealt with some development/injury issues and it took him a bit of time to get back his velocity/confidence/etc., but after enough time passed, improve he did. People need to realize that these things take time – the fact that Joba’s velocity was down last year doesn’t mean it won’t come back (and, in fact, we’re possibly already seeing indications that it is, in fact, coming back).
RE – If you put any starter in the bullpen, he’s in all likelihood going to add a couple of ticks to his fastball and be a bit more effective, in short-doses, than he’d be as a starter. CC Sabathia would probably be the greatest reliever ever if he were put into the bullpen. That doesn’t mean those guys should be put into the bullpen. Joba looking a bit better as a reliever than as a starter is not a valid reason to keep him in the ‘pen.
Sometimes a pitcher takes longer than fans think they should to fully recover from an injury-even at Joba’s age.
With his velocity back and his approach returning to what it was in early ’08, I think he can continue down the road followed by Hughes last year and this (and so many others throughout MLB history) and be a force in the rotation next year.
[...] full post on TYU var AdBrite_Title_Color = 'FFFF66'; var AdBrite_Text_Color = 'FFFFFF'; var [...]