After another lousy outing from Chamberlain yesterday, Yanks fans are starting to warm to the fifth starter debate.
Personally, I think it’s over for Joba in the rotation. It’s not so much about his lousy line from yesterday’s game–2.1 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K–or from the spring over all (11 runs on 8 hits and 6 walks in 3.2 innings). Those 3.2 innings are just the last in a continual series of steps back for Chamberlain since his meteoric 2007 appearance on the Yankee scene.
I was always a proponent of Joba in the rotation–if a pitcher in his early 20s has the potential to be a primo starter, that’s something you need to find out–but the more starts Joba has made the less well he’s done. The problem, I think, has to do with mechanics. Chamberlain’s have always been variable, the primary cause of his mercurial wildness and vacillating velocity. Sometimes he seems to be upright and balanced, driving towards the plate; sometimes he seems to be throwing across his body, falling off to the first base side. There also appear to be problems in his head. You can almost imagine smoke coming out of Joba’s ears when he starts as he tries to outthink his opponents and worries about hitting spots. Like so many other young pitchers before him, the more he worries about hitting spots and “aiming” the ball, the more he misses off the corner, falls behind in the count, and ends up throwing a meatball. Plus, yesterday, after pitching two strong innings, Chamberlain tired in the third, or at least that’s what he told reporters in the clubhouse yesterday .
Sam Borden at the Journal News seems to buy the rap that Chamberlain was just working on stuff yesterday such as trying to get inside on right handers and that was the cause for his third inning meltdown. But, you know, if Chamberlain can’t successfully get inside on righties in a big spot in spring training, what’s he going to do against Kevin Youkilis in a big spot in a real game? (Check that, we KNOW he’ll get inside on Youkilis!)
Mike Silva of NY Baseball Digest as well as Mike Sommer of The Sommer Frieze seem to feel like Aceves is the best option for the Yankees’ fifth starter slot. I’m already on the record saying that Aceves is a quadruple-A starter perfectly suited for a swing man/long man’s job. I’ll be surprised if, barring injury, he makes more than single digit starts for the Yanks. When it comes to Aceves, leave well enough alone and let him pitch in a context that works instead of exposing him in a context that doesn’t.
Speaking of which, for some reason as a reliever Joba seems less likely to think himself into a corner as a reliever; he’s more likely to let it fly instead of trying to aim it (even at the risk of occasionally giving up the long ball); and he doesn’t run out of gas in one or two inning stints. I think in the last year’s post-season it became obvious even to Yankees brass that Joba’s future was in the pen. That future is now.
In the “I’m just saying…” department: Why would athletes like Alex Rodriguez , Tiger Woods, Jose Reyes , and Carlos Beltran go to a Canadian doctor unlicensed in the US, against the treatment plans of their doctors, when they have access to any doctor in the US? Insert answer here.
Nice rumination by Mike Axisa …over at River Avenue Blues on the subject of Nomar Garciaparra’s retirement . As Mike notes in the mid-1990s Nomar, A-Rod and Jeter were the three hot shot young shortstops in the AL. Nomar was the oldest, the last to make the majors, and the first to retire after an injury plagued career. Makes you marvel at how short sports careers can be.
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