Pen No Setback for Joba

With Joba Chamberlain moving back into the bullpen to start the season, and GM Brian Cashman still leaving the door open for Joba to return to the rotation at some point, Yankee fans are showing their pique.

Don’t mess with Joba, they say. You’ve screwed the kid up jerking him between the rotation and the bullpen, they say. Just tell him what his job is and leave him alone.

“Joba — unless Yankees do something crazy like send him Triple-A — is going to be in the bullpen this season. Leave him there. Stop this madness.” writes Aviv at Sox V. Stripes.

Jay at Fack Youk evokes some pseudo science to rationalize sending Joba down where he can work on his starting skills.  “In theory, removing Joba from the bullpen should cost the Yanks about one win this year. Is anyone willing to argue those 8 runs above replacement are worth sidetracking his development as a starter ”

Jordan Schwartz at the Bleacher Report is particularly livid and wildly wrong when he writes: “I didn’t think New York needed to pick up Vazquez. They could’ve put Chamberlain in the No. 4 slot and then re-signed Chien-Ming Wang to replace Hughes at the No. 5 once he was healthy enough around June.” (Vazquez is a better pitcher than Wang ever was and quite probably better than Hughes or Joba will ever be and he was a heist in return for a spare-part like Melky; furthermore who knows if Wang will ever be an effective major league starter ever again.)

Steve Lombardi at Was Watching writes: “Well, pretty soon “Joba Chamberlain” is going to become synonymous with totally mismanaging a pitching prospect outside of abusing his arm.

Bullocks, I say. Moving a kid back and forth between the bullpen and the rotation is an age old, time worn way for a kid to break into the majors, and it didn’t hurt the long-term careers of the likes of David Wells and Nolan Ryan.

Now, I, who was a proponent of giving Joba a shot to start, have become convinced that Chamberlain is never going to be a great starter. His mechanics are bad and inconsistent–sometimes he drives to the plate, sometimes he throws across his body falling off the mound–leading to variations in velocity and trouble hitting spots. As a starter he pitches like a guy having difficulty out-thinking hitters–frequently shaking off his catcher, rarely fooling a batter with a surprising pitch in a surprising spot. But I’ve seen Joba be a great reliever. Pitching one inning at a time Chamberlain is able to get by with two pitches–both thrown hard–and spotty mechanics by just going with all out effort for 10 or 20 pitches (think of all the hard throwing relievers who threw across their bodies and fell off the mound). Its a power-against-power situation where he has to worry less about trying to set hitters up and think more about going after them, just throwing fastballs and sliders to the mitt, and Chamberlain seems like a pitcher who benefits from thinking less and throwing more. I’m happy to seen Chamberlain developed as a reliever. (And, Hughes, who still struggles with his command, looks more like a starter to me–with better mechanics, more kinds of pitches, and an easier ability to make adjustments and thing along with hitters.)

But for those who want to see Chamberlain start again, I said the idea that moving him to the pen inevitably retards his progress compared to sending him to triple-A to start is just wrong.

Many, many pitchers began their major league careers pitching in relief only to become successful starters. Think of a favorite of many Yankees fans, David Wells. Wells spent the first six years of his career bouncing between the rotation and the pen. In his first 237 major league appearances, 69 were starts. And, although he pitched mostly as a long man and swing man, during those years he also closed games occasionally recording 13 saves.

This sort of early career was once commonplace. Older NY baseball fans will remember Nolan Ryan’s early years with the Mets when Ryan was mostly a starter (74 starts out of 105 game appearances) but also a part time reliever (In 1970, when he appeared in 27 games, 19 as a starter, he recorded both a save and 5 complete games).

I don’t think it’s at all inevitable that a young pitcher who, early in his major league career bounces between the bullpen and the rotation, is somehow set back in his development. Now, most of the guys bouncing back and forth are swing men, pitching a few innings at a time in their relief appearances. That is likely not going to be the case with Chamberlain who is more likely to pitch as a one + inning set up man this year (although you never know, he’s stretched out, he could pitch more). And, I think, if he proves to be nearly in effective in that role as he was in his first pass through the majors he will become a fixture there. But even if the bullpen is just a stop along the way to a starting career, I think it a perfectly reasonable one.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Joba Chamberlain: Not So Fast, Yanks’ Choice to Use Joba in ‘Pen a Smart One (bleacherreport.com)
• Phil Hughes Is Named The Fifth Starter For The New York Yankees (bleacherreport.com)
• Cashman: Joba a “starter in the bullpen” (riveraveblues.com)
• Cashman: Joba’s still a starting pitcher (ballhype.com)
• Hughes Earns Decision as Yankees’ Fifth Starter (nytimes.com)

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