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Rain’s Rant – The Definitive Joba-to-the-Pen ExampleWe’ve now seen it. The definitive example of why Joba Chamberlain needs to be our 8th inning setup man in the bullpen. Last night, somehow, someway, Alex Rodriguez had the intestinal fortitude to get a hit when we needed it, and put the Yankees in the position to win the game going into the bottom of the eighth inning. What ensued after the top of the eighth inning should serve as the immediate wakeup call for the Yankees front office, in much the same way that this eight game losing streak (nine games going back to last year) has affected the fanbase. It’s a simple enough question: If Joba Chamberlain were our setup man, would CC have been allowed to pitch the eighth inning with a 113 pitch count? The answer is an emphatic no. Last night was the epitome of a must win game, and our Ace went out, pitched a 4 hit, one run game through seven innings, which is about as good as it gets unless your name is Johan Santana or Harry Leroy Halladay III. This is where Bruney, if healthy, would have been the man to come into the game and lock it down to get to Mariano in the ninth. But, our bullpen being the pathetic piece of garbage that it is, we were forced to send CC back out to attempt to corral the Boston lineup and protect the lead. He proceeded to give up the lead as we know, and the one thing that we got out of the entire process was that, after a walk to the first man he faced, Phil Coke showed us some nice movement on his pitches and is really turning out to be a decent bullpen guy. But this entire process once again begs the question, Where was our 8th inning setup man? The answer is simple, he’s our number 4 starter and we’ll see him pitching tonight against the Mets. And when he leaves after throwing 110 pitches through 6 innings and we’re up 4-2 in the 8th, who are we going to call on to secure the victory for us. It’s a horrible, disgusting, dispicable dilemma: If we have a lead in the 8th, we either need to send Mariano out for a 2 inning save or play Russian roulette with one of the 5 or so useless arms we have sitting out in the bullpen. If Joba isn’t headed back towards the pen after the Allstar break, Girardi and Cashman should hand in their resignations and get out of town as fast as possible, because if they don’t, the fans might take the liberty of doing it themselves. 5 comments to Rain’s Rant – The Definitive Joba-to-the-Pen Example |
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June 12th, 2009 | 
Our 8th inning guy is injured right now. There is no definitive proof that Joba would/wouldn’t have gotten out of that jam. The Red Sox were mashing that inning. Plain and simple.
Moreover, we have a good starter, the aforementioned Joba, to be a stopper in the rotation to get the Yankees back on track… instead of say, Kei Igawa or someone starting.
Love the rant…BUT…it still doesn’t solve the starting rotation issue. Joba is a starter. I’ll stand on my soapbox and say that ALL DAY. So far this season we’ve been bitching about our lackluster performance in the bullpen (word on the street is they’ve started shopping…and they should) AND and abundance of starting pitchers….which is now diminishing because Wang is toast. Came back WAY too soon, with no minor league option and out of excuses for another trip to the DL. You still want to put Joba in the pen? Think about it again. Joba can get to the 8th. He’s shown he can. This debate could go on all season. Right now Joba is needed in the rotation. Period.
we dont need an all star or even a great pitcher as our #4 or #5 guy. I rather have 3 good top of the rotation guys and a solid bullpen. Remember when he had shawn chacon and all those no name guys fill in a few years ago. Our offense is good and we can help those guys. But we are losing games that we should win because our bullpen sucks. CC should have left after 7, then joba, then mo….ball game. Instead we lose and and have joba go 5-6 innings and hope we score a ton of runs.
Yes, Joba could be one of the best starters in the league in 2, maybe 3 years whenever they decide to take the training wheels off him and get rid of the ridiculous 150 inning cap. The issue is that we need an eighth inning guy right now, and we have Phil Hughes who’s pitching fairly well who can take the starting rotation spot immediately, and Wang should be okay when he’s completed a few more starts because as we’ve seen his velocity and movement are back.
The kind of horrible crap that happened last night is unacceptable, and even though Bruney’s been lights out when he’s been pitching this year, there is no reason to think he will be reliable with a bad elbow on top of the fact that we have not seen him pitch against the Red Sox this season. I won’t feel comfortable with a lead under 5 runs in the 7th or 8th until I hear the name Bruney or Chamberlain coming out to pitch, and even with Bruney I’m skeptical.
The answer’s sitting in our dugout every night, and when he hits 150 innings pitched in August, what are we going to do, sit him the rest of the season?
Someone made this point, maybe PeteAbe or somebody I dunno, but right now Joba’s the 2nd best starter we have. (last nights 4IP embarrassment notwithstanding)