Results tagged ‘ Joba Chamberlain ’
A busy month!
It has been a busy few weeks for me which explains the reason why I haven’t posted anything here in such a long time. But that ends today and since Opening Day is less than a week away, I should be writing a bit more.
While I was gone however, there were several major developments. Adam Weinwright of the Cardinals suffered a major elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. That injury effectively ended Wainwright’s season and has put the Cardinals’s season in some doubt. Luckily for St. Louis and manager Tony LaRussa, Chris Carpenter has been looking very sharp this spring along with Kyle Lohse and Kyle McClellan. McClellan transition from the bullpen to the starting rotation has been smooth enough to land him a 5th starter job. I still believe the Cardinals will have a tough time competing in the NL Central, but unlike a month ago, I’m more upbeat about their chances to win the division.
Other injured players and Charlie Morton?
During the month long Spring training season the injury bug has been busy paying a few visits to Major League club houses. In the beginning of March, it was revealed that Phillies second baseman Chase Utley suffered a right knee injury that will likely keep him off the Opening Day lineup. As a result, the Phillies have made inquiries about acquiring the services of Michael Young, the disgruntled Rangers’ third baseman. As of this morning the Phillies have signed Louis Castillo as a insurance policy. Castillo, who was recently cut by the Mets, signed a minor league deal on Monday and will likely start the season with the club.
The Phillies aren’t the only contenders dealing with injuries. The Yankees have also been bitten by the injury bug as Joba Chamberlain has missed some time this Spring due to an injury in his upper body. The good news is that Chamberlain is schedule to appear in today’s spring training game between the Yankees and Orioles. If Chamberlain appears fine I think the Yankees and Yankee fans (like yours truly) can breath a sigh of relief.
The Pirates’ Scott Olsen is suffering from a dead arm and hamstring injury, which means that the 27 year old lefty will likely not be with the Pirates when they begin the season at Chicago a week from Friday. But as disappointing as Olsen has been for the Pirates, they have to be encouraged by the pitching of Charlie Morton this Spring. Morton was one of the players involved in the controversial Nate McClouth trade a few years ago. So far this Spring Morton has recorded a 1.29 ERA in 14 innings of work. On Sunday, Morton had his best start of the Spring allowing only 4 hits while striking out 5 batters in 6 innings of work against the Houston Astros.
Hopefully this will be the beginning of something positive in Pittsburgh. And with 18 straight losing seasons, they need all the good news they can get.
Under protest
The last four innings of last night’s game between the Red Sox and Yankees was played under protest, as the Yankees felt that the Sox staff took Josh Beckett (who was dreadful again last night) out of the game last night without informing the umpire that he was hurt. Under rule 8.03, a pitcher is only allowed one minute, or eight warm up pitches before the beginning of each inning, unless there is an injury at which time the umpire-in-chief (that would be the home plate umpire) shall give the pitcher ample time to warm up.
I think Girardi has a point in raising this issue if Beckett was indeed taken out for another reason other than an injury. But this protest, like other protests in the past (except the Royals protest of the pine tar on George Brett’s bat) will likely be dismissed. If anything, I think Girardi should have protest the way his bullpen has been performing the last three games because it has been downright abysmal. This bullpen once again blew the lead, which was, like Monday night’s game, 5 runs.
Joba Chamberlain…
I still believe that Joba Chamberlain should stay in the bullpen and be the heir apparent to Mariano Rivera as the Yankees closer, but his performance on Sunday and last night has shaken my confidence in Chamberlain to get the job done when it matters most. Last night Joba was incredibly wild; he had a hard time finding the strike zone and as a result, what was a 5 run lead heading into the top of the 8th, was down to one run by the end of the half inning. That type of performance is unacceptable and now, I think, there should be serious questions about Joba’s role with the Yankees in the days and weeks to come, especially if he continues his poor play.
As for Mariano Rivera..
I’m not going to be tough on Rivera because frankly, his defense let him down. There was absolutely no reason for Rivera to throw 24 pitches and give up a double to Jeremy Hermida in the 9th. Marcus Themes’s error made the difference in that inning. I know this type of reasoning leads to the fallacy of the predetermine outcome, so let me say that I don’t believe that Rivera could have gotten out of the inning had Themes made the catch; however, when a defense makes a pitcher work harder than he has to, clutch hits like Hermida’s will happen.
Rivera did his job, the defense let him down.
As for the Red Sox..
Frankly I don’t want to praise them, ugh. But they did battle in both games and you have to give them credit. After Monday night’s devestating loss, the Red Sox could have simply mailed it in last night, but they didn’t. The Red Sox might be at .500 at the moment, but sooner or later their play will improve and they will be in the playoff hunt in the summer. If the Blue Jays continue to play well, this American League East could be a tight race to the finish if the Rays hit a speed bump on the road (that ain’t gonna happen) and wouldn’t that be great?!
Joba rebounds, Yankees win…the rest of the league.
Is there anyone out there that thinks Joba should be a starter? After last night’s performance by Joba, in a key situation, I think it is time to drop all the talk about Chamberlain being a starter and leave him in the pen where he can become a dominant relieve pitcher, and obvious heir apparent to Mariano Rivera. What Joba did last night was what Yankee fans became accustomed to seeing from him back in 2007, where he’d come out of the pen and dominate hitters with his pitching. Last night, although not the same Joba from 3 seasons ago, Joba was great. He inherited a runner on second, the potentially tying run, with one out in the 8th inning and proceeded to strike out Adrian Beltre and J.D Drew, thus preserving the Yankees’ one run lead. After a lackluster performance on Sunday night, Chamberlain rebounded nicely last night to help the Yankees win their first game of the year. Moreover, it seems to me that Joba looks more comfortable coming out of the pen in such key situations during the game and has a habit of coming up big when the Yankees need it. So I beg the powers that be in the Bronx, leave Joba in the Pen!
Around the Major’s last night..
There was a light schedule last night in the League, but nevertheless, the action was great.
The Minnesota Twins rebounded nicely after an opening night loss to the Los Angeles Angels. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau provided a pair of homeruns for the Twins, a sign of things to come for the rest of the league as the M&M boys look healthy. J.J Hardy also contributed with a homerun of his own, and Nick Blackburn had a solid 6.2′s outing as the Twins won the game 5-3.
Bad news for the Angels however, as Joe Saunders had a terrible outing, giving up three homeruns. It might be a case of Saunders not being fully ready after Spring Training, but Twin hitters were on top of his fastball all night and, if you watched the game (on MLB Network 
) you saw the results as Mauer, Morneau and Hardy all hit their homeruns off Saunder’s fastball.
Tonight what to expect…
John Lackey doesn’t need motivation against the Yankees. With Pettitte on the mound for New York, this could be the best pitching matchup of this opening series. Then again, it is Yankees/Red Sox and both teams could bang 10 or more runs in less than two innings.
Closer to Opening Day.
A week from tomorrow the Yankees and Red Sox will open the 2010 Major League season, and for the next six months baseball fans will be on cloud 9. But before the opener, there is still a solid week of Spring Training games left and there are many teams with question marks. Will the Mets have Jose Reyes in the opening day lineup; will Ian Kinsler be healthy for the Rangers and will Cliff Lee begin the season on the disable list? All these questions will likely be answered this week as the final tune up for the regular season gets under way.
As for the Yankees own question marks, Joe Girardi has made his decisions and now we pretty much know who will be the starting centerfielder and the team’s 5th starting pitcher. Curtis Granderson, as I expected, will be the starting centerfielder. This is a no brainer right off the bat since Granderson is an everyday player. Although his defense is suspect he is a more experienced centerfielder than Brett Gardner.
As for the 5th spot in the Yankees rotation, Joe Girardi has made the decision to name Phil Hughes as his starter. This is another no brainer. Phil Hughes’ pitching has been improving over the last few years and if the Yankees want him to develop into a top starting pitcher, he has to start during the season and go through the trials of a regular season. The downside to this is that Hughes will have his innings limited and will likely finish the season in the bullpen.
This decision by Girardi also means that Joba will be in the bullpen for the time being. Hopefully the Yankees will stop toying with Joba and finally keep him in the bullpen where he belongs. Joba is a good pitcher, but he isn’t a starting pitcher, he is a reliever. His work out of the bullpen during the post season speaks for itself. His work as a starting pitcher last year also speaks for itself, and it wasn’t good. So please, please, can Joba stay in the bullpen and be the heir apparent to be the team’s future closer?
In a week….
the Yankees and Red Sox will renew baseball’s biggest, baddest and greatest rivalry in all of baseball. Now that the Yankees are once again World Series champions and the Red Sox are no longer cursed (they just sucked for 86 years), the rivalry between the two will enter another new phase. Now both teams are perennial World Series contenders they will battle each other and the Tampa Bay Rays for the division title. So a week from tomorrow, the war begins again and for the next six months these two teams will battle each other and the rest of the league for the chance of earning another trip to the World Series.
Let the games begin…sorta.
With the Olympics now over, it is time for baseball. Tomorrow, the real games will begin as Spring Training games get underway in the Grapefruit League. For those that breathe, eat, sleep baseball, Spring Training games are very important. It gives us baseball fans the ability to analyse players and teams as they get ready for Opening Day.
Jose Reyes…
There is some good news for Mets fans, Jose Reyes looked healthy rounding the bases in today’s intersquad game, in which he had a triple. Looking at the tape of today’s game, it seemed that Reyes was a little slow coming out of the batter’s box, but as he rounded first he no doubt turned on the jets and made it safely to third. The importance of Jose Reyes to the Mets can’t be underestated. When Reyes went down with his injury, it was as if he dragged the rest of the team down. Since May 21st, the Mets played inconsistent baseball trading first place with the Phillies in a 2 week span. With the Mets still neck and neck with the Phillies, their offense without Reyes was beginning to falter and then Carlos Beltran was lost for most of the season with a knee injury. After June 21st, a month after Reyes went down, the were 3 games behind the Phillies, and less than a two weeks later would be 6.5 games behind the Phillies. And the rest of the season is as they say, history. The point of that is that with Reyes in the lineup, the Mets offense scores; without Reyes this lineup is weaker. So today’s encouraging sight of Jose Reyes rounding the bases is welcome news to the Mets and their fans.
As for the Yankees….
The Yankees will begin their tune up for opening day this week, and for some of the players, this week and the entire month of March is very important. This month will help answer several questions. Can Brett Gardner be an everyday player? Will Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes be the team’s 5th starter? Will Joba end up in the bullpen? The answers to those questions will begin to be answered this week, as the Yankees open up their Grapefruit schedule against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Joba so far…
Has looked good. Joba needs to have a big game in order to solidify a playoff spot. As of now, the Yankees weakness heading into the post season will be the starting pitching. If Joba, and Burnett can turn things around and CC continues his Cy Young candidate season, I think this team will be alright in October. But back to Joba. , listening to sports radio, half awake and half dreaming of being a super CIA agent saving America, there was a discussion on how the Yankees have handled Joba this season. Many, as I felt in the past, believe that Joba belongs in the bullpen and that the organization has done a poor job at handling Joba’s development. Limiting Joba’s innings this season could hurt his future development as a major league starter. After hearing an animated back and forth, someone on the radio, I don’t know who it was brought up the name Bill Pulsipher. If people do not remember the name Bill Pulsipher that’s ok, I hardly remember what happened 5 minutes ago. But if you do remember the name, then you see why the Yankees are handling Joba with kid gloves. Bill Pulsipher was supposed to be the second coming of Dwight Gooden for the New York Mets. In 1995, Pulsipher the leading pitching prospect for the Mets, along with Paul Byrd and Jason Isringhausen, were supposed to give the Mets a future one, two, three punch ala Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. The future looked bright, but in 1996, Pulsipher started to develop arm problems and had season ending Tommy John surgury. Byrd and Isringhausen also had arm problems and missed considerable part of their young careers. Even though Isringhausen went on to have a good career as a reliever for the Cardinals, Pulsipher and Byrd’s collective careers never took off. The reason many say for that is this. In the minors, Pulsipher and Byrd pitched way too many innings. In a two year span, from 1994 to 1995, Pulsipher pitched 292.2 innings. The Mets blew out this guy’s arm by making him pitch a ridiculous amount of innings. The result was ligament damage and surgery from which he never recovered. Not only was it bad for Pulsipher, but it was also bad for the Mets, who bankrolled their future on these 3 arms and they never got to see these 3 pitchers perform to their potential. The Mets have certainly learned from this and so have the Yankees. Joba has the stuff to be a dominant big league pitcher for years to come, which is why I now understand why the Yankees are doing what they are doing.
Yankees win a sloppy game.
After 8 games the Yankees finally get the monkey off their backs and beat the Red Sox 13-6. This is a win the Yankees absolutely needed because another loss would have been psychologically devastating. Seriously..had they lost this game how would this team shake off the fact that they can’t beat Boston? Anyway, my thoughts on the game are threefold. There was the good, then the bad and then the ulgy.
The Good
Yankees win! That is the first thing that comes to mind. Finally they break the losing streak and get the monkey off their backs. It is nice also for the Yankees to put up 13 runs and send a message to the Red Sox that they are a different team from the one that left Boston on June 12. After the Red Sox scored first and took the lead, the Yankees answered right away and tied the game. After Kotchman hit a 2 run homer, the Yankees cameback and scored 8 in the bottom of the 4th taking the lead for good.
The Bad
The bad thing about tonight’s game is that it was a pretty boring game. I’m glad the Yankees won, but it would have been better had the game remained competitive. When a team jumps to an 8 run or 9 run lead, the game tends to drag and tonight was no exception. The game started at 7:10 and ended sometime at 11 pm. Not that I have a problem with the outcome, but I hope that tomorrow we see a more competitive win of course with the same end result!
The Ugly
Where was the pitching tonight? Joba Chamberlain had his worst outing since the all star break. Although he earned his 8th win of the year, Chamberlain walked 7 batters, at one point loading the bases after the Yankees handed him a 6 run lead. Overall, Joba pitched 5 innings allowing 6 hits and four earned runs. John Smoltz on the other hand was really bad. The first two innings, he was able to pitch out of trouble. But in the 4th inning everything fell apart as he allowed 7 earned runs. The big blow came from the bat of Melky Cabrera as he hit a 3 run homerun to give the Yankees the lead for good. Smoltz really didn’t have it tonight as he tried in vain to throw his slider for strikes.
The bullpens weren’t any better. It seems that there was a walk parade in the Bronx tonight as pitchers for the Yankees walked 12 batters overall. Good thing the Red Sox were only able to manufacture 6 runs tonight, otherwise, there might still be a game going on.
Tomorrow…
AJ Burnett needs to win. That’s it really.
Yankees/Red Sox Round 9
The best and biggest rivalry in baseball is once again renewed tonight as the Yankees and Red Sox play for the 9th time this year. As everyone knows the Yankees have yet to beat their hated rivals this year, and since last year have lost 9 games in a row to the Red Sox. Something therefore has to give. The Yankees have played well since the All Star break only dropping the series to the White Sox. In the month of July, the Yankees dropped 1 series to the Angels but won the rest. Thanks to that, the Yankees were able to overtake the Red Sox for the division lead. On the other hand, the Red Sox have struggled. Since the break they have dropped their series against the Blue Jays and Rangers and split their series with the Athletics. Since the break, Joba Chamberlain has pitched extremely well. In his last three starts Chamberlain is 3-0 with an ERA of 0.83. His last start against the Tampa Bay Rays was the best start of the season for him, holding the Rays to just 3 singles. On the other hand, John Smoltz has been struggling. In his last outing against the Orioles, Smoltz gave up eight hits and five runs over six innings. Moreover, Smoltz has had an unSmoltz like control problems in all his starts. So far this year, Smoltz has a 7.12 ERA. It is clear that both are headed in opposite direction and I don’t see that changing tonight.
Key to the Game therefore is..
The Yankees have to exploit Smoltz control problems. Unless there is a miracle tonight and Smoltz regains his control, the key to the game rests on the Yankees ability to disrupt Smoltz timing and rhythm. As for Joba, just pitch well, get ahead of the Red Sox hitters and put them away. No excuses tonight.
What I don’t want to see….
I don’t want to see or hear fans getting on David Ortiz. Frankly, who cares if he took PED’s, it doesn’t matter anymore. What I want to see his Ortiz striking out 4 times and if possible to leave 10 runners on base. Second, I don’t want to see the childish antics of Joba when he struggles. As I said above no excuses, “do or do not…there is no try.” Third and more importantly, I don’t want to see the Yankees drop another game to the Red Sox.. Enough is enough. It is time for the Yankees to show that they are the best team in the American League East and they way they can do that is by beating the Sox.
I change my mind
Joba Chamberlain has to go back to the bullpen. The difference in his approach to the hitters coming out of the bullpen and starting is the difference between night and day. As a reliever, Joba would come in and challenge the hitters with a 96mph fastball and his breaking pitch repertoire would be down in the zone. In most of his appearances Joba got ahead of the hitter, 0-2, 1-2, etc. More importantly, Joba intimidated batters. As a starter on the other hand, Joba’s fastball clocks at 92mph, his breaking pitches are up in the zone; he gets behind hitters that results in many pitches being fouled off or more damaging to the Yankees, batters end up walking. The intimidation factor is basically non existent and it seems Joba is now intimidated by the batters. Joba’s demeanor on the mound as a starter is almost childish. His constant shaking off of Posada is becoming a problem as he is doing more thinking on the mound than he is pitching. Overall, Chamberlain is not as good as a starter as he is as a reliever.
The other thing that is bothering me about Joba is how when he gets in trouble, Giradi doesn’t allow him to get out of it. If the guy wants to be a starter, let him get out of the messes he creates with the constant shaking off and other childish manerisms.
Nats take 2 out of 3
The lonely Washington Nationals have taken 2 out of 3 games from the Yankees these past three days. I’m sorry but that is just inexcusable. The Yankees are fighting for the American League East division title against stiff competition and were just 3 games out of first. On the other hand, the Washington Nationals are just trying to end the season; coming into today the woeful Nationals had just 17 wins (with a win coming last night against the Yankees). If anything, the Yankees should have taken 2 out of 3 from them, but instead they lose 2 out of 3. After the long rain delay, why did this team even bother to take the field? It was obvious to anyone watching the game, the Yankees were not mentally in the game. The rain delay likely took something out of this team offensively, since they couldn’t put a run on board. Pitching wise, Joba Chamberlain had an ok game. He got in trouble early in the first and later in the game, but he still kept the Yankees in the game, just giving up 3 runs. Even if Chamberlain wasn’t on top of his game today, there is simply no excuse as to why the Yankees could not score a run today and why they dropped 2 out of 3 games.
The past three nights against the Nationals, the Yankees had absolutely no offense. John Lannon last night was not overpowering, but he still was able to shut the Yankees down for 8 1/3. Tonight, the Yankees were shut down by the worst bullpen in the majors? How can this Yankee team, with the talent it has, not be able to take 2 out of 3 games?? It is just inexcusable.
Looking ahead
Yankees have Marlins in Florida. That should be a great series of complete boredom.
David Veloz
Recent Comments