The Good
Joba had his first start of the season. One person in the crowd was miraculously healed when he stepped on the mound. One cynical man realized life was worth living after all, and hungry children everywhere were fed. Also, after he left the game, Joba saved the 4 train from ninjas. Giese relieved chamberlain and pitched 3.2 innings and only gave up 1 run, which isn't terrible.
The Bad
Joba had his first start of the season. He threw 38 pitches in the first and was out after 2.1 innings. He also gave up 2 runs. It was not a good performance, but in fairness he shouldn't be getting stretched out in the majors. Ramirez gave up 4 runs and didn't get a single out. My guess is he's begun to throw the change up too much again.
The Ugly
What happened yesterday was not Joba's fault. This plan to stretch Joba out in the majors was a poor choice. Having to find ways to get him into games to throw X number of pitches was a stupid plan. The idea of starting a pitcher with a 70 pitch limit is ridiculous. Especially a young pitcher. You're asking a lot of your bullpen because you know Joba's only going to pitch so much. You're also asking a lot of your next starter who now has to go 7 innings at least just to save the pen. I understand the innings limits and I understand why they began the season with Joba as a reliever only to convert him later but this is not the way to go about it. Especially since you're conducting this experiment in games that count.
Respect Jeter's Gangster Is for the Children
The "Respect Jeter's Gangster" blog joined Johnny Damon's homerun club, which raises money for the Children's Health Fund. We are pledged to donate $1.00 for every homerun the Yankees hit this season. We will keep a running tally of the homeruns hit and the money donated throughout the season. No homeruns last night. Which is bad for me as a fan but good for me as a blogger since I no longer have to add.
Melky Cabrera 6hr = $6.00
Alex Rodriguez 8hr = $8.00
Hideki Matsui 6 hr = $6.00
Bobby Abreu 7hr = $7.00
Jorge Posada 1hr = $1.00
Jason Giambi 11hr = $11.00
Johnny Damon 6hr = $6.00
Morgan Ensberg 1hr = $1.00
Robinson Cano 4hr = $4.00
Chad Moeller 1hr = $1.00
Wilson Betemit 1hr = $1.00
Derek Jeter 3hr = $3.00
Shelley Duncan 1hr = $1.00
Total = $56.00
If you are interested in Johnny Damon's Homerun Club or the Children's Health Fund you can find links to both at the top right hand corner of our page.
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7 comments:
I disagree with your whole Joba point because he still is giving innings (even if it's only a few) without giving up a whole buttload of runs. Jose Molina, the umpires, Edwar, Hawkins, and Cano were all to blame last night (but I did love the big cheer from the crowd when Cano actually watched a first pitch from Halladay).
As far as taxing the bullpen, they used Edwar, Britton, Giese, Hawkins, and Veras, but they do still have Mo, Ohlendorf, and Farnsworth set for tonight. This pen sucks anyway and needs to be revamped with some of those arms in the minors. DFA Hawkins immediately!
The Joba experiment is ridiculous. If they want to make him a starter, send him down for a month and stretch him out. As Bill Madden said today, Kei Igawa could have pitched into the third, so why not let him do it while Joba builds arm strength somewhere I don't have to watch him?
I thought the Yankees was a professional organization. Do you think Billy Martin would put up with any of this nonsense?
As for Farnsworth being available tonight, God help us all.
Archie, would you rather have had Igawa pitch into the 3rd and give up 6 runs or have Joba pitch 2 innings and give up the 1 run? I know I'd take the latter. Don't worry about Joba wearing out the bullpen. This bullpen is going to undergo some wholesale changes in the coming months. Giese did a good job covering the damage last night.
It wouldn't have taxed the bullpen if the bullpen hadn't sucked. Joba and Giese put up 6 innings of 3 run ball.
Fashioning three more innings out of the pen really shouldn't have "killed" them. Would you have preferred Giese to start the game while Joba threw in AAA? Would that really have been much better?
notice that our pen was actually pretty solid until 1) mussina and particularly pettitte stopped pitching more than six innings and 2) this whole stretching out Joba thing. Now of course part of that was that joba was in the bullpen. But even farnsworth was dealing back then, but now he's back to his old ways.
tonight we have Ohlendorf. Mo only comes in if its a save situation, and we all know what Farnsworth has done of late. if our starter doesn't give us innings (and 2.1 is not a starter giving us innings) then it's going to get ugly. It's not as though Ohlendorf has been tearing it up either.
besides, we have any number of promising AA and AAA starters that could be called up for spot starts. Remember Chase Wright? Sure he got hammered last year, but at least he could get hammered over the course of five or six innings and save some arms in the pen. we have options that don't need to be stretched out, I say use them until Joba's ready in a couple weeks.
The point about the pen sucking last night is well taken though, three innings shouldn't require 10 relievers. When it rains it pours in Yankee land.
Roberto, you have a fair point there, but I have to agree with cmasone that the pen wasn't really taxed last night with the combo of Joba and Giese. Before Posada was activated tonight, there were 13 pitchers on the staff.
I don't know if there will be any more roster moves to accommodate Joba's next start, but I feel at this point that any innings he pitches in AAA is a waste. If Edwar had pitched the way he had been pitching before last night, this wouldn't be a discussion right now.
your right that at this point the discussion is moot because he'll soon be up to full strength as far as pitch count goes, though I still think the process should've begun at AAA.
his next start should be interesting. hopefully he's learned something about being more economical.
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