The Yankees have not handled Joba very well up to this point. Firstly, his rookie season, he has to immediately convert to a one-inning pitcher after going 9-2 in the Yankees farm system as a starter. He flat out dominated, just one earned run in 24 inninigs pitched, and an absurd 0.75 WHIP. Then after staying in the pen for the first part of '08, he has to convert back to a starter. Changing from a reliever to a starter is harder than it sounds. Joba even had to add a whole new pitch to his arsenal (curveball).
The only weakness he had starting was his pitch count kept running up too high and too soon in the game. Notice: his pitches per inning average hardly changed converting from a reliever to a starter.
As a reliever, you can afford to waste pitches to get a batter out, you cannot do that as much when starting - especially when you aren't used to throwing more than 20 pitched in a day, like Joba.
If the Yanks keep him in the rotation for all of '09, then he will be less prone to injury and will probably be the best #4 starter in all of baseball.
4 comments:
There's no doubt the Yankees would value more from Joba being in the rotation in the long run, but I think this year he's better fit for our bullpen. our bullpen is weak, and can not even compare with the Red Sox pen. We can sign another decent fourth starter much easier than we can acquire an eighth inning bullpen guy.
Who were you thinking for another decent #4 starter? Also, our young bullpen arms last year were one of our bright spots last year. We have more coming this year, Phil Coke and possibly Mark Melancon.
Tough call. I think he can become a Graet Closer, but I do think the Beckett argument is valid and he can be a great #1 starter also. But they need to decide today and start his conditioning if he is going to start this year, They cannot do what they did last year, That will ruin his arm and he will become a has been journeyman.
Agreed. I hope the Yankees have already told him he is slated to be a starter this year.
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