Joba to Open the Season in the Pen?
According to Yahoo! Sports, Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain could open up the 2008 season from the bullpen, before eventually returning to the rotation later in the year. Since the Yankees are looking to limit his innings, but at the same time want him as a starter for the stretch run later in the season, one option being looked at is starting him in the pen, where he excelled as a rookie in 2007. Fleece Factor had a Q&A recently with Kat O’ Brien of Newsday, and she hinted at a similar situation… it can be seen here. In 19 appearances last year, Joba posted a 2-0 record with a ridiculous 0.38 ERA. Opponents only hit .145 against him, and he struckout 34 batters in 24 innings of work.
New Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland said, “We’re going to have a plan going into spring training. There already has been ideas tossed around. I think we have a pretty good handle on what we’re going to do going into it.”
If Chamberlain started ‘08 from the bullpen, one would assume the Yankees starting rotation would shake-out like this: Wang, Pettitte, Mussina, Hughes and Kennedy. With Kyle Farnsworth and newcomer LaTroy Hawkins as the main setup men right now for closer Mariano Rivera, I think this idea might actually be best for the team. Thoughts?
Filed under: New York Yankees
THat Rotation is a little scary and one hamstring away from us trading for some crappy pitcher.
It is scary. And I can see why people are picking the Yanks to finally miss the playoffs next season.
If the plan is to try and limit him to around 160 innings (which I think is smart), it makes sense to start him out as a reliever (maybe 2 innings every 2 or 3 days), so that he can throw more innings later in the year as a starter.
Plus, I think we all need to remind ourselves that there is no guarantee that he will be a dominant starter.
I agree it’s smart from the standpoint of limiting his innings. I’m also fairly confident in saying he will be a #3 starter, at the worst.
THats why we need Santana.Someone who can gives us 4-5 Hall of fame years and 200 innings each of those years to give our pitching staff time to develop.I hope the Red Sox took Lestr off the table.I would love to trade Ian Kennedy.
This is gonna be a great world championship year.It of course can be a horrible season.There’s no between.