GOOD I don't see the problem with keeping Joba as setup and be the eventual replacement for Mariano. Joba has been dominant as a setup man, and I'd feel just as comfortable 2-3 years from now with him as the Closer, he has that persona to be a closer to me.
Wonderful, you quoted another dimwit who takes your side. No, Joe was always Clueless Joe. Was Rivera key to championships? Yes. Was he the main reason? Come the f**k on. And yeah, Mo was a starter. With two pitches. Joba's got 4. Wetteland also bolted. Mo's here another 3 years. The guarantee that he'll be a dominant starter is just as good as the guarantee he'll continue to be a dominant setup man. There are no guarantees. However, he's got 4 plus pitches. That translates well into an effective starter.
Not my side, the side of sanity. If he helps the team more in the pen then he does as a starter then that is where he belongs. If they get a k-Rod type for the pen or a Sabathia (please no) or Hardan for the rotation then that will dictate where he ends up. Right now they need him more in the pen and that is why he is there. Do you really think they prefer Kennedy over Chamberlain starting right now? If Kennedy could be as effective in the pen as Chamberlain then their roles would be reversed. BTW, feel free to post any quotes you want by anyone you consider to be a brilliant writer, sportscaster, or commentator that say he should be in the rotation.
I love this line of reasoning. OMG! WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HE'LL DO AS A STARTER! As though you're trying to move him from pitcher to quarterback. As though if he tries to start and sucks, you can't just move him back. But you don't pass on the opportunity to find out if you have another [insert front-line starter here] on your hands solely because he's doing well where he is now. You just don't. Unless you're brain dead. Imagine if they decided not to move Santana because he was effective out of the pen in 2003 (60 K in 40 innings).
Where did you read that? I read 150 for Kennedy. Hughes 170 or 180 if I remember correctly and 140 for Chamberlain.
He will get his chance to start but if you read what Girardi said when it was announced he would start in the pen it may not even be this year. That should tell you all you need to know about where they think he will help the team the most for now. "We think that's where he fits best right now," manager Joe Girardi said yesterday. "He's a back-end guy. That's how I'm going to classify him," Girardi said. The team said it still expects Chamberlain to be a starter down the road, but Girardi wouldn't commit to saying it would happen this season. "We have not got that far," Girardi said. "I'm going to put it this way: We consider him a starter in the future. I don't want to be locked into a timetable. You know that's my personality." Hate to quote a Boston paper but that's the first that came up on Google. I know I read the same thing in the NY papers too. http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2008/03/20/chamberlain_to_start_in_bullpen/
Kennedy pitched 165 innings last year. +30 innings. Where are you getting 150 from? That's just wrong. Hughes is around 170. And why on earth would you expect Girardi to publicly commit to a plan and tip the Yanks' hand about exactly when/where/how it's going to play out. Don't give them that info. Same reason they're not being open about just what the inning limits are. The thing is, if Joba's going to be a starter, you do it this year. Otherwise, you're just in the same boat again next year, with him having an innings limit of 140. If you are going to have Joba start "at some point" -- and it's immensely stupid to not even give him a chance -- and if you're going to utilize his abilities with the major league club as much as possible (i.e. you're not going to send him to the minors for an entire year to build his workload) then you're going to do it in the middle of the season.
Brilliant writer? Come on. Do you honestly not understand modern media? Modern media, no matter whether the news, sports, gossip, whatever, is built upon one principle: sensationalism. Local sports hacks aren't interested in "the best interests of the Yankees". If they were, Alex Rodriguez would never have heard a single boo in his entire career in pinstripes. But that doesn't generate as many paper sales as talking about ARod's trysts, or starting arguments over Joba's "proper" place. Take today for example. NEVER, under ANY circumstances, will I read the Post. It's one of the most poorly written (grammatically speaking), newspapers in the country. Yet twice today I've gone to their web site to read an article. Why? You posted it, and I wanted to refute the claims. Mission "Gather Eyeballs": Accomplished. How about Cappy's point about Santana? If you had a pitcher who could be either Mariano Rivera, or Johan Santana, all that made the difference was your decision whether to put him in the rotation or not, who would you make your pitcher into?
No doubt Santana would have been wasted in the pen. I really hope Chamberlain does as well when he gets his chance to start too. Right now I feel he is more important where he is. My guess is he will get called on again today.
But your entire reasoning for him being "more important where he is" relies on the fact that you haven't seen what he can do in the rotation. If it's 6-7 innings of 2-run ball replacing the worst pitcher in the rotation, while meaning that the next-best pitcher in the pen gets the high-leverage situations, then I guarantee you that situation will win the Yankees more games than Joba in the pen. I like that Girardi will leverage Joba's use properly from what we've seen so far. That somewhat mitigates the waste (although it's still not even close to equal value). If it were still Torre managing the team, he'd be truly wasted.
Exactly. Girardi is capitalizing on what he has to do anyway. If it were Torre, Joba would have already pitched 12 innings this year.
More likely, he would've been relegated to a role that has him pitching the eighth inning and only the eighth... regardless of score. Or something like that. If Joba needs to be in the pen for the first half of the year, so be it, but I'd much prefer to see him brought in when he's needed. For example, it's the sixth inning... score's tied... the starter puts the first two guys on base. Bring in Joba there. THIS is where the game is likely to be won or lost. Torre would've said, "It's the sixth inning... let's go to Proctor." (Of course, Torre also said that about the seventh inning. And the eighth inning. And the fifth inning. Of blowouts.) If Girardi will use the pen properly, though (and he has so far) it will minimize the loss of not having him in the rotation.
