Cashman and Rolaids

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Sat May 16, 2009 4:36 am

I went on a rant about GM's in another thread. Time to pick on another one.

Brian Cashman went out over the winter with his endless supply of money and signed Sabathia, Burnett, and Teixeira. Heck, if other teams had the credit limit that the Yankees enjoy, they would have done the same. No beef there. The problem then, and the problem now, is the Yankee bullpen. Maybe the thought was with all these innings eaters in Sabathia, Burnett, Wang, and Pettitte, that the bullpen will take care of itself. Well, we know whats happened to Wang and that bridge to Rivera looks mighty long after Pettitte and Burnett reach their 100 pitches.

The 5th starter is an average one. Joba Chamberlain. Yes, average. He is striking out a batter an inning, but with an E.R.A. close to four and a WHIP of 1.56, with two, count 'em, two wins. Joba is an average starter.

The Yankees like glitz. Joba pitching every 5th day gives them glitz and maybe a few more fannies in their thousand dollar seats. In the standings, it hurts. Yankee relievers have tossed some well-started games away and in the A.L. East, that'll leave a mark. The Yankees can go out and buy a Braden Looper or a Jarrod Washburn if they want an average starter. They can't go out and get a set-up guy and future closer like Joba. Joba is bored as a starter. He is given to doing fist pumps and yelling after a strikeout. The only time he's doing that as a starter is when he gets himself in trouble and needs the K. Gee, that sounds like set-up man Joba.

Cashman needs to admit he made a mistake. He's taken a prototypical set-up man and future closer and turned him into an everyday average starter. If he wants to give Yankee fans a silver lining spin, he can state that with Joba's arm stretched out that he could set up games pitching two innings. Afterall, spinning is on page one in every GM's manual. Or he can tell the truth, moving Joba back to the pen makes the Yankees a better team.

Apologies in advance to Crazy if he owns Joba. Another advanced apology to Ron Shandler. He apparently also liked the glitz style of the Yankees by putting Joba as the #1 pitcher in the Forecaster. Tsk tsk.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Sat May 16, 2009 6:17 am

I've read that Joba is purposely not throwing at maximum effort in the first inning in order to save his arm and ease into the start. That's a good way to end up with stats like these:

Pitch 1-15 12.27 ERA

Pitch 16-30 9.95

Pitch 31-45 3.60

Pitch 46-60 0.00

Pitch 61-75 0.00

Pitch 76-90 1.50

Pitch 91-105 0.00

Pitch 106-120 0.00

At least we know he's not bad at throwing a whole lot of pitches in one day.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Sat May 16, 2009 6:20 am

This just in: Joba in the first inning had 2 K's, no earned runs today. My bet is that he will look a lot better than average the rest of this game.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Sat May 16, 2009 11:08 am

A little above average day.

A win turned over to the bullpen, which turned it into a no-decision.

DOUGHBOYS · Post by **DOUGHBOYS** » Wed May 27, 2009 3:30 am

Joba is not even eating innings for the Yankees. Watching him last night (yes, I watch ), he looked downright bored.