New York Yankee pitcher and anointed savior of all things Yankee, Joba Chamberlain, makes his first official start of the season tonight.
Naturally, New York is all a twitter over St. Joba.
But will this mark the turnaround of the Yankees season? More importantly, is Chamberlain starting a step in the right direction?
Definitely, maybe.
The Yankees pitching staff has been only mildly serviceable over the last half decade and the move to younger arms is certainly the right call. The Yankees have made strides in that direction with Phillips Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Given that both of those starters are currently on the DL, with Hughes possibly out the rest of year with a broken rib, the move to start Chamberlain has accelerated because he is much needed in the rotation.
Does that mean Chamberlain is ready? That's debatable. Relieving, even long relief, is a far different beast than starting. The mental preparation is different. He won't see hitters once a game as he's doing now, but at least twice if not three times as a starter, giving them a chance to learn his stuff. But Joba's got the stuff to start, there's no doubt about that.
Fortunately or not, St. Joba will start at home tonight. Oh, he'll get fan support, even if he gets in trouble. Let's not kid ourselves, though. The New York media could brutalize the guy if he gets lit up and that could be a blow to his self-confidence.
In the end, like everything in baseball, only time will tell.
Meanwhile, the best thing everyone can do is exercise a little patience with St. Joba. He's no miracle worker. At least not yet.
UPDATE St. Joba is off to a bad start. He issued a walk to Toronto's Shannon Stewart, then balked him over to second. Stewart advanced to third on a passed ball then scored on a groundout by Alexis Rios. Scott Rolen followed with a single to right. St. Joba just issued his second walk to Matt Stairs. Two on, one out. You can chalk this up to: Adrenaline and nerves. I bet good money his "over-throwing".
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Comments (2)
My best team of MLB is The ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Jessy | June 6, 2008 1:22 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
My best team of MLB is The New York Yankees . This why I always fallow their games especially whenever I have some time. I'm always trying not o miss any of their game and hear about the team's news. But The New York Yankees tickets get more pricy especially when there are some hot games. But, if we're really good fans we should try not to be mean when we're talking about a favourite teams. It's not only the Yankees tickets that got pricy, but there are other major teams too, so the team needs our support and we should provide as much as we can.
1. Posted by Jessy | June 6, 2008 1:22 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on June 6, 2008 13:22
2. Posted by Peter F. | June 6, 2008 1:47 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Jessy, f-off.
2. Posted by Peter F. | June 6, 2008 1:47 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on June 6, 2008 13:47