Will Joba Start Again This Year?
September 2, 2008, 4:19 pmHe may not, or at least it seems that way after reading the following from Tyler Kepner. Here’s what Brian Cashman had to say about Joba’s return (which is today in Tampa):
Chamberlain has thrown only 89 innings this season. If he is a starter all of next season, the Yankees would be asking him to roughly double that total. Curiously, Cashman did not commit to making Chamberlain a starter next spring training.
“I hope so, because we’d have him and Wang right off the bat as your 1-2,” Cashman said, referring to Chien-Ming Wang. “But these things all come from organizational meetings over time. Right now, he’s a starter. He’s only going to be used out of the bullpen because of the circumstances.”
Obviously, Joba starting next year is also a question that is raised by this comment. However, that’s a story for a different day. Judging from Cashman’s remarks, it appears likely that the Yankees will keep Joba in the bullpen for the rest of the year. This can allow him to pitch multiple innings and continue to build his count for next year (so he can be in the rotation). They still consider him a starter of course, but “because of the circumstances”, Joba could remain in the ‘pen for the remainder of the season. If the Yankees can somehow lock up a playoff spot, then I wouldn’t be surprised to see Joba start in October. But, for now, he’ll just be bridging the gap to Mariano Rivera.
UPDATE – The guys over at RAB pretty much confirmed this through a Mark Feinsand article.
If they succeed in signing CC and Burnett next season, there’ll be no need to rush Joba into a starter’s role. They have to protect Joba’s future. A shoulder injury can so easily end an young pitcher’s career.
Yup, I’ll be writing about this in a bit, so stay tuned!
I read somewhere else that they now plan on starting him in the pen again next season to limit his innings, because now they really can’t ask for more than 140-150 innings from him next season.
So, we get to go through this all again next season.
Although that would indicate that they will do whatever it takes to sign CC, will bring back one of Moose or Pettitte (lets hope Moose, he has figured out how to pitch with diminished velocity and Pettitte has been below league average this season), and depending on his performance in September they might consider picking up Pavano’s option (an extra $11M above his buyout) and seeing what they can get out of a presumably healthy Pavano in a contract year.
That would setup this rotation – CC, Wang, Moose, Pavano, Hughes
Hughes probably can’t handle a full season of 200 innings yet, but as the 5th starter he probably wouldn’t be called upon much the first month and they could skip him from time to time to keep his innings down. Would have Acevas, Kennedy, and Wright in AAA in case of injuries, and hopefully Giese as the long reliever/spot starter.
[...] is something Tyler Kepner touched on yesterday as well. It clearly makes sense in terms of the practicality. Joba needed to log innings this year, [...]