WHY JOBA'S BACK

(photo: Getty)
From January 15th onward this off-season, all we ever heard about the Yankees was how great their 8-9 punch would be. And hey, there was good reason. Mo and Soriano were probably the two best closers in baseball. Some would argue Brian Wilson, who I think is hugely overrated, and Joakim Soria were the best, but neither of them play in the incredibly competitive American League East.

Now, Soriano isn’t even a closer, he’s the lights out setup man (despite that one rocky outing), but what a combo. Between Mo and Soriano last year, they had a combined 1.77 ERA (122.1 total
IP and only 24 total ER.)They are practically a 6th incredibly effective starter.
(photo: AP)
But despite all the talk about how dominant the 8-9 guys would be, we never really heard much about the 7 guy. 9 games, 5 wins, and 3 losses in, I think we’ve established that we don’t just have a potent 8-9 punch, but a massive 7-8-9 punch. Casey calls them the Three Headed Monster.

With some rediscovered velocity, newly found confident poise, and some tiny mechanical changes, Joba Chamberlain is looking a lot more like the Joba we saw in 2007 than the one we’ve seen in 2009 and 2010. Sure, it may be true that he’ll never quite be the pitcher he was, but that’s part of the game. We once had a young phenom who could throw 98 out of the pen and 101 mph when he got warm and he was deadly accurate. Now, we have a much more mature 25 year old stud who’s developed a better curve ball and can still throw in the upper 90's when he’s warm. Hell, Joba touched 97 in his last Spring Training game, and as the season goes on, velocity tends to pick up. Would anyone be surprised if he got into a groove and suddenly we were seeing triple digits here and there? I’m not expecting it, it is something that may very well end up happening and I’ll just look at the screen and say “Yup, I thought that may happen.”(Photo: Getty)
For anyone who’s missed the beginning of the season, Joba is 1-0 with a 4.87 ERA (3 ER), over 5.2 IP with 5 hits (WHIP of 1.235), 5 Ks, and 2 walks. Obviously 5.2 innings is a very small sample but it's not so much his stats than it is the finer details of his pitching performances this year.

On the occasion that he gives up a hit, he keeps his cool. He has a huge, intimidating presence that scares the living crap out of batters. He’s pounding the strike zone. The best part, his mechanics. He’s keeping his hands down by his waist instead of his shoulders. It all has to do with the pyramid we talk about here at Bleeding Yankee Blue. The Pyramid of Pitching Dominance. Pitching ability just keeps building on itself as long as it lays the foundation. Joba and Rothschild noticed a flaw in his mechanics, which when fixed vastly improved his ability. This allowed him to come into the spring confident, despite all the talk of his extra poundage and recent failures. With his confidence comes a much more natural flow. The ball flies out of Joba’s hands without much worry and he throws like a machine. Perhaps his pyramid got wrecked up a bit in his mediocre seasons, but now that he’s laid the foundation and begun building upon it, it doesn’t look like he’s ever going to think about his failures again.So everyone, get on your PS3's or Xbox 360's or whatever, pop in your favorite baseball game, whether it’s 2K or The Show, go to the player editor and jack up Joba’s stats a bit. I know I did, I’ve got his fastball set at 96-99 with all the other random stats significantly improved. He’s earned the improvements, both in our video games and on the field. He’s sure come a long way in the past month and a half. He’s gone from being pejoratively called Joba the Hutt to re-establishing himself as a favorite in the Yankees fan base and a hugely reliable relief pitcher.

Mo’s around a minimum of 2 more years, and if he decides to leave, Soriano’s probably gonna be around to become the closer, so yeah, maybe Joba won’t end up being the shut down closer he was projected to be, but he sure as hell isn’t going to be competing with CC for the title of staff ace, nor will there be another battle between him and Phil Hughes for a spot in the bottom of the rotation. (That being said, with Phil’s recent performances, I think Joba may win this one.)

Joba’s our 7th inning guy right now and probably will be for many more years. And I wouldn’t want anyone else in that spot. Would you?



--Grant Cederquist, BYB Staff Writer




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