Joba Chamberlain

New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain had his second consecutive stellar outing since the All-Star break in an 8-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics at the Stadium last Friday night.  

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You may be wondering how Joba Chamberlain came off the All-Star Break with 2 consecutive victories: 1 against the Tigers and 1 against the A's. Before the break, it just seemed to be no-decision after no-decision. He holds the Major League Record for most No-D's in a season.

Continue reading "How Joba Got His Groove Back"

He's been a Yankee killer for the past few years. He is a big hero up in Boston. Big Papi, yeah! What's been going on with David Ortiz? Bill Simmons wrote an article in the June 15 issue of ESPN the Magazine that will please Yankee fans everywhere. He's been slumping big time. Mr. Simmons compared him to Clark Kent in Superman II when he lost his powers and ended up getting beat down by a bully. He also said that in a game against the Twins that Big Sloppy couldn't even keep up with a 89 mph fast ball. Red Sox fans are even jokingly saying that they need to mail him some HGH. Well, they can do that all they want because it looks like Big Papi has become Big Sloppy.

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All is well in Yankeeland. We are a 1/2 game into first place.

Tonight, Joba Chamberlain goes to the hill for the Yankees against the Indians. Cashman has ensured everybody he is staying in the rotation. Joba debate over. Who cares about his DWI? Who cares about his mom getting busted dealing drugs? Let's get just excited and watch him pitch a good game against the Indians tonight.

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Go Yanks! The Bronx Bombers continue their winning ways sporting the best away record in the AL. Only the Phillies and the Dodgers have better away records. Check out the standings. Tomorrow's pitching matchup is very interesting. Phil Hughes, who's been pitching really well lately, will go against Carl Pavano. Let me park on these 2 players for a second.

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Sabathia, Chien-Ming Wang, A.J. Burnett, Joba Chamberlain, and Andy Pettitte. Wild card: Phil Hughes.

Rotation spot for rotation spot, the Yankees don't have a pitcher below No. 4. I have Sabathia as the fourth best No. 1, behind Halladay, Santana, and Lincecum. Wang's the second-best No. 2, after Dice-K. Burnett's the top No. 3 starter, Joba's the No. 3 fourth starter, and Pettitte's the No. 3 fifth starter.

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We had heard over and over that the Yankees were not going to rush Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain and other pitchers through the minors. Yet that's exactly what they did in 2007, an

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n't look even like the average innings-eater he's always been.

But with the Yanks recently losing Joba Chamberlain for a few weeks, they might be a bit more desperate. Seattle certainly should be, since we're stuck with him if we can't pawn him off on some poor and desperate saps. Let's hope passing him through waivers is a sign of back-office movement and that someday soon we'll be able to say goodbye to one of the last of the Bavasi Bunch.

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Sorry this has been a busy weekend and I havent given my thoughts about a great Yankee weekend.

* Don't let lastnight get you down. The Yankees aren't going to win every game the rest of the season. They won 8 in a row and the series in Boston so everything is fine. It was Sidney Ponson he probably wont be around too much longer anyway.

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He even needed rules put in place when Joba Chamberlain came into the equation late last year for fear of over use. And when the rules were gone he overused him the playoffs throwing nearly 40 pitches in game 3 with a big lead.

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Thweek will go along to show what the Yankees currently have in Joba Chamberlain. This will show if he is ready to make the next step to being THE ACE. These will be the best two lineups that he will ever face. First Tuesday night will be the Texas Rangers. They feature 3 of the top 10 hitters in baseball and the Rangers are arguably one of the three best offenses in baseball. Joba will need to show he dominate quality hitters like Milton Bradley, Ian Kinsler, and Josh Hamilton. They also have perrenial All-Star Michael Young which gives them an extremely tough 1-4 in their lineup. Joba will need to work ahead and mix speeds to be succesful.

Continue reading "Test Week for Joba"

However, you didn't have much credibility when commenting on Joba Chamberlain's post-strikeout fist-pumping.  I haven't forgotten that YOU let your teammates down back in 1979, when you go

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Joba Chamberlain has been doing well; it almost got dicey there early on when he was on a pitch count.  Opposing teams knew he was limited so they were waiting him out. Good thing someone

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leaves them with a rotation of Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, Darrell Rasner, and a still-developing Joba Chamberlain, with Dan Giese expected to step into the fifth starter role.  That’s a shallow rotation, weighted at the older and younger ends like a barbell. Hurry up, C.C. Sabathia.

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iving the lie to my earlier contention that he's not HOF-worthy), a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time Joba Chamberlain (still being stretched out as a starter) and Darrell Rasner, filling in for an injured (and struggling) Ian Kennedy. 

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Joba Chamberlain is getting more comfortable as a starting pitcher.  Last night, having a pitch count of 95, Chamberlain threw 88 pitches in six strong innings as he only gave up one run. Now, the training wheels are off for Chamberlain, no more pitch counts. Derek Jeter homered off of Doug Brocail in the 8th inning for the decisive margin.

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After winning in dramatic fashion on Thursday afternoon on a walkoff two run homer by Jason Giambi, the Yankees hoped to take that momentum into tonight's game. Tonight wasn't the night as Royals rookie pitcher, Kyle Davies, pitched a gem, scattering only one run and seven hits over a well pitched 6 2/3 innings.  Davies earned the win as he rendered trhe Yankee bats quiet. Davies was called up from Triple A last Saturday. He proceeded to defeat the Indians' C.C Sabathia in snapping the Royals 12 game losing streak. Tonight he snapped the Royals 11 game road losing streak by mixing up his pitches, attacking the strike zone early and often and keeping the Yankees hitters off balanced and guessing.

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After last night's disaster in Joba Chamberlain's first career start, things were back to normal tonight for the Yankees as they didn't have to deal with the media circus.

 Mike Mussina took the ball looking to get the Yankees back on track by ending their three-game losing streak.  He did so, pitching six effective innings and earning the win.  The win was number nine for Mussina, which ties him for the league lead. Mussina, whose loss of velocity has been well documented this season, kept the Bluejays hitters off balanced with an array of different offspeed pitches and a fastball which sported impressive late movement.  One night after Chamberlain went 2.1 innings in his first start, the Yankees were in need of a good start to give the bullpen a bit of a breather and Mussina provided that.

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  Last night's contest between the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays was hyped as Joba Chamberlain's first major league start. It was supposed to reveal what is the answer for the Yankees in the years to come. Instead, it revealed the problems the Yankees have right now. Since Chamberlain was on a pitch count, he only went 2.1 innings, forcing the Yankee bullpen to pitch more than seven innings. That was a recipe for disaster, and disaster ensued.

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Tonight was the well hyped debut of Joba Chamberlain as a starting pitcher in the major leagues. As is well known the process to mold Joba into a starter has begun.  They have started loosening his arm up over the course of the past couple of weeks, and tonight was the big day where he saw the mound for the first time as a starting pitcher in the majors.  His pitch count was limited to 70, but this wasn't a normal day at the Stadium by any means. More media members, a more excited crowd are the main factors that made this a game that was different than usual.

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away so much of their farm talent through the years that only "can't-miss" prospects like Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy (two-thirds of whom are struggling or injured) still remain. There are more prospects behind them, but they're a year or two away, at least, and the Yanks must clear room for them by shedding some of their aging vets.

Continue reading "Rebuilding the Yankees--A Good Thing?"

I was hoping to get this up yesterday with the Yankees-Red Sox series fresh in everyone’s mind but I didn’t have the time.  After a few weeks of the baseball season and watching almost every Red Sox and Yankee game I have a few observations on these two teams so far.  You may not agree with them all, this is just what I have noticed this season.

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prospects in any trade package for Santana and will instead rely heavily upon rookies Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy this season. While all seem very promising prospects, the Yankees will still have to endure that rough patches that young pitchers are prone to, as well as carefully monitoring the innings each will be allowed to work this season. Chamberlain, who is on the most limited number of innings, will actually start the season in the bullpen, and could possibly join the rotation after the All-Star break. Though Hughes and Kennedy will be in the starting rotation, their innings are also limited and cannot be expected to work too deep into games, even when they are pitching well, just so that they can be stretched over the course of the season.

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scussion to something much more positive and much more important.  What to do with the amazing Joba Chamberlain?  The Yankees have been saying all off-season that he was preparing to be in the starting rotation but just last week a New York newspaper cited a team source as saying Joba would begin the year in the bullpen and later move into the rotation.  The Yankees then said, again, he was going to prepare all spring to be a starter and they would make their decision closer to the beginning of the season.  This is a decision that could be the key to whether the Yankees make the playoffs or not and it is a very difficult decision to make. 

Continue reading "Joba Rules"