In Case You Were Wondering Joba Has Five Pitches

During Spring Training there was some talk about Joba developing a 2-seam, sinking fastball to go along with his four-seamer, slider, curve and change. Well he's now started using all five pitches regularly.

From Peter Abraham:

He threw 88 pitches. Jorge Posada estimated that 55 of them were fastballs. Of that, 10 were two-seam, sinking fastballs. That’s a pitch Chamberlain learned from Chien-Ming Wang. He also threw about 20 sliders and a handful of curves and changeups.

He was also still hitting 98 MPH in the 6th, so for those who worried he couldn't maintain velocity as a starter, you need not worry any longer, he can.

As I mentioned in the yesterday's game summary, he didn't even have his best command yesterday and still was very effective, to me that's a sign of a very good starter, especially at 22 years old.

I liked the way Mr. Abraham closed his post so much, I'm going to close mine the same way:

Whether Joba should start is a good healthy baseball debate. It’s part of what makes baseball great. Nobody ever sits around and debates with their buddies whether somebody should be a guard or a tackle.

But the debate is over. Joba is a starter and a damned good one by the looks of things.