In a taping of "CenterStage" for YES on Monday, Jorge Posada laid out some strong expectations for himself and the Yankees for next season.
"Leave him in the bullpen," Posada replied flatly, before being asked to expand on his answer. "If you start him and he pitches 200 innings, he won't be able to (last).
"You're going to lose him. He's going to get hurt . . . I don't see him as a starter. I'd leave him in the bullpen."
Sorry Jorge, but you're wrong. You should probably be worrying about your own injury problems and whether or not you will ever be able throw out a baserunner again. Leave the baseball decisions to the baseball people.
Joba showed this season that he can be a very good starter in this league going 3-1 with a 2.76 ERA in 12 starts. There is no reason to waste his arm in the bullpen permanently.
One thing I will agree with is that if Chamberlain throws 200 innings next season it might lead to an injury since he's only at 94 so far this year. As I've mentioned before the Yankees should have Joba play Winter Ball and get his innings up, this way next season he can at least get close to 200 innings.Here's some more from Posada on various other topics:
On catching next season:
"I think everybody wants to play first base, that's what I hear," Posada said jokingly after the taping. "I want to catch . . . I will do anything possible. I don't want to play first base. I want to be a catcher."On Pudge Rodriguez potentially returning to catch next season:
"Pudge, he's my friend, but he's going to have to go somewhere else."On this team's current struggles:
"I haven't been watching the whole games. I really can't take it," Posada said. "What I've seen is we don't have enough pitching.""It's pitching. Right now, we need a five-man rotation. You cannot have question marks. They have to be erased," Posada said. "There are going to be free agents, but the question is do they want to come to New York? I hope they do.
"I would say two free agents. Hopefully, they want to come to New York and help us out."
3 Comments:
I would love to see joba as a starter as well, but i have to disagree with you in that I think jorge's opinion should carry some weight in this decision.
Who would know better about catching Joba and whether or not he is best suited for the bullpen? Someone that has caught over 11,000 innings in the big leagues, or the "baseball people" that never played the game (save for stick michael)?
I know what you're saying, but I don't think Posada is right about this. He's not a coach or a doctor, he's a catcher. If they need to know if a pitcher is tiring, or how good his stuff looks, then ask Posada.
By the way I added some more quotes from Jorge on various topics.
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