Joba Chamberlain needs to show Yankees manager Joe Girardi two things in his next-to-last spring training start for it to be considered a success."Efficency and location," Girardi said before leaving for Monday's road game against Toronto in Dunedin. "I'd like to get six innings if we could."
"The overall performance is what I really want to look at," Girardi said. Girardi feels it is "fairly important" that Chamberlain have a longer outing before spring training ends. "As a reliever, it doesn't matter if you throw 25 pitches in an inning," Girardi said. "You do that as a starter, and you're not going to be deep into games. That's what we want all our starters to do."
Joba starts tomorrow against the Reds, and as Girardi said, it would be nice to get at least six innings out of him. It won't make or break his season, but it would be a good confidence booster heading into the season.
6 Comments:
I think he will do just fine, he will win... dont quote me... but.... 14-16 games, boom you heard it here first!
He does need to cut down on his pitch counts. As a young pitcher who's still learning, I think this will improve over time. Using his breaking balls more often, maybe even working on a 2 seam fastball to get more 1 or 2 pitch outs.
Last season, Joba averaged 17 pitches per inning pitched as both a starter and a reliever.
Over his final 10 starts in 08, he averaged 99.2 pitches per start, over 58 and 2/3 innings. It worked out to 16.9 pitches per inning over his last 10 starts. I don't it's a stretch to think he might be able to get that down to around 15 pitches per inning, which is 90 pitches over 6, or 105 over 7.
All he needs to do is be more aggresssive early in the count and avoid 3 ball counts and especially walks. If he does that, he'll be fine. It's not like he was averaging 20 or more pitches per inning.
Last year when he was allowed atleast a 90 pitch count he pitched 6 innings 7 out of 10 games. That is pretty good.
But this is why the yankees should take Tomko as a long man. Because if any the other 4 starters pitch a game where they cant get through five, and then you have Joba who is on an innings count so he cant really go too deep in games, the bullpen will be taxed without a long man. Also, Phil Coke is too valuable of a pitcher to be wasted as a long man.
Last year Joba averaged 17 pitches per inning and Lincecum averaged 16. The point? Most power pitchers throws tons of pitches.
Some people tend to forget he's only 23 and treat him like a seasoned veteran. They expect more out of him then the average 23 y/o pitcher.
It's still very early. I count on Joba pitching very well this season. If his velocity stays low though, they should start checking him out with some MRI's. Although I guess only one will be needed.
Nobody is treating him like a seasoned vet. I know he's young and I know young players learn as they go. Besides his health, I'm not worried about Joba. The guy's stuff is ridiculous, and if healthy, he will be very good for a long time.
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