He can’t remember the exact time, but Joba Chamberlain remembers the message. It was sometime after his start last Sunday in Seattle, a seven-run, three-inning performance that appeared to be rock bottom.Here's some more from Mark Feinsand:Yankees manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach Dave Eiland approached Chamberlain and offered simple advice: Step up.
“We just told him,” Girardi said, “that we know he’s capable of pitching better and we need him to do it.”
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“As a man, you take a challenge and you do two things with it,” Chamberlain said. “You either step up or you run away from it. And I’ve never ran away from anything in my life and I’m not going to start now.”
“That’s probably the best we’ve been on the same page in a few starts,” Chamberlain said.
While three runs in six innings is no gem, yesterday was still a huge step in the right direction for Joba. There are many times when a player or person has to hit rock-bottom before waking up and realizing they need to change. Maybe that start in Seattle was it for Joba. And maybe he finally stopped blaming "the rules" and started looking at himself as the problem - his quotes seem to imply that. Hopefully we see more of this Joba as the games become more important.“I wouldn’t say we read him the riot act,” Girardi said. “We just had a discussion that we knew he was capable of pitching better and that we needed to see him pitch better.”
Six innings of three-run ball later, Chamberlain had delivered his best performance since July.
“You get challenged a lot in life,” Chamberlain said. “You have to look yourself in the mirror and find a way to make yourself better. I went out and attacked, had a great tempo and had a great game plan from pitch one.”
11 Comments:
This is a hoot. He gave up 3 runs in 6 innings. That's a 4.5 ERA. I mean I get that it's better than he has been doing, but it's hardly a breakout. If Lester hadn't been shelled and the Yanks lost 5-2 these same people would be talking about how Joba just isn't good enough to trust in the playoffs.
BTW, on the topic of Lester, did you notice how everything he threw last night was inside? Remember this if they face each other in Oct: that was a set-up for how he'll pitch those yank hitters in the playoffs. They will all be bailing and he'll kill them away with changeups.
More on this... This embodies why the Sox have passed the Yanks as the team by which all others are measured. Sox have Lester throwing everything on the hands of the Yanks all night, even if it meant walking guys. He/they didn't care. It was all about putting an image in their heads for Oct. Sox play to get ready for October.
Yanks put a "challenge" out to their #4 starter to "step up" in a meaningless game and when he puts up a mediocre line their management, media and fans crow about how awesome he is. It meant nothing and if the Yanks are so concerened about a Sept game when nothing is on the line, then they are even more messed up than I thought. THis is a team that's not ready for October in any way. I guarantee you the Sox hitters are more ready to face Joba in Oct today than they were yesterday at this time, while the Yanks hitters are not at all sure what to make of Lester and his constant throwing at their hands.
Gutsy performance by joba ! I hope media outlets noticed that yankee fans clapped when lester got up
I noticed that the fans cheered. It was classy and stood out from how they normally behave. I guess it's true that it's a different crowd going to the new stadium.
Eric, nobody here cares about you bs Red Sox propaganda. By the way, Lester got hammered yesterday, shouldn't you be a bit more concerned about that? Oh, and his contusion?
And nobody said Joba was awesome, all I said was it was a step in the right direction, which is was. No go play with your friends over at SOSH.
I am not a Joba hater and am not insisting he only can be a reliever. Yes Joba did well the first time through the lineup, but he did poorly the second time through the lineup.
As I don't have the stats as too his pitches- velocity and type of pitches during those two 3-inning stretches, it's difficult to interpret the results.
Does it mean he tired out, or that his pitching repertoire was limited or that he was relying on one or two pitches and they were anticipating him?
One game, while a vast improvement and a step forward, is not the be all and end all. The organization messed up his development by rushing him to the bigs without enough time in the minors to learn how to pitch. His time in college is different- they learn how to win, not how to pitch.
Until I see differently, for me, this year he is a reliever and only if really needed, possibly a spot starter.
That's fair Dennis, but Joba really only made two bad pitches all night and they both left the yard.
On the positive side, his breaking stuff had very good movement and he was locating his fastball. Both good signs.
As for him tiring out, I'm sure he did. With the way he's been handled he's now still building up arm strength, so fatigue should be expected. Hopefully he throws 100 pitches his next time out and is ready to go for the playoffs.
That's good to hear Greg; I hope you're right. Do you have stats or a source for them on his pitches?
You can get some Pitch FX data from Brooks Baseball:
http://brooksbaseball.net/pfx/index.php
Where is all the complaining and bitching today? you guys are almost starting to treat joba like arod, treat him like dirt and but cheer him when he succeeds. No one deserves that treatment people.
Great job by Joba. He did have a gem he was only at 86 pitches going but Ortiz kind of ruined it. But Joba did the right he was challenging hitters you dont want to walk them when you have a big lead.
Joba is a very young inexperienced pitcher. I am glad he answered the bell tonight. But people need to be patience with him. He will be a frontline starter in a couple of years for the yankees but he is going to have bumps in the road. This is the first time in his career he is struggling a bit. 2007he was lights out and in 2008 he was lights out.
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