Thoughts on Joba

Lemme start off with a little story…

As I’m at the game last night watching Joba take his warm-ups, the guy sitting next to me (young guy, probably 21 or 22, resident Angels’ fan rockin’ a Chuck Finley jersey) turns to his friend and says “Joe-buh Chamberlain? Who’s this fucking clown? We’ll be back in this game in no time.” I cracked a little smile, looked at the guy and said “Man, you have no fucking idea what you’re in for.” Five minutes later, he was singing a much different tune.

Random thoughts after seeing him pitch:

• Holy crap.
• You can file Willits’ hit under the “nice piece of hitting” category, because that pitch was nearly at his shoestrings. Even so, it was little nubber back up the middle, far from a hard hit line drive. Oh, and can Reggie Willits & Howie Kendrick switch names already and restore order back to the universe?
• Dude, he schooled Vlad on 3 pitches. Like really schooled him. Had him way out in front of a first pitch slider, blew 100 mph heat (drew lots of ooohs & aaaahs) that Vlad barely fouled off (if he centered that pitch though, man, that ball would have landed in Encino), then finished him off with a devilish slider. Ridiculous.
• I still like Phil Hughes more, but Joba’s got the clear edge in EORP (Excitement Over Replacement Player). It’s going to completely nuts in a few years when those two hit their prime.

Joba’s now thrown 102 pitches in the bigs, 68 for strikes (66.67%). The opposition is hitting a flaccid .115-.179-.115-.294 off him. I want you take a second and get a good look at Joba’s career K/BB ratio at the bottom of the Joba Watch (that K/BB ratio includes everything, Hawaii last winter, Futures Game, bigs, minors, everything). I mean take a reaaaaal good look at it and understand how completely sick that is.