Joba as a starter

It’s old news by now: The process of converting Joba Chamberlain back into a starter has begun. There’s not much debate that the rotation is where Joba belongs, no matter what George King and Steve Phillips say. Your best arms should pitch the most innings, period. Case closed. End of story.

Lots of Yankees’ fans haven’t been exposed to Joba the starter, while others forgot just how great he was in that role. Well, if you’re one of those unfortunate people, I’ll show you how great the kid can be as a starter: I dug through the DotF archives and compiled Joba’s 2007 game log from his time in the rotation. The good … no wait … great stuff starts after the jump.

Started the year with High-A Tampa

May 7th: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 4-3 GB/FB

May 12th: 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 4-4 GB/FB

May 17th: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 WP, 1 HB, 6-4 GB/FB

May 22nd: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 9-1 GB/FB

May 27th: 8 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 9-5 GB/FB

June 2nd: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, 1 WP, 8-3 GB/FB

June 7th: 5 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 2-3 GB/FB

Promoted to Double-A Trenton

June 12th: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 4-2 GB/FB

June 17th: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 2 HB, 3-7 GB/FB

June 22nd: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, 2 WP, 3-4 GB/FB

June 28th: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 10 K, 1 WP, 2-3 GB/FB

July 3rd: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, 5-1 GB/FB

July 14th: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 7-5 GB/FB

July 21st: 4.2 IP, 9 H, 7 ER, 3 BB, 7 K

Promoted to Triple-A Scranton

July 26th: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 K

Joba was shifted to the bullpen shortly after his July 26th start. When you go through and add up his stats as a starter, you get this pitching line:

84.1 IP, 61 H, 24 ER, 27 BB, 117 K

That works out to a 2.56 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 12.49 Kper9, and 4.33 K/BB. He had double-digit strikeouts in 4 of the 15 starts, and 9 strikeouts in 5 others. He held the opponent scoreless in 7 of the 15 starts, and only twice did he allow more than 3 runs.

Small sample size yes, but his sample as a reliever is even smaller.