Archive for July, 2009
Where have you gone, Joba Chamberlain?
Posted by: | CommentsFollowing a stellar eight-inning appearance in Cleveland on June 1, Joba Chamberlain seemed to be on the verge of a run. He had allowed just four hits and two walks while winning his third decision of the year. His ERA sat at 3.71, and he had reached the 8th for the first time this year.
The run he went on was not the one we expected. Since then, Joba has thrown 35.2 innings, and he has been awful. He has allowed 27 runs — just 20 earned — while giving up 47 hits and 15 runs. That’s a WHIP of 1.74 and an ERA of 5.05. Opponents are hitting nearly .300/.400/.450 during this stretch. It’s ugly.
As I’ve said a few times, I don’t know what’s wrong. Joba has no approach on the mound. He has no pattern; he has not rhythm; and he has no velocity. His stuff — once electric even as as starting pitcher — is simply average. His breaking pitches have less bite than they once did, and his fastball isn’t even all that fast.
Joba doesn’t seem to have a clue about it. “I made great pitches throughout,” he said after the game, seemingly in denial. I can’t even begin to guess what that was all about.
A good number of Yankee fans feel that the bullpen will magically restore Joba to the pitcher we saw in 2007 and 2008. That, though, just won’t happen. The Yankees will be left with another ineffective reliever who can’t locate his pitches and can’t find an out pitch when things, as they did in the 5th inning last night, start to go bad.
The bullpen may have been the worst thing to happen to Joba. Where the Yanks go from here with the once-heralded phenom struggling as a 23-year-old in the Majors will be both telling and vital to the team’s future.
Game 86 Spillover Thread III
Posted by: | CommentsWhile A-Rod‘s and Derek’s errors are to blame for the deficit, Brian Bruney and Joba Chamberlain have to make their pitches. They haven’t. Considering the Tampa and Boston victories, this has been one crappy game.
Game 86 Spillover Thread II
Posted by: | CommentsNot even the bullpen will fix whatever is wrong with Joba. His electric stuff is just simply gone. This one’s up to the bullpen. How disappointing and frustrating.
Old man Johnson pitches SWB to a home win on the road
Posted by: | CommentsMike Dunn was added to Northern Division All Star roster as an injury replacement. Meanwhile, Jorge Vazquez will participate in the Homerun Derby before the Eastern League All Star Game next week. Double-A Trenton hitting coach Frank Menechino will also take some hacks.
Make sure you scroll down for tonight’s game thread.
Triple-A Scranton (5-3 win over Lehigh Valley) still playing their home games on the road because of drainage issues
Kevin Russo: 1 for 5, 1 RBI
Ramiro Pena & The Duncan: all 0 for 3 – Pena drew a walk & K’ed … Shelley drew a walk, scored a run & K’ed twice … Eric drove in a run & K’ed
Austin Jackson: 3 for 4, 1 R, 1 3B – threw a runner out at home from RF … yes RF, he’s playing all over to increase his versatility
Juan Miranda: 1 for 4, 1 RBI, 1 K
Frankie Cervelli: 2 for 4, 1 R, 1 2B
Colin Curtis: 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 E (fielding)
Yurendell DeCaster: 1 for 2, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 BB – 7 for his last 19 (.368)
Jason Johnson: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 9-10 GB/FB – 60 of 90 pitches were strikes … given how bad his two starts in AA were before this, I would have never expected a performance like this
Anthony Claggett: 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 2-1 GB/FB – 15 of 31 pitches were strikes (43.4%)
Zach Kroenke: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1-1 GB/FB – 5 of 9 pitches were strikes
Game 86: Failifornia
Posted by: | CommentsI’m not a fan of west coast games. It’s not that I can’t stay up to watch them or anything like that, it’s just that they give me that same kind of grimy feel I get from long rain delays. Fitting that Joba Chamberlain‘s start tonight, he’s been involved in a few of those rain delayed games already this season.
Let’s make it 14 of 16, shall we?
Here’s the lineup:
Jeter, DH
Damon, LF
Teixeira, 1B
A-Rod, 3B
Swisher, RF
Cano, 2B
Cabrera, CF
Ransom, SS
Molina, C
And on the mound, teh Jobber.
Open Thread: Maybe the Mets want Melky too (and a Yanks’ roster move)
Posted by: | CommentsI’m going to toss this one up now as an Open Thread to carry you through until the night game. Stunningly enough, Omar Minaya just traded Ryan Church to the Braves for out machine Jeff Francoeur. (Hat tip to our very own Mike Axisa at MLBTR.) If the Mets want someone with a career 89 OPS+ to roam the outfield and make outs for them, maybe the Yanks can offer them Melky. What a weird and dumb trade for Minaya to make.
Anyway, word out of Anaheim, as we already know, is that Mark Melancon is there. The Yanks have yet to make a corresponding roster move. We’ll be back later. Play nice.
Update: The Yankees have announced that Jonathan Albaladejo has been optioned to AAA. They weren’t going to send off Brett Tomko yet because they need fresh arms tonight. I guess they don’t plan on stretching out Hughes or Aceves as I suggested last night.
Forbes says Jetes is the most overpaid
Posted by: | CommentsVia Pinto comes the not-very-surprising word that Forbes has named Derek Jeter as the game’s most overpaid player. Jeter is making $21.6 million this year, and according to the financial magazine, that salary pushes him far above the average for the position. The only problem with their methodology is that it’s, well, non-existent. Jeter made less earlier in the contract and is now getting paid for what he has done. He is also, as Bud Selig pointed out, a baseball ambassador. In the end, Pinto points us to Jeter’s value at Fangraphs. He might be overpaid, but it’s not nearly as cut-and-dried as Forbes would have us believe.
Joe won’t go home again
Posted by: | CommentsAs late as next summer and as early as October, the Yankees and Joe Torre will have a reunion of sorts. Next year’s preliminary schedule has the Bombers visiting the Dodgers while this year, the Yankees find themselves just three games worse than the Dodgers.
While that eventual meeting is sure to generate more coverage than any of us could stomach, even a simple Dodger trip to Citi Field leads to a few Torre articles. This one from Newsday caught my eye this week because it seems fairly clear that Torre and the Yanks are on icy terms at best.
Earlier this week, Torre and Anthony Rieber chatted about Torre’s thoughts on both the new and old Yankee Stadiums. The former Yankee manager was unequivocal in stating that he will not be going back to Yankee Stadium. Writes Rieber:
Torre didn’t want to leave the Yankees after 12 seasons and four World Series titles. When he turned down the Yankees’ please-don’t-take-it one-year contract offer, he decided to not look back.
He said he already made his goodbyes to The House That Ruth Built after his final days as Yankees manager following their defeat in the 2007 ALDS to Cleveland. He hasn’t been back since. With the ballpark being slowly torn down, he’ll likely never get another chance. He’s OK with that. “When I left there, I would have been very surprised if it wasn’t my last time,” he said. “I took everything in. I had so many great memories there.”
Torre said he bought a couple of Yankee Stadium seats, something he has also done for other defunct stadiums he managed in (Shea, Fulton County in Atlanta, Busch in St. Louis). But he didn’t want any other memorabilia from Yankee Stadium other than what he packed up from his office.
“I’ve been asked, and even some people from the Yankees have called me, ‘Is there anything you want here?’ ” he said. “I already made arrangements for a couple of seats . . . Aside from that, everything that went on there was enough for me. It really was.”
Torre also told Rieber that he doesn’t want to visit the new Yankee Stadium unless of course it is with the Dodgers in October. He might just get his chance to visit anyway.
These sentiments from Torre are a part of the continuing feud he has with the Yankees. It was clear from his book that he has little respect for the men running the show right now, and while he should carry some of the blame for the messy divorce and probably outlived his years in New York, the Yankees and, in particular, Hank Steinbrenner messed that one up in 2007.
Joe Torre will long be remembered as a great Yankee manager. He won four rings and 1173 games. He never missed the playoffs, but since leaving after 2007, he hasn’t come back. He missed the closing ceremonies at Yankee Stadium and the All Star Game. He shouldn’t have, and that one is on Hank.
Just 21 days 'til pitchers and catchers report.
