Joba Chamberlain is not currently a pleasant topic among Yankees fans. After three stellar starts to open the second half, he’s been on a slide since, pitching 23 innings and allowing 21 runs in August. His 18:15 K/BB ratio is not pretty either, nor is his .914 OPS against.
While the times haven’t been kind to Joba, many of us are still looking forward to his potential. This is why, to answer a commenter, why he gets so much attention. Poor results don’t take away from his potential as a front-line pitcher. It just means that he’s not accomplishing that at this moment — as a 23-year-old in his second full major league season.
How much patience should the Yankees exercise? Jonathan Lehman of the NY Post points to another young starter who came up as a reliever, then transitioned to the rotation: St. Louis’s Adam Wainwright. At age 24 he began the season in the Cardinals bullpen and moved himself into the closer’s role by season’s end. He was a revelation out there — much like Chamberlain, but over a longer period. The Cardinals then transitioned him back to the rotation, and he’s been a solid contributor ever since.
There are definitely differences between each player’s path leading to and through the majors. Wainwright, a 2000 draftee, didn’t even get a cup of coffee until 2005, and then came up full-time in 2006. This means he spent almost five full seasons in the minors. Joba, a 2006 draftee, spent May through July in the Yankees’ minor league system, missing April with a hamstring injury, and then being called up in August.
Joba dominated out of the gate as a starter in 2008, while Wainwright, despite his more than acceptable ERA, struggled at times. He allowed more than a hit an inning, his walk rate was up, and his strikeout rate was down by 2.5 per nine. Wainwright then showed some improvement the next year, though he spent some time on the DL, while Joba has seemingly regressed a bit in his sophomore campaign.
Most importantly, it appears that the Cardinals did a good job of keeping Wainwright’s innings in check. His 202 innings in 2007 might seem like a huge jump from the 76 he pitched out of the bullpen in 2006, but in 2005 Wainwright tossed 182 innings. He had tossed around 160 innings in 2001 and 2002, making the jump to 182 in 2005 easier to take. To that end, Wainwright has been mostly healthy in the majors, save for a finger sprain in 2008.
At age 27, Wainwright is experiencing what could be a Cy Young season. It wasn’t an easy path there, but the Cardinals were patient with their 6’7″ hurler, and it’s paying off now. Keep in mind, when Wainwright was Chamberlain’s age he had just two major league innings under his belt. He had just finished up a season in AAA in which he pitched 182 innings of 4.40 ERA ball. In 133.2 innings, that’s just about Joba’s ERA now, except he’s doing it at the major league level.
It’s easy to be down on Joba now. He hasn’t pitched well in a month. The Yankees odd handling of him, while completely defensible from a development standpoint, is unfamiliar and is the cause of even more criticism. I don’t think this string of bad starts, even when combined with his other poor outings this year, takes away from his long-term potential. Young pitchers go through growing pains, and patience is necessary. The Cardinals exercised it with Wainwright, and now they have a Cy Young candidate on their hands. The Yankees could find themselves in a similar position a year or two from now.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.