New York, NY (WFAN) -- Okay, let’s not go off the deep end. Joba wasn’t going to throw 6 perfect innings with his 70 pitch limit. But I think we all expected better than this.
I’m not going to try to tell you he was good, or better than the numbers indicate, or anything like that. But I’m also not going to tell you this whole thing was a mistake and he should go back to the bullpen.
Best as I can tell, he was just way too pumped up for this game. And maybe that’s something that takes time to re-learn. Joe Girardi said Monday that he expected Joba to work between 93 and 96 miles per hour most of the time. Well Joba threw 10 fastballs to the first two hitters of the night and according to the Stadium radar gun they were 96, 96, 98, 101, 97, 97, 98, 96, 96, and 97. There was another 100 and 101 before the inning was over.
Clearly he needed to dial it back a bit. As I mentioned last time, a scout who saw Joba start last year at AAA-Scranton watched Joba start in the low 90’s and dial it up to 96-97 by the end of the night. He paced himself well, dominated the game, and finished strong. This was nowhere near the case Tuesday night.
I told you last week I thought the ramp-up plan employed by the Yankees didn’t make me comfortable because he didn’t throw enough pitches in actual game situations. He needed to reach pitch counts in the game, not in the bullpen. He needed to go through a lineup more than once, which he hadn’t done. All these things are what he normally would have done if he had gone to the minors and made a few starts there. Instead, the Yankees tried to build him up at the major league level. That adrenaline issue might have been detected early in one of those minor league outings too, don’t you think?
Okay, so they haven’t done all this the perfect way. And yes, the parade of wanna-be’s coming out of the bullpen Tuesday night won’t make anyone comfortable in late-game situations. But this is not a reason to abandon this experiment. I don’t want to read any e-mails like “He stinks as a starter, just put him back in the bullpen!”
Maybe it’s not what you want to hear, but this wasn’t going to happen all at once. Joba wasn’t going to turn into a Cy Young Award winner in just one start. He wasn’t going to throw a shutout every time out. There are enough people all over baseball who feel he’s going to be a top-notch starter. I still believe this is the right move. But let’s wait for this half-baked process to finish baking before we jump to any conclusions.
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Sweeny
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