Joba Chamberlain had another bad outing this evening, going three innings while allowing six hits and two walks. It’s his sixth bad outing in a row after rattling off three great starts after the All Star break.
Joba has now reached 136.2 innings for the season, 36.1 above last season’s injury shortened total. He is not showing any improvement and continues to struggle.
The whole purpose of the current iteration of the Joba rules is to control Joba’s innings for the year. I buy into that philosophy.
It is also to lighten his workload before entering the postseason, where Joba as a starter will pitch as needed, without over-extending him past the point of reason, a la David Cone in the 1995 ALDS.
But the bigger question looms: do you want Joba as he’s presently pitching to be in the postseason rotation?
You can’t assume that Joba will somehow turn it on and be masterful once October hits. He hasn’t shown enough as a starter to earn that kind of confidence.
In truth, Joba is still a kid learning how to pitch. Normally, I don’t buy into the idea that only veterans can handle pressure. In this case, I don’t know that Joba is ready, physically or mentally, to be effective for the Yankees come October baseball.
If that’s the case, the Yankees should shut Joba down now. He’s within range of the Verducci Effect and he’s showing less and less command. He is not getting any stronger and probably shouldn’t be put in the situation where he comes out of the postseason bullpen overthrowing on his arm.
Girardi has said in the past that you have to watch the pitcher to determine whether they’ve thrown too much or if they are in danger of hurting themselves. Watching Joba over his last six starts, one has to believe he is at the end of his rope.
For all the precautions this organization has taken with Joba and their young pitchers, they should do the best thing for Joba’s mind and body and end his season. He’s stacking failure upon failure, which can’t be helping his confidence as a pitcher or as a member of the playoff roster. If his problems over the last month have been due to fatigue or injury, he most certainly should be shut down before he hurts himself more.
Andy Pettitte can go into the third starter’s spot for the ALDS. Sabathia and Burnett can go on short rest. Deal with ALCS when you get there.
Scott Ham blogs about the Yankees here and at TheBronxView.com, as well as hosting The Bronx View Yankee Podcast. He can be reached at feedback@thebronxview.com.
