Easter night can't come soon enough. I just discovered today something that ticks me off. The Yankees are the defending world champions, yet they begin and end the season at Boston. WTF?! And our home opener is against the Angels? Is that who they're getting the rings against? Bullshit.
Tuesday - that shit is way too expensive for my blood...but Wednesday is hookie day. Anyone else going? It's a 1 pm game against the Angels in April so I imagine a lot of frustration and last inning heartbreak.
No more Figgins on the Angels. I imagine frustration levels should be rather lower than you're used to. Plus, they're looking like the third best team in the AL West this year. And Alio, don't be a douche. I won't say another word on it if you don't bring it up. Just go ahead and bookmark that post. Come back and find me in September if I'm wrong.
Cappy, I agree with you that his velocity has decreased since the injury and I'm skeptical about his ability to regain his elite reliever status. But if that's the case, wouldn't that be even more of a reason to have him in the pen and Hughes as a starter? I can understand the frustration with the mishandling of Joba, but to me, the last 2 years are irrelevant to where he should be for 2010. Of course you would like to see all the restrictions pan out and him become a legit starter, but if not, isn't the backup plan putting him in the bullpen?
its gotten to the point where i can almost remember the entire rant verbatim and can recite it by heart when im drunk.
Well, my ideal scenario has Joba being sent to AAA and Hughes starting. I think right now, Joba still has the tools to be an decent starter if he figures some stuff out... it's just unfortunate that it's not the great, Verlander type of starter we saw that summer of 2008. But I think that a solid #4-5, cost controlled starter has a lot more value to the team in the long term. I think he'd probably need to improve his command a bit, and work on incorporating his changeup more (both doable), but his slider and curve are both good enough that he shouldn't have issues succeeding as a major league starter. After everything that has happened, I'd at least like to see him given a real chance to succeed or fail in that role. Even with the shitty year he had last year (comparatively, based on what we thought we had), I think most teams would take his numbers for a 23-year-old pitching his first full season from the rotation. Hell, he still has a better track record of major league success as a starter than Hughes does. (And I'm totally gay for Hughes, so I don't mean that as a knock on him.) So unless there are some serious injury concerns that we don't know about, I think it's very much worth it to the Yanks to see what they have in him as a starter. What I don't buy -- what I think is complete bullshit, in fact -- is this idea that Joba can't start because of some inherent quality, and that returning to the pen will magically turn him back into who he was before. That's just lunacy and ignorant of reality. It's not happening. The same things he'll need to work on as a starter in order to be successful, he'll need to work on as a reliever. Only now he'll be doing it mostly with two pitches and minus his greatest former asset (his plus plus velocity). So if his fastball command and movement don't improve over what they were last year, guess what? He's going to walk a lot of guys and give up a lot of hard hits, even out of the pen.
OK agreed with you on all points, especially the last paragraph. What bothers me most is the people who think along the lines of Kay, who said it's like putting a model airplane together for 2 years then deciding never to fly it. As frustrating as the Joba rules were, they shouldn't have any bearing on his 2010 role. If they firmly believe Hughes is a better fit to start the year as the #5 starter then that's the course they go and Joba's role becomes priority 2. The one thing I am optimistic about though is if he's going to regain that fastball, he has a better chance of doing it out of the pen. If after only pitching an inning at a time he doesn't regain the same velocity and movement, it surely wasn't going to manifest itself while he was starting, which would make putting him in the bullpen in hindsight an even smarter move.
If it were a faulty mechanical issue, I agree. And I'd think he'd have an even better chance of regaining it in SWB. But I'm thinking it's not very likely to be due to poor mechanics. I think it's either the shoulder injury, or a purposeful change in mechanics to protect the shoulder.
Are you saying they ruined him by making him a starter. I have always agreed with that and knew it would happen. I hope he can get his velocity back..someday. I'll await the storm.
Um, no. Not even close. How on earth did you take that from my posts? Joba had ALWAYS been a starter. They didn't "make" him one. God I wish they just never called him up in 2007. Would have saved a lot of grief and gnashing of teeth by people who don't know what they're talking about.
The fate of Joba, at least for the next year, has been determined. It's over. He's a reliever. Period. FTR, I feel that even without the higher velocity, if he can maintain where he's at, mixing a "good" fastball with his slider and have his curve at least above average, he can be a very successful reliever. The greatest closer in the history of the game has done it with only one pitch. But that's about the end of my talking about it. Enough is enough already. We're just days from the season. On a different note, anyone have a BlackBerry? I just grabbed the MLB At-Bat 2010 application from App World. I'll get live audio of the games so I can be serenaded by the gentle cooing of Sterling and Waldman anywhere I am! It also has all the features you'd get on the computer with Gameday. For me it's worth $14.99 since I can't access that at work and my radio here is a piece of crap. The audio is very clear on this. I'm thinking I may not be very happy next year though. If I have to pay $14.99 per year, it's probably not worth it. The audio is way behind the telecast as I discovered last night. The pitch tracker doesn't go live until the games count, but given how slow it was on the computer, I can't see it being better now. We'll see I guess. At least I can comfortably listen to games this year at work and when my wife forces me to be away from the tv during games.
This isn't me arguing with you, just so you know... I just thought you might like to know the following information: You're not going to see the curve from Joba as a reliever. He's already said he's shelving it for games out of the pen and going to be a two-pitch pitcher. (He'll said he'll still throw it in bullpen sessions.) The greatest closer in the history of the game did it with one pitch that had impeccable control. Really, though, it's more than one pitch. Because he can and does vary the amount of cut each fastball has, from a straight four seamer to a pitch that has a ridiculous amount of cut. It's the variability of that "one pitch" and, more importantly, the pinpoint command he has over it that account for his success.
Shit, I didn't know he was shelving the curve. That's stupid and changes a lot. Yes, I realize it was a different story with Mo in terms of the controlled variability of that one pitch, but I felt like with an arsenal of 3 very good pitches, Joba stood an excellent chance of success even with diminished speed and less control. If he's down to just the fastball and slider he's going to get lit up. Shit.
Yeah, but relievers don't necessarily have the time to get the feel for three or four pitches before coming into a game. And they don't really need a third pitch, since they're likely only facing a batter once. Besides, as a starter, Joba only threw his curve 10% of the time, and his changeup 3%. So as a short reliever, that means he might throw something other than a fastball or slider once in an appearance. Maybe twice. So I'm not sure the lack of a third pitch out of the pen is the difference maker. What's going to be much more important is (surprise!) his fastball velocity, movement and command. Joba's success (and the hype that came with that success, both in the minors and bigs) has always been built off his fastball, regardless of his role. It ain't gonna change now.
I thought about getting it, but I think I'm better off just DVRing any game that I have to miss and/or just checking the score on ESPN on my phone or something. In the end it just seemed like I'd be spending $15 on something I'd never really use.
Yeah, if you're not going to use it often it's not worth it. I see myself using it probably 50 games this year between day games on work days or weekends where my wife drags me away from the tv (plus if we head down to Florida on vacation this year.) Interestingly, it's not specifically the radiocast. Today I'm actually listening to Ken Singleton and Tino Martinez on YES. (At least I think it's Tino. That's whose voice it sounds like.) It's actually a little strange to hear commercials I've seen on the "radio." As for the game itself, Hughes didn't make a very good case for himself in that first inning. He does have 3 Ks already though, and seems to have now settled down in the second.
Hughes settled down after the first inning and pitched well. After the first inning Phil Hughes retired 10 of the next 11 Twins. With 5 SO in 4.2 innings
