Is Joba the early favorite for the 5th spot?
February 9, 2010, 8:00 pm by iYankees · 13 Comments
While pitching coach, Dave Eiland, noted yesterday that he is excited for the upcoming rotation battle this spring that will feature Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, in particular, with Sergio Mitre, Alfredo Aceves, and Chad Gaudin thrown in for good measure, he did state that the amount of innings a starter could provide over the course of a full season would play a significant part in the team’s final decision regarding the fifth and final rotation spot. “We want 200 innings in all five of our guys,” Eiland said. This is an obvious plus for Joba Chamberlain, who has no innings limit going into the season, while Phil Hughes, on the other hand, will be under the protection of a limit. Based on this alone, it seems safe to dub Chamberlain – not Hughes – the early favorite to land the fifth spot in Spring Training.
Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images
I would think so…. especially now that Dave Eiland wants his 5 starters to throw 200+. But, if Joba keeps going 60-70 pitches by the 3rd. inning, and keeps getting that Now What Look, then lets finally correct this prob. Remember , Goose said “God made Joba to close games”.
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I hope the Yankees never make personnel decisions based on Goose Gossage’s religious views…
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tedbrogen….no, not a religious view, but a religious posting.
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Certainly hope they don’t rely on Hall of Famer Goose Gossage’s opinion for what makes up a good closer….
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Patrick, I agree. Certainly Eiland’s comments would, by default, mean the 5th starter is Joba, although I personally hope it doesn’t turn out that way. I didn’t think Hughes would end up being that no. 5 either, but I still hold out hope Joba finds his way back to the bullpen eventually.
Wonder how long it will take Eiland to clarify/backpeddle from this comment if it is perceived that Joba has already won the job by virtue of the fact that he’s the only guy whose innings from last year qualify him to throw 200+ innings this year?
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If Eiland wants Joba to throw 200+ innings he better fix his mechanics.The picture shows the dreaded inverted ‘W’.Pitchers with this flaw in their delivery are at a high risk for shoulder injury.Joba’s already had shoulder problems and at his age and low inning totals is a bad sign.IMHO if Joba doesn’t fix the flaw in his delivery it won’t matter if he’s in the pen or rotation.He will not be healthy enough to matter.That said I hope I’m wrong.
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Fishjam, I know you were a big time pitcher,what are your thoughts on the Joba debate and his MECHANICS?
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BallPark – You make an excellent point about Joba’s delivery and he has surely not been the same guy since that game he hurt his shoulder. Granted he threw a little harder as a reliever in the playoffs but that was just cause he was going all out. He still wasn’t popping 97-100 like he was before the injury I’ve heard the inverted W flaw used a lot for the downfall of Mark Prior and Joba does share similarities.
One of the most basic drills for pitchers is getting the ball out of your glove and into the power position. Joba is getting there too late. This puts stress on the shoulder and like Ken said, makes it difficult to get on top of his fastball. Where he is in that picture, his lower body is too far ahead of his arm.
Pitchers can do different things with their hands at the start of their motion and have different mechanics but their lower body and upper body must be in concert and Joba’s biggest flaw is his arm is too late at footstrike. When his front foot lands the ball is still behind his shoulder which forces him to throw uphill. Despite this, he is still able to throw hard because he has tremendous God-given arm speed. He also doesn’t drive off his back leg which leads to a poor follow through thus putting more stress on the muscles in his shoulder to slow down his arm rather than absorbing it as a natural part of his follow-through by bringing his back leg around.
So as Ballpark says, whether starting or relieving, Joba is never going to reach his potential or stay healthy long-term if he doesn’t address his mechanical issues.
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Yea, I’m not so sure about an inverted W. But, the footstrike and, as a result, the follow-through are problematic. The guys at Driveline Mechanics wrote a piece about it last year.
http://www.drivelinemechanics.com/2008/05/14/pitching-mechanics-redux-joba-chamberlain/
The Yankees have publicly discussed Joba’s mechanical problems and believe they can be connected to most of his performance woes a season ago. He’ll need to iron everything out, but the issues are fixable.
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CHRIS, there’s no doubt that Joba at times is in the inverted W your picture shows it,but that doesn’t mean he’s in that position all the time.I’m sure Eiland is aware of it and it’s something they are working to fix.We heard talk of Eiland refining Joba’s delivery last spring training.Your comment on Joba’s follow through is something I saw last year watching him several times in the bullpen he doesn’t finish,but that is the result not the cause.The cause is occuring much earlier in his delivery like FISHJAM pointed out.
I read the article and its not definitive,author not to sure.My point several weeks ago is that Joba needs work mechanically and mentally to become a great pitcher.He was rushed to the bigs and we have to be a little more patient because of that.At this point of Joba’s career it’s not about reliever or starter, its about development,fixing his the flaws in his delivery so that he can be healthy enough to reach his potential.
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Fishjam… I second that request…
That hanging arm is a problem, forcing him to put pressure on his shoulder to catch up…see where his left foot is.
Needless to say, I would really like to see what Fishjam has to write on the subject, as I’ve always believed the arm and legs have to be in rhythm or you have trouble. This could have been one of the reasons his FB had no life…never got on top of it.
Only pitched in high school and college (closer and RP) played 2nd base until called in, hurt my arm in Football1…that was that!
I was great, had a fastball that was so fast…I could throw it and run up and catch it…not too fast hay!?!
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Isn’t that called a “Bugs Bunny Fastball,” Ken?
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Yup, I threw as hard as most but, it just didn’t go as fast. That’s why Eddie Lopat was one of my favorite pitchers. He nor I threw anything that didn’t move a lot.
“Bugs Bunny Fastball” fits just fine!
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