The Gasoline Award - the least successful relief pitchers of 2013

Since 1976, Rolaids has sponsored an award for the best relief pitchers of the year for both the American League and National League. I was going to name my awards the Tums Award, but figured I would get sued. So I figured I would name my award for the least successful relief pitchers of 2013 the Gasoline Award because the following list of pitchers did not put out any fires. Instead...say it with me...they poured gasoline on the fire.  

It is difficult judging relief pitchers because they could have ten good performances in a row and then get poached for an inning and have an ERA that balloons to five in a hurry. And often times they will put a base runner on only to have another guy from the bullpen come in and make sure that runner scores. That is the life of a relief pitcher.

Noting all of that, I based my award on not only ERA, but on inherited runners scored, rWAR, WHIP and WPA. Doing so seems to cover all the bases. And here are my results:

Mike Gonzalez - Gonzalez is a LOOGY, a left-handed specialist who pitched 75 times this past season to log fifty innings. He makes his living one lefty batter at a time. After a mostly successful career doing so, 2013 did not go well. His WHIP was 1.660, his homer per nine rate was 1.8, his WPA was -2.000 (the highest on our list). He allowed 47.7% of his inherited runners to score and this was pitching mostly to get lefties out. Lefty batters had a .780 OPS against him. Not a good season.

Brandon League - I love this guy's name. It sounds like a collection of super heroes. League has never been able to hang on to a closer's role and this year was his worst. He had a WHIP of 1.546 and allowed 50% (!) of inherited runners to score. Opposing batters had this triple slash line against him: .305/.354/.464. His rWAR was -1.4 and his WPA was -1.838. Nothing good to see there. Oh yes, his ERA+ was 64.

Anthony Bass - I almost hate to put Bass in here as he was one of those guys that was the last guy out of the bullpen--the mop-up guy. He only had 29 appearances, but pitched 42 innings. But I have to put him in there because he allowed an .829 OPS against and allowed 66.67% of inherited base runners to score. That is unbelievable in the gasoline department. His WHIP was 1.690. His ERA was 5.26 and tied League with an ERA+ of 64. Bass had a WPA of -0.538.

Hector Rondon - Rondon's stats don't look as bad as the first three. His ERA and WHIP are better. But he allowed 50% of his inherited base runners to score. His WPA was -0.434. I suspect that he had some days where he pitched quite well and had other days where he could not get anyone out. His high walk rate probably did not help him.

Jose Mijares - This is our second LOOGY on the list and if you do not get that one guy out that you are supposed to get out, things get ugly. Mijares had the highest OPS against on our list at .844, a terribly bloated WHIP of 1.776. The trouble with LOOGYs are that the other manager will pinch hit for the lefty Mijares had to face and that spelled trouble as his OPS against from right-handed batters was almost one (.961). Mijares allowed 41.30% of inherited runners to score (30% is about average) and his WPA was -1.234.

Honorable mention: Joba Chamberlain, John Axford (he did better in St. Louis)

Based on all that information, who would you give the award to? I think Mike Gonzalez gets the nod, though League gave him a run for his money. The good news for all of these pitchers is that most will probably still be employed in 2014.

Joba Chamberlain as Lenny Pike

I do not often try to cross post, but I liked this a lot today. So check it out on It's About the Money, Stupid. With all due apologies to Joba Chamberlain.

The Mishandling of Joba Chamberlain

On Monday over at Sliding Into Home (a Yankees blog), Domenic suggested that if the Yankees are looking for another starter, they need to look no further than Joba Chamberlain. This Fan commented that it will never happen because the Yankees' brass has said so publicly. The usual reasons are that when they tried that before, Chamberlain had a mysterious drop in velocity (especially at the start of the game) and a lack of command. Domenic was having no part of that and still believes Chamberlain could still be an effective starter. He could be right. But the Yankees have so screwed up Chamberlain's situation, that it would be a miracle if they could ever get things right with him. From this Fan's perspective, it doesn't seem like a former #1 pick could have been handled worse.

Chamberlain was the 41st overall pick of the 2006 draft. A year later, he was a late call up and dazzled, quickly becoming a cult hero in New York. 12.8 K/9 and an 0.38 ERA in 24 innings stamped his image across the land. In 2008, Chamberlain started in the bullpen and pitched twenty times in the late innings and he was very good. Then, without any build up of his innings, and without any time in the minors to air things out, they put him in the rotation and he made twelve straight starts. He was rough in the beginning, great in the middle and his last start was a rough one. He went 3-1 in those starts, struck out seven or more batters in five of those twelve starts. The Yankees as a team won eight and lost four of those starts. Then he made ten more relief appearances to close out the season.

Joba finished 2008 with a 2.60 ERA in 100.1 innings and had 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings. In his first two seasons as a pitcher for the Yankees, he gave up just 0.4 homers per nine. It was announced that Chamberlain would be a starter in 2009.

And so he was in 2009. The year started with the announcement of the "Joba Rules." Chamberlain would only be allowed to accumulate so many innings and they stuck to it. He made 31 starts and only pitched 157.1 innings for the season. He did finish 9-6 but his ERA ballooned up to 4.75, his K/9 sank to 7.6 and his walk rate went up significantly. Plus, he gave up 1.2 homers per nine.

The Fan watched a lot of those games and in the first inning, Joba would be throwing 89 to 90 MPH. By the second or third inning, he would be up again to his normal 92-95. He looked tentative as if pacing himself too much and his command faltered. He hit 12 batters and threw five wild pitches. It appears that his coaches did little to prepare him properly.

The Fan has a theory that the Joba Rules messed with the pitcher's head. The expectations were so high, but he wasn't allowed to grow into those expectations. He would just be getting started and with a pitch count ballooning, he would be out of the game by the fourth or fifth inning. Plus, the Fan doesn't think it helped that 20 of his appearances were caught by Jorge Posada. In those 20 starts, his ERA was over five and his K/BB ratio plummeted to 1.57 (it was 3.0 with Molina and 2.0 with Cervelli).

The Yankees lost confidence in him and announced that in 2010, he would have to fight Phil Hughes for the fifth rotation spot. Hughes came out smoking and Joba never had a chance. He pitched the entire year in the bullpen and had an uneven but generally successful season.

The result was that the Yankees built him up via the Joba Rules in 2009 and then wasted that entire process by never using him as a starter in 2010. And now the Yankees' brass has concluded that Joba is done as a starter. He is a back end of the bullpen guy and that's that. He's back to square one after five years.

Personally, that constitutes a jerking around. The fact that Chamberlain succeeded in the past in the bullpen led to his starting demise because it was too easy to put him back out there. Frankly, it's a waste of his talent. Hughes had a nice season and it was nice to see that develop. He now inherits the rotation spot that he earned. It wasn't a perfect season and at times, he struggled just like Joba did. But that won't end up with the same results because the Yankees need starters and Hughes has the job. Joba will get his 70 innings again and when both pitchers come up for arbitration, Hughes will make more money because his job is more important.

When this observer watches both Hughes and Chamberlain, it is apparent that neither have a forceful personality. Neither takes things by the nads and run with it. They both seem to allow themselves to be steered in whatever direction their catcher and their bosses want them to go. Chamberlain may be a smart guy, but he gives off the appearance of not being the sharpest tool in the shed. If that appearance is correct, then what would he know about sticking up for himself and putting pressure on his bosses to force any issue?

After mulling through all of this, Domenic is right. Joba Chamberlain will be 26 in 2011. There is still plenty of time to build him back up and put him back in the rotation. He was a first round draft pick for goodness sake! Shouldn't he get a second chance? Shouldn't he have a chance to be the kind of star they thought he was going to be? He would have to start all over and go through another year of Joba Rules. It would be hoped it would be handled better this time. Martin might be a better fit and if it's Montero, than even better because Joba and Hughes would be the elders then and throw what they want.

Sometimes the "win-now-or-else" persona of the Yankees forces them to make bold decisions that come at the expense of their young players. Nowhere is this more apparent than with their pitchers. Phil Coke is another example of a starter who was forced to be a relief pitcher for two years and now that the Tigers want him to start, he has to build up all over again. Their frantic need to win makes them take young talent like Hughes and Joba and Coke and put them in the bullpen to hold the fort until Mo can come in. This comes at the expense of starting experience and muscle memory needed to start long term.

In these eyes, the Yankees have done a disservice to Joba Chamberlain but he is still young enough to turn it around and become the kind of pitcher his talent seems to dictate he can be. Except this time, he should get a real chance. Maybe that chance will have to come on another team. His own team doesn't believe in him, so it might be best to trade him for a starter. If he is too valuable to trade, then by golly, put him in the rotation.

Does Joba Need Fixing?

When Larry Rothschild was hired by the Yankees as their new pitching coach, a slew of articles appeared outlining Rothschild's tasks ahead. Many of them mentioned the two guys that needed "fixing" the most as A. J. Burnett and Joba Chamberlain. It was always those two. While few of us would disagree that A. J. Burnett needs an engine overhaul, it simply doesn't seem fair to lump Joba Chamberlain in that same category. The two are considered the Yankees' head cases. Well, this Fan isn't a psychiatrist, so let's stick to baseball facts. Joba Chamberlain will be fine.

It's easy to get lost in a relief pitcher's ERA. And it works both ways. A closer will pitch one inning really well for 30 odd appearances and everyone talks about their "amazing" ERA. Yet one bad appearances (or two or three) can balloon a relief pitcher's ERA in the flick of an eye. Let's say that a relief pitcher has pitched twenty inning and has given up two earned runs. The relief pitcher has an ERA of 0.90. Isn't he a great reliever? The next outing, he doesn't have anything and he gives up three runs in a third of an inning. Now his ERA is up to 1.76. His next outing is again rocky and he gives up two runs in a third of an inning. Now his ERA is up to 2.61 and so it goes. Two thirds of an inning added 1.7 to the pitcher's ERA. And in some of those outings, the pitcher behind him is actually the one who gave up those runs with a homer or something.

That's why you have to go beyond the ERA to judge relief pitchers. Two of the biggest criteria are the K/9 and the K/BB ratio. Joba Chamberlain's were just fine at 9.7 and 3.54 respectively. His hits per nine innings were rather high at 8.9 and his WHIP reflected that at 1.298. But his homer rate was just fine too at 0.8.

This writer submits that Joba's problems weren't so much being messed up as a pitcher as it was a combination of bad luck and lack of support, particularly from his infielders. His BABIP for the season was .327, but that doesn't tell the full story either. It was his BABIP for ground balls that really stand out. Now this writer has to admit to not doing a full study on this, but it seems that ground balls lead to an out about 75% of the time. Whenever the Fan looks at a pitcher's splits, the BABIP on ground balls is anywhere from .220 to .260. Batters make their living on line drives, which tend to lead to hits upwards of 60% of the time. But Joba's BABIP on ground balls was .309.

This isn't to say that Joba Chamberlain can't get better. He is far less effective against right-handed batters than he is against lefties, which you would think would be the opposite. So he needs an out pitch he can throw to right-handed batters. His walks are still a bit too high. When a right-handed batter was able to pull the ball off of Joba, they had a .522 batting average! He is sloppy with his first pitch. When apposing batters swung on the first pitch and put the ball in play, they had a 1.056 OPS against him.

It is the opinion of this writer that Joba Chamberlain had a decent year as a relief pitcher. He had two tough stretches, one in May and one in August. But the rest of the year he was just fine. All his peripheral numbers are right in line with where you want them to be except his ERA of 4.40. His xFIP, a truer way of looking at a pitcher's effectiveness, was 3.34 and his FIP was 2.98.

So why the bad perception about Joba? Well, for one, he kind of looks like a goober. With his unbent cap and blank expression, he can be mistaken for a rube. Plus, people don't forget the fist pumps and all that stuff he used to pull on the mound. He caught people's attention and thus, he is under a deeper microscope. But the bottom line is that Joba Chamberlain shouldn't be high on Rothschild's to do list. He's just fine.

The Joba Question

Joba Chamberlain lost another game last night for the Yankees. Javier Vazquez pitched brilliantly for seven innings without giving up a run and turned the ball over to Chamberlain with a 1-0 lead. These are the kinds of games that last year, the Yankees always won. This year has been an adventure. Chamberlain came in and promptly gave up four runs on a grand slam and the Yankees lost 4-1. It was Joba's fourth loss, all in relief. The big question is whether the Yankees can go as far as they want to go with Joba bridging the gap between the starter and Rivera? The answer has a surprising conditional answer.

Joba Chamberlain is facing what happens to relief pitchers who have bad outings. The lack of innings compiled allow a couple of bad outings to blow up their ERAs. Joba still has 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings. He still has an almost three to one strikeout to walk ratio. He has given up 39 hits in 36.1 innings pitched, which is too high for a high power relief pitcher. But his BABIP for this season is .369 which shows that he's unlucky so far. Last night's grand slam was the first homer he's allowed all season.

Regular readers of this blog are going to groan at this next statement because the Fan has harped on this all year. Part of Joba's problem depends on who is catching him. Yeah, there is a difference when Chamberlain pitches to Cervelli and when he pitches to Posada. When Joba pitches to Cervelli he has a 3.71 K/BB ratio. When he pitches to Posada, that figure drops to 2.33. Joba's OPS against is .649 with Cervelli and .766 with Posada. This simply continues a trend that is over two years long which the Fan has proven over and over again.

And what about Javier Vazquez's beautiful performance last night? Is it a coincidence that it occurred because Cervelli started the game behind the plate? No. Vazquez has a 3.28 ERA pitching to Cervelli and a 7.52 ERA pitching to Posada. It's not a coincidence. The Yankees have to know this stuff right? Do they have high powered statisticians in their organization? This Fan doesn't know. But either way, the evidence is overwhelming.

The Yankees will win if their pitching holds up. Plain and simple. The playoffs and World Series are all about who pitches better. The Yankees have spent millions to get the pitching they need. So why then do they throw that pitching to a catcher who doesn't do them any favors? If the Yankees would want to maximize their pitching, then put Cervelli as the number one catcher and put Posada at DH without delay. There are questions on whether Cervelli can hit long term. Doesn't matter. They need to pitch well and they will have enough offense.

Oh, and in case you think this is a new phenomenon, remember the first time Vazquez pitched for the Yankees? Remember how that didn't go so well? That was 2004 in case you've forgotten. That year, Vazquez pitched 28 times to Posada. His ERA was 5.23 in those games. He pitched five games to John Flaherty in 2004. His ERA in those games was 3.31.

So where did this post go wrong? It probably got lost because this is a subject that frosts the Fan's hide like no other because it is so obvious. If this writer can at least finish it up with Joba and tie the post up in a bow, that would be nice. Okay, here goes: Joba has had a few bad outings, but his stats are still impressive and he can still dominate. Stick with him (as there are few other options out there anyway) and at the very least, bring Cervelli in for a defensive replacement in the late innings and things will work out just fine.

A Joba Well Done - Cooked That Is

The Yankee bullpen is officially a mess. Where is Phil Coke when you need him? Oh, yes, he's in Detroit along with Rookie of the Year candidate, Austin Jackson for whom the Yankees got Curtis Granderson. How is that working out so far for Brian Cashman? No, not so good. There is no saying that Phil Coke would have made Saturday's bullpen meltdown any different, but it is easy to say that it couldn't have been worse.

The Yankees' line up totally destroyed every pitcher the Indians sent up there to pitch until the sixth inning. They beat up Huff right up until Alex Rodriguez drilled a line drive off of Huff's head which was an unmerciful way to end what was a bad night all around for the pitcher. Fortunately, Huff is okay it appears and his CAT scan proved negative. Huff was followed by Laffey who quickly turned the game into a laugher, right? Or at least so we thought.

But once again, C. C. Sabathia was less than ace-like and gave up five runs in six innings of work. He too took a shot to his body and that seemed to cause him to lose his composure and his grip on reality. Last year, when the Yankees rolled to 100+ wins, a lead going into the seventh inning was pretty much a lock. Coke and others would get the ball to Hughes, who is now in the rotation, and Hughes would then get the ball to Rivera. It worked like a charm. Later in the year, when Joba stopped starting, he got the seventh and that too went well.

Now, it's all a crap shoot. Marte, Mitre and Robertson have been as reliable as satellite television during a hurricane. If just one of those guys could get through the seventh, then perhaps the Yankees could get a predictable Joba in the eighth and Rivera in the ninth. But that's not what's happening and Girardi seems to be pushing every wrong button. That the Yankees could blow a 10-5 lead to the Cleveland Indians is alarming.

This post isn't absolving Joba Chamberlain of his share of Saturday's responsibility. He allowed four hits and a walk before he could get an out. But the problem started before him. Robertson, who was so good last year, has been awful. And once a pitcher, especially a relief pitcher struggles, the manager loses faith in him and gets itchy. It's hard to blame him. Robertson hit the first guy he faced, T. Crowe "Price." Then Choo just missed a homer. Crowe then stole second and Kearns promptly singled him in. Remember what the Fan said about Girardi and his itchy, lack of faith, trigger finger? Robertson got yanked. Girardi brought Sergio Mitre in for the second straight game. All of Yankee Stadium groaned.

Mitre walked the first guy he faced. Russell "I never met a team I didn't like" Branyon was sent up to hit for Shelley Duncan. Girardi popped out of the dugout and pulled Mitre (thanks for playing) and brought in Marte. Marte performed the LOOGY thing and got Branyon to fly out. Two outs and only one run has scored. Girardi then brought in Joba. Before you could blink, the game was over: Single, Walk, Double, Double, Single...game over.

The more the Fan thinks about it, the more the Fan blames Girardi for this mess. Joba was probably sitting in the bullpen when the seventh started and he's chewing on his fingernails thinking that the eighth was his. Suddenly, Girardi is playing Russian Roulette with three relievers and Joba is rushed into action. Sure, he's supposed to be a professional and be ready for anything. But Joba is just a big lug who is probably better served in finite and refined roles. There were two outs, why couldn't Marte face one more batter? Grudzielanek, the next batter, doesn't have overactive splits when it comes to facing lefties. He's a .265 batter against lefties and a .260 hitter against righties. And his OPS is much better against righties. The chances were good that Marte could have gotten him out. And then Joba would have pitched the eighth like he was expecting and the results might have been way different.

Sometimes, it must be difficult for a manager not to over think everything. You have a four run lead with two outs, why are you panicking and thinking that everything has to be a match up thing? It rushes Joba into the game, increases his workload unnecessarily and Grudzielanek would have probably not been that much of a problem.

But Joba doesn't get off the hook. With all of his tools and all of his ability, to let five straight base runners get on board before you get one stupid out is pretty pathetic. But the feeling here is that Joe Girardi needs to settle down and thus figure out how he is going to use his bullpen. His twitching and overreacting is not helping. And if Joba hadn't gotten the final out with a strike out, how long was Girardi going to let him stand out there getting his brains beat out? It would seem that after the first two or three guys in a row got on, he should have made a move. But he didn't.

Bottom line: Robertson, Joba and Girardi all contributed to the Yankees losing a game they dearly should have won. They were inching up on the Bay Rays and the snafu was a two game turnaround in the standings...pretty much akin of bogeying a hole when your competitor is in the process of getting a birdie. Not a good thing. Joba will be okay. His splits are all good. His K/9 and K/bb ratios are all good. He's had three rough outings. But keep him in a defined role and not try to get more than three outs out of him and he'll be fine.

Enough With the Joba - Hughes Thing

Who is going to the the Yankees' fifth starter? Will it be Joba Chamberlain who was groomed for the position last year with the famous "Joba Rules?" Or will it be Phil Hughes, the once top prospect who was so effective last year as Rivera's setup man? To be fair to the process, we can't forget Serge Mitre, who has looked good this spring with 14 strikeouts and only three walks in fourteen innings of work. To round out the competition, thrown in also Chad Gaudin, who has seemingly blown his chances with a miserable spring and Alfredo Aceves, who doesn't possess the arms of Joba and Hughes, but seems to just have a knack for knowing what to do.

Aceves got wrecked his last outing and seems more valuable as a versatile guy who can fill any role in the bullpen as his 10-1 Draconian record last year seemed to indicate. Gaudin can look good at times (as he did in a fill-in role last year after the Yankees took him off of the Padres' hands). But in the end, for his career, Gaudin doesn't strike out enough batters and walks far too many over the long haul. A guy like that will kill you in the end.

So that leaves us with Chamberlain, Hughes and Mitre. Mitre's spring numbers are alluring. They are much more alluring than the two young guys. But they are deceiving when looking back over his career. He has never come close to 9 strikeouts per nine innings in his career, why would it suddenly happen in the spring? Well, it would happen because a lot of non-major league hitters participate in spring games while regulars do whatever it is they do in the spring.

Which opens a whole other subject that probably shouldn't be broached to muddy this post, but looking at the Yankees' spring numbers, their big four starters have had remarkably little work logged in spring games. Is that normal? Don't know. But the Fan notices in other box scores that starters are starting to log in four and five inning stints around baseball. Hope the Yankees know what they are doing.

Anyway, to get back to the topic on hand, this writer would have to dismiss Mitre. The spring numbers look like a fluke compared to his career numbers and his starts last year were just flat out scary bad to even consider. That brings us back to Chamberlain and Hughes.

Both have been quoted quite a bit over the spring about the competition. Chamberlain usually says something like, "I'll do whatever they ask me to do. I just want to help the team." Hughes on the other hand says things like: "I'll be real disappointed if I don't get the fifth starter job." Which would you rather trust the spot to then?

The Fan watched a lot of Yankee games last year on MLB.TV. Joba just isn't the same pitcher when he starts. He looks tentative. He looks like he is just trying to survive. He seems to have less control and certainly, his MPH goes down. It's like he is trying to keep it under wraps more so that he'll have more at the end. The trouble is, Joba without the big heater is hittable and he's not around at the end. Plus, he is remarkable at how fast he piles up the pitch count.

But put Joba in a one inning position, and he seems to come out smoking, both in stuff and in demeanor. There isn't any tentativeness and he has more of a "let it fly" attitude. Maybe the guy just doesn't have the head for starting. Maybe he's much more comfortable in a one inning situation.

In fairness, the same could be said for Hughes. He looked a lot better last year as a reliever than he ever did as a starter. But if you throw out his disastrous 2008 season when he and Ian Kennedy (who may become the best starter of all) were forced into the breach and fell flat due to injuries and whatever, and Hughes has performed better as a starter in his career than Joba Chamberlain. His homers per nine are better, his WHIP is better.

While fully understanding that this is hardly scientific, the Fan just believes Phil Hughes has a better makeup as a starter than Joba Chamberlain and should get a full season to see what he can do. But whichever gets the nod, one thing is certain: Both pitchers need to approach their starts with efficiency in mind. Throw more strikes, less pitches and forget nibbling around. They need to somehow figure out how to be as aggressive as starters as they are as relievers.

But the scary bottom line is that neither may ever be effective as starters. If they Yankees can be a .500 team out of whoever starts the majority of it's fifth starts, they will be fortunate.

Joba Rules Redux - Why Bother?

Look, we can all understand the Yankees trying to protect a talent like Joba Chamberlain, but what in the world can we make of the new Joba Rules where he starts a game, goes three innings and pitches just 35 pitches? Besides taxing the bullpen, what in the world is the worth of that?

In a game where Chamberlain finally managed not to walk half of the batters he faced, Chamberlain was efficient for a change and averaged only 12 pitches an inning. He had one inning where the White Sox bunched a few hits and scored a run, but other than that, his pitches were not stressful. Why wouldn't you at least let him go five innings?

The thing about this is that they are trying to save his arm and limp him along to the playoffs. But will he be able to stretch out those playoff starts for very long if you are regressing him to three innings per start?

Nothing about the Joba Rules seems to make sense. John Kruk on Baseball Tonight compared Chamberlain to Felix Hernandez of the Mariners. Both pitchers are the same age and have the same amount of service time, but King Felix has pitched five times the amount of innings than Chamberlain has. Kruk is fed up with the Yankees babying of Joba.

While Kruk is an old-school guy, his frustration is warranted. The Yankees fortunately have the luxury of botching this whole thing as they have a big lead in the AL East. But sooner or later, they have to start making sense of what they are doing with Chamberlain.

Joba Rules Are Meant to Be Broken

"Joba Rules" have become an oxymoron. In a story found on ESPN.com today, it was explained that Chamberlain will go back to his regular starts but be pulled earlier (as if he was pitching far into each game as it was). With his 2009 penchant for running up early pitch counts, what are they going to do now, pull him in the fourth inning after 80 pitches?

First, they were going to send him to the bullpen. Then they decided to keep him as a starter but have him miss some starts to save his innings. Now they have flipped it again in a never-ending game of, "how do we limit his innings without the temptation of exploiting his talent."

The trouble is that Joba hasn't been that great. Sure, there are flashes of what we all expect him to be. But he walks so many darn batters, he is always pitching in trouble and those become what Mike Maddux of the Rangers calls, "stress pitches." According to Maddux, stress pitches are harder on the arm than when pitching with nobody on base. If Joba could focus more on throwing strikes, then he would have less stress pitches and there would be much less concern for his arm.

The stories all seem to focus on how many innings the Yankees would like to limit Joba Chamberlain to this year. It is unknown whether there is an either/or scenario where a limit exists for both innings and pitches. If there is not a focus on pitches thrown, there should be because Chamberlain has thrown a ton of pitches in his weekly five or six innings of work. And again, with his penchant for walking batters and pitching deep into counts, those pitches thrown should be a concern more than the innings are. Things would be a lot easier for the Yankees if Mike Maddux was their pitching coach instead of him doing his great job in Texas for the Rangers. He seems to have a better grasp on how to handle these things.

And so it goes. Another week, a new set of Joba Rules. This Fan would wish that Joba ruled when he pitched a whole lot more often than he has. What he has been doing won't help much in the playoffs.

Joba the But

Watched the Yankees game yesterday against the Tigers on MLB.tv and it was a great game...unless you are a Tigers' fan. The big story of the game was not that the Yankees won the game 2-1 on two solo homers by Teixeira and A-Rod. The story was that Joba Chamberlain had a very good game and Phil Hughes came in and did what Joba used to do in the eighth inning. Much has been written about the role Joba should be playing for the Yankees. The "but" though is if he can pitch like yesterday in any kind of consistent manner.

It's hard to forget that Joba Chamberlain is just three years out of the University of Nebraska. He is only 24 years old. He didn't exactly get much seasoning in the minors before being on the express lane to the Yankees. His trouble is the expectations he created with his mind-boggling debut in 2007. The guy came up late in the year and quickly became the eighth inning stud and probably saved the Yankees' season that year. He pitched 24 innings, struck out 34, gave up 12 hits and only walked six. His ERA+ was a stupid 1192.

But here is another "but" concerning that mythical year. Joba was lucky. Yes, he did have a great strikeout to nine inning ratio, but his line drive percentage was 22.8%. Those line drives didn't fall in very often. And when runners did get on base, 96.6% of them didn't score. His xFIP for that short stretch of games was 2.55. That's still very good, but shows he was very fortunate too.

Last year fell more into line with how Joba pitched. His ERA for the season was a very good 2.60 compared to his FIP of 2.66. His strikeouts per nine innings dropped but that was to be expected with some starts thrown in the mix. His ground ball ratio improved and his line drive percentage improved as well.

This year, there was much reason to be concerned. His walks per nine innings are way up. He's given up way more homers. And watching him regularly, he just didn't seem to have the same fire in his belly when he pitched. The Fan thinks that a post-game interview yesterday with Teixeira showed a lot of insight. Teixeira said that Joba pitched more quickly, which kept his fielders more in the game and on their toes. That insight seems to be right on point as Joba has given up ten unearned runs this year. But despite the unearned runs, Joba hasn't been great this year up until yesterday and he seemed to be on the brink of losing his place.

The Fan read a story yesterday. Can't find it now to give you the link, but it was probably on Yahoo Sports concerning Joba and the pitcher mentioned going home for four days to play with his son. The story came out before Joba pitched yesterday. In the story, Joba talked about how energizing it was to spend time away from baseball and with his son. He talked about getting back to having fun and getting back to helping his team. Again, the article was insightful in that Joba is just a young guy who hasn't figured it out yet. He did seem to lack focus and he did seem like he wasn't having any fun.

Yesterday was the Joba Chamberlain that people have been looking for. Against a very good team, he had the fire back. He pumped his fist after an inning ending strikeout. He looked intent and focused on each batter. It was the kind of performance that (despite the three walks and another homer) indicates the kind of pitcher he can be.

We'll see what the next start brings. "But" the role for Joba is right where he is. If he can keep his focus and go out there and have fun and keep his team in games, he is worth much more as a starter than a reliever. Phil Hughes is now going through much the same thing. He's pitching like Joba in the bullpen and now the debate will shift to Hughes and what he should be doing. But Rob Neyer is right, the future for Hughes is as a starter. Just like it is for Joba.

And this Fan still believes that in the long run, the Yankees are better off with those two in their future than the great Roy Halladay. Both are cheap for a few years, have a longer up side and can keep the Yankees competitive for quite a few years. Time will tell how it all plays out though.

Aubrey Huff - No Class

Watching the Yankees lose again to the Orioles. In the bottom of the first, Aubrey Huff hit a three run homer and pulled a totally classless act by mimicking Joba Chamberlain with a fist pump around first and then after crossing the plate.

First of all, the game was early and Chamberlain hadn't done a thing to provoke such a classless act. Second of all, the Yankees can't take that sitting down.

The Fan doesn't like to go for blood, but if Huff doesn't get plunked later in the game, then it will be a disappointment.

Phil Hughes Brilliant in First Start for the Yankees

The Fan is sitting on the middle of a teeter-totter in how to approach this post concerning Phil Hughes' great first start of the 2009 season. The post hinges on a post written when Phil Hughes was sent down near the end of Spring Training. You may want to read that first. The teetering is this: Either the Fan was brilliant and correct in stating that Hughes should have started the season in the rotation or the Yankees were brilliant in sending him down for three confidence-boosting starts in AAA before his first start of the 2009 season. Hmm... It could go either way, couldn't it?

See, that's the weakness of the blogger. We who write on the sidelines don't know what's going on inside the head of a young player like Phil Hughes. We don't have access to the kid where he can be asked: "So Phil, did you need the three games in AAA to boost your confidence and was that the key to you first start this year in the bigs?"

Of course, Hughes seems like a nice kid and would probably answer: "Well, it's hard to say. The manager and General Manager here are great people with a lot of knowledge. I felt like I pitched great in the winter league and carried that over into Spring Training. But it has all worked out great and I look forward to contributing to the Yankees in any way I can." Which of course would tell you nothing anyway.

The game and covering the game has become (even in this space) about looking at numbers and projections and what the data is saying. One of the reasons that is comforting is that it's all there in front of you for analysis. When a blogger or any professional writer, for that matter, starts to speculate about what goes on in the head of a young player, things get a little dicey.

The dicey part is making a statement such as: "Well, too much pressure was put on Hughes last year when the Yankees didn't make the Santana trade. He started poorly and lost his confidence." Do we know that? Maybe he wasn't fully healthy. Maybe his mechanics were messed up. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with confidence. All we know are the facts that show that he was great in 2007 until he hurt his leg and was pretty good after he came back from that injury. Then last year, he started really poorly, never won a game all year long and looked terrible.

The Fan is going to take the low road here and push the playground equipment towards the side of sticking with the original post. Hughes should have started the season in the rotation, perhaps even ahead of Chamberlain, based simply on his success in the winter league and in his stellar Spring Training. In the Fan's mind, he out pitched Chamberlain in Spring Training and should have won the fifth spot. Those three wins in AAA could have been in the bigs and the Yankees surely could have used them the way things started this season.

The job should always go to the person who is performing better. Right? Doesn't that make sense? Isn't that why Melky Cabrera started tonight instead of Gardner because right now, he is hitting better than Gardner?

We can speculate all we want about Phil Hughes' mental state coming into the season. He was writing a blog, but hasn't posted in over a year there, so no help there. But whatever is stated concerning that subject is slippery. Winter league results and Spring Training results showed a pretty darn good and confident pitcher.

So the original post stands. That is unless Hughes is quoted stating differently, and if that happens, then the Yankees were brilliant and the Fan is a dope. Or, it was just one start and Hughes could be terrible the rest of the year and we're all dopes. That's life.

Just Passing Time...

So the heck with the 30 questions. It was gimmicky and it was just a way to pass the time. It ended up passing gas too because there was no heart in it. Let's face it, we just want the season to start. After the longest Spring Training in the history of baseball and the WorldBullCrap tournament, it's time to sing, man! "Like the winter needs the spring, you know I need you. I need you. I need you."

When nothing real is happening and only fake games have been going on for an eternity, inspiration seems to lag. The Fan wonders if the veteran players feel it too. "Man, I'm tired of this stuff!" The good news is that Wednesday is April 1. Good golly, never thought the month of March would end. But at last it has and soon, the standings won't keep showing every team at 0-0.

Of course, April means different things for different people. Around here, we call April, "Mud Season." It's when the snow starts to melt (though we could have several more storms before it is over) and the frost in the ground starts to loosen and the earth becomes one big mud puddle. And not only do our feet squish wherever we walk, we can think about all those lovely mosquitoes and black flies breeding in that lovely ooze. And the Fan lives in northern Maine because...?

But at least today had some powerful stories. Let's start with Gary Sheffield. Now that one was a shocker. What a bummer for the big man to be out of a job right before the season starts and one homer away from the magic 500. Imagine all the plans Shef was making to celebrate that milestone? Now he's packing his bags and hoping his phone will ring. The Fan can hear the narrator from the Twilight Zone intoning: "Gary Sheffield, you have entered the Frank Thomas, Sammy Sosa zone." DOOdoodoodoodoo doo doo.

That took a lot of guts to throw away that much money. Too bad Sheffield couldn't convince some doctor that he had an anxiety disorder or something. But the Tigers have stunk up the yard all spring and they had to "Man Up" and do something. They did the right thing. Too bad they couldn't dump about eight more players.

This weird headline was found on ESPN.com: "Committee to study A's park; Boxer weighs in". Now isn't that weird? How is a boxer weighing in related to the A's park? Or if the boxer is weighing in an opinion about a baseball field, how is that relevant? Okay, just fooling around here. It just looked silly as a headline. Boxer, of course, is Barbara Boxer, the popular junior senator from California. Her husband, Stewart, is a lawyer, which makes an oddity as there are many times when Boxer files briefs.

Oh, speaking of headlines, if any of you English majors are reading, what's up with headlines not being capitalized anymore? Did some law pass or something? It's kind of like growing up when mass was always in latin and then one day we showed up and the priest was playing a guitar and the nuns threw away their habits and everyone could eat meat on Friday. How did that happen? Anyway, if one of youz guyz or galz can shed light on this development, can you let the Fan in on it?

Tom Browning, the former Cincinnati pitcher noted for his perfect game and scuffed up baseballs found himself in jail for back child support. Apparently he owes, $99,000+. Ouch. Before you go calling him a deadbeat, consider that he hasn't had a big paycheck since he retired and that's the problem for athletes. Their career ends and ex-spouses want to keep living the life of luxury. Don't know if that's the case, or if Browning really is just a deadbeat, but, the guy is in a pickle now.

Joba Chamberlain's DUI situation was delayed again. If this keeps up, The Hut will never get his driver's license back. But the Yankees might be happy about that. This is the arraignment that keeps getting postponed. The guy can't even get charged for crying out loud. The Fan has seen millionaire divorces ended quicker than this.

How can you tell that the baseball season needs to start very soon? How about all the major sports sites featuring a headline about a stupid four pound hamburger. Geez, Louise, is the news THAT slow?

And now that the Fan has wasted enough of your time while he muddles (remember, it's mud season) through another pre-season post, here is a nice story to leave you on a high note.