Zell's Pinstriped Blog, A New York Yankees Fan Blog

So what does that make Joba now? I don’t know.

Joba went from being a reliever (’07), to a starter (’08), and back to a reliever (’09 -’10). He went from a fist pumping phenom in 2007, to an inconsistent 8th inning pitcher in 2010.

Listening to Joe Girardi during the post-game show, you got the feeling that he isn’t planning on yanking Joba out of the 8th inning role. Here are a few quotes courtesy of Mark Feinsand:

“As we go forward, I would like to have an 8th-inning guy … I’d like to stay with one guy. I’m going to send him back out there.”

“I still believe in him. … tonight, he struggled. We’ll keep working at it.”

“He was struggling with his command…when Joba struggles with his command, those are the nights that are usually a little rough.”

“He hasn’t been the 8th inning guy for a year and a half, and most of the time that we’ve had leads, he’s done a good job.”

Girardi even said that he noticed Joba didn’t have command, but left him in anyway! We didn’t expect Joe to throw Chamberlain under the bus, but that’s not what we (Yankees fans) wanted to hear out of him. You could clearly see that Joe was very unhappy after the game, but it seems like he is sticking by his guns and will continue to hand the ball to Chamberlain in big situations. 

Will the organization make a move for another starter, and move Hughes to the pen? Or, they could just go out and find an arm to stabilize the bullpen. They could even call up someone from the minor leagues. These are all options. Moving Hughes to the pen last season worked out just fine, but doing it again could shake things up a bit. I’m sure the Yankees will make a move (you can bank on it) before they head into October, but it’s a matter of when and who they will get/move to fix this problem.

Joba has been inconsistent the entire season, and there is no way of defending that. He can impress everybody by hitting 96MPH on the radar gun, but it means nothing without location. Remember when Joba used to come out to a roaring ovation at Yankee Stadium, and the scoreboards used to light up with the words, “It’s Joba Time!”? That was a time when we couldn’t get enough of the guy. Well, that isn’t the case anymore. Besides Mariano Rivera, there is nobody that comes out of the pen that you can honestly count on. Isn’t it funny that people (including myself) thought this guy could take Mo’s spot after he was long gone? The fact of the matter is, this isn’t the same pitcher we saw trotting out of the bullpen just a few years ago. Joba owns a 5.79ERA now. Is Joba just not that good? Has the league figured him out? When Mariano Rivera retires (if he ever does), you’re going to have to buckle up and hang on to the roof, because it’s going to be one bumpy ride.

Who should be the 8th inning guy? Let me know what you guys think about all of this.

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