The Yankees have turned Joba Chamberlain into the the Cowardly Lion

What the hell have the Yankees done to Joba Chamberlain?
In my rotisserie draft this year a big argument ensued because one participant claimed he yelled $21 before the gavel hit and the auctioneer claimed he had not. The other teams were split on the issue and everyone started taking sides. Half the league felt the bidding was still open with $21 as the price and the other half felt that Joba had been had for $20.

The guys in my league have been together for 16 years with no change in ownership and we are a tight bunch. At least we were. We’ve had squabbles before, but never anything like this. The year is almost over and there are still hard feelings over that issue. I would swear on a bible that another owner didn’t make a trade with me this year because of the way I claimed the issue unfolded, and not because it wasn’t good for the longer term outlook of his franchise.

At the time it was thought that this issue might determine the outcome of the league this year. The team that we all thought clearly had the best staff in our league going into the season (Tim Lincecum, Roy Halladay, Zack Greinke, Johan Santana, Chris Carpenter) was about to add Joba to the mix and that was going to be it, he was going to place a lock on virtually all the pitching categories.

Joba was a can’t miss. He was unhittable. The feeling was that Greinke or Carpenter would be on his reserve list awaiting an opportunity if there was an injury. Boy did we all have that wrong.

If you had Grienke and Carpenter on your roster chances are that you did quite well for yourself in the pitching categories this year……. Unless you had Joba too bringing you down.

 - 156 1/3 innings pitched
 - 4.78 ERA (The last place team in our league has an ERA of 4.67!)
 - 167 Hits and 76 Walks for a WHIP of 1.55 (The last place team in our league has WHIP of 1.44!)
 - 9 Wins (woop-de-friggin`-do)
 - 132 K’s (52 MLB pitchers had more strikeouts then he did!)

The Yankees have taken an absolute guaranteed force and ruined his confidence, his effectiveness, and maybe his future.

I have been of the believe all along that if they wanted to limit his innings (but wanted him to be a starter over the long haul) they should have let him start warming up in the 4th inning and brought him in the game at the start of the 5th inning letting him throw lights out for the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th. By having him throw just 3 or 4 innings at the beginning of the game has not only messed him up, it messed up the bull pen. He’s out there counting him pitched in the 1st inning as he throws them knowing he’s got to come out when he gets into the 70’s (usually 3rd inning for him)! And that left the bull pen scrambling around trying to figure out how to mix and match its way for 5-6 innings.

I don’t know who is ultimately responsible for his usage, but they have done both Joba and the Yankees a disservice. He just turned 24, not 18. He should as much have the stamina and power that he will ever have as a pitcher at this point.

The Yankees are so worried about him getting hurt. Would the Yankees really rather have Joba end up with an 18 year journeyman career, or a 12 year career like Sandy Koufax………. They have turned this kid into the Cowardly Lion!

LET THE GUY THROW THE BALL TILL HIS ARM FALLS OFF! If I were his agent I would be pissed. Keith A. Baker

Keith A. Baker is a sports agent in Stamford, Connecticut. His goal is to offer a unique insight to the world of sports and Major League Baseball in particular. Comments in his columns are for entertainment purposes only and do not reflect the views and opinions of his firm or his clients.

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M * E * T * S or M * A * S * H

Although official records on the disabled list go back only about 15 years, that's far enough to show how the number of disabling injuries has increased dramatically in recent years.

Not only are players getting hurt more often (despite supposedly being better conditioned with superior offseason training regimens), but because of the money invested in them, teams are quick to throw them on the disabled list rather than have them play through their injuries.

In the first 80 years of baseball, players were loathe to go on the DL for fear of losing their jobs. Who knows how many pitchers plugged on in pain with torn elbow ligaments, before the advent of Tommy John surgery?

Strained quads? Back then they called them "Charley horses" and they'd get 'em rubbed down for a couple of days and be right back out there.
In any case, in 1996 there were a total of 398 DL stints in baseball, an average of 14.2 per team. Over the next decade that number gradually increased until 2007, when it suddenly spiked from 413 to 480 or 16 per team. Last year, the number jumped to 532, or an average of 17.7 per team, with the Nationals surpassing the 2004 Texas Rangers' record of 29 stints on the list.

But the news on the Mets just gets worse and worse and, for them, this season can't end soon enough.

It seems no matter what it is, the Mets come up losers, mired in misery. Would you believe, after all the carnage at Citi Field, the Mets can't even claim the title of the most injured team in history?

Depending on how you choose to look at it, that dubious distinction goes either to the Washington Nationals of last season, who had 30 players go on the disabled list, or the 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks, whose players lost 2,167 days to the DL.

So far this year, the Mets have had 22 players land on the disabled list, which ties them with the Texas Rangers (who, by contrast, have somehow managed to remain squarely in the American League wild-card hunt.) In addition, Mets players, entering the weekend, lost 1,095 days to the disabled list, second to the San Diego Padres' 1,151 days.

But no matter how you look at it, a distinction must be made in the case of the '09 Mets. There has been no team that on Sept. 1 had three of its Opening Day starting pitchers, its first baseman, shortstop and center fielder all on the disabled list and done for the year.

There has been no team that had eight former All-Stars (David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Billy Wagner, Johan Santana, Gary Sheffield, J.J. Putz and Jose Reyes) who all spent time on the DL in the same season.

M * E * T * S  or  M * A * S * H- Blake Kearny

Blake Kearny is a retired baseball scout from Los Angeles, California. He currently runs a baseball school for children in Los Angeles

The Curse continues...

Someone pissed someone off when they build Citi Field, and that someone is exacting revenge.

In a season plagued by injury and disappointment, David Wright is the latest Mets player to go down. Wright left Saturday afternoon's 5-4 loss to the Giants in the bottom of the fourth inning after being hit in the helmet with a pitch by Matt Cain. He was in an 0-2 count when Cain's four-seamer struck the left side of his helmet by his ear, and the infielder immediately fell down on his stomach, where he lay motionless until team trainers rushed out. After several minutes, Wright was flipped over and was able to walk off the field under his own power, albeit with some help from the trainers.

Closeup angles of Cain showed him talking with catcher Brian Schneider while Wright was being examined on the field. "He just asked how David was, asked if he was doing all right," Schneider said. "And I didn't have an answer for him."

"I've known Matt Cain for a long time," said Jeff Francoeur, who spoke briefly to Cain during the inning and also spoke with Wright before he was transported to the hospital. "Obviously, I'm sure that no one feels worse than he does."

Following the game, a serious and somber Cain told reporters it was nice to see Wright be able to walk off the field. "Hopefully he'll be all right," Cain said. "I'll try to see if I can get a hold of him [Sunday] or see him on the field."

"I don't know what else we can go through, to be honest with you," said starter Johan Santana, who admitted to retaliating by throwing behind Pablo Sandoval in the seventh inning. "Throughout this whole season, it's been crazy for us, and it's not good to see [Wright] going down that way. It's not good at all."

The Mets lost to the Giants in 10 innings today, by the score of 5-4, in what's becoming an oh-too-familiar blown game by K-Rod.

Wright was brought to the Hospital For Special Surgery about 50 minutes after being hit. A CT Scan was negative, but Wright did suffer a concussion and will remain in the hospital overnight for observation.

So now it's official, the Mets core has been peeled. Wright; Beltran; Delgado; Reyes - all now injured this season. It is not yet known how long Wright will be out, but maybe the Mets will put him on a plane to Colorado..... - Paul Leume

Paul Leume is a MLB columnist from Montreal, Canada. Paul, a one-time beat writer covering the Montreal Expos for the Montreal Gazette is a proud grandfather of 3 girls and now spends his time offering his thoughts and prospective on Major League Baseball on a variety of blogs and websites throughout Al Gore’s internet.

Get ahead in the count

I’ve come across some interesting statistics about pitching. We knew that the key to success at the professional level (or at any level for that matter) is to get ahead in the count. But I’m not sure that we knew how dramatic the benefits of getting ahead in the count are.

Statistics show the deck is stacked against major league hitters when they have two strikes, as they have a .186 two-strike average in 2009.

Facing Giants ace Tim Lincecum with two strikes almost guarantees a one-way ticket to the bench. Hitters are batting just .106 (33-for-312) against him, and that’s the lowest two-strike mark allowed by a starter who has faced at least 100 batters with two strikes.

Lincecum’s success in two-strike scenarios is remarkable, as only Detroit’s Justin Verlander has faced more hitters with two strikes in 2009. The Tigers ace has recorded two strikes 379 times, compared to 330 for Lincecum. In those situations, Verlander has limited hitters to a .169 average (60-for-354).

After Verlander and Lincecum, next in garnering the most two-strike situations are Atlanta’s Javier Vazquez and Johan Santana of the Mets, both with 328 batters faced. Vazquez has held those hitters to a .157 mark (49-for-312), while Santana has a .164 opponent batting average (50-for-305).

Retiring hitters after getting ahead in the count is a ticket to success as a reliever too, and the Angels’ 30-year-old rookie, Jason Bulger, has done that in his first lengthy stint in the majors. Another rookie, San Diego’s Luke Gregerson, has been downright dominant after struggling in April. - David Fry

David Fry is an independent sports photographer currently covering Major League Baseball. David will be reporting on observations as he sees them in MLB stadiums throughout the year.

The most expensive B.J. ever....

On June 21st David Fry spoke about the Blue Jays closer situation in his Welcome to the game of “Spin the Closer!” piece.

And who can forget the June 5th, post on B.J. Ryan from Peter Costa? That might possibly be the funniest post on the internet this year? I still laugh when I read the piece.

Now, with the return of closer Scott Downs, former Blue Jays closer B.J. Ryan finds himself out of a job. Yesterday B.J. Ryan was given his unconditional release as the Blue Jay have decided to eat the $15,000,000 remaining on his contract.

Ryan was part of a big off-season for the Blue Jays following the 2005 season. He signed a five year, $47 million contract, giving the Jays the lockdown closer they had been missing. Ryan was coming off a 36 save season as the closer of the Orioles, and it was at the time, the largest contract ever given to a relief pitcher.

Ryan rewarded the Jays in 2006 with an all-star appearance, 38 saves and a microscopic 1.37 ERA. However, injuries derailed him the next season as he pitched only 4.1 innings, and his WHIP was almost double his previous seasons ERA. He rebounded in 2008 with a 2.95 ERA and 32 saves, but was far from the Blue Jays most effective reliever. This year, the lights-out Downs, seized the closer role after Ryan struggled with more injuries and inconsistency. Limited to mop-up duty and unhappy with his role, Ryan now finds himself without a job.

Ryan is only one of several failed big free-agent deals of the last couple of years. Jeff Suppan, signed a four year, $42 million deal with the Brewers following his 2006 World Series season with St. Louis. He has gone 27-28 over two and a half seasons for the Brew Crew, and has yet to post a better than league average ERA. I could go on and on with the likes of Andruw Jones, Jason Schmidt, Jose Guillen, Matt Morris, and Barry Zito, but you get the picture.

These crippling contracts are a big reason for a dynamic shift in the way baseball teams are doing business. Most teams are realizing that free agents should simply be compliments to a young, inexpensive core, not franchise saviors. Teams are putting a vice grip on their top prospects as they understand that the bank for the buck they will get from these players is much greater than what they would find on the open market. This really became seen by the public when both the Red Sox and Yankees refused to part with their top prospects in order to obtain Johan Santana prior to the 2008 season.

It also has cooled the free agent market, as teams have realized that many Type A free agents are not worth the high draft picks that they would be giving up. This led to solid players like Orlando Cabrera and Juan Cruz searching for jobs for the majority of this past off-season. Five years ago, these guys would have been lavished with multi-year contracts.

This topic is particularly interesting as Blue Jays GM JP Ricciardi has made it known that he will be listening to offers for Roy Halladay, who is signed through 2010 at a very reasonable $15.75 million. It will be interesting to see what type of prospects the Blue Jays will be offered in return for the perennial Cy Young candidate. It is my opinion that the Blue Jays will get an excellent package from a GM in win-now mode, but I do not think the offers will be as numerous or bountiful as in years past. As stated by Paul Leume on Tuesday, I too think that the Texas Rangers have the best prospects, ones that can get a deal done. - Mike Gross

Michael Gross, in conjunction with a prominent sports agency runs a strength, conditioning and agility program that many agents send their “to-be-drafted” athletes, prior to being drafted. Many pro athletes have also used the facilities for rehabilitation after injury. Over 90 professional athletes including current MLB ball players have attended his institution during the past 3 years.