Joba Rules 3.0 - What a joke

What is it with these Joba Rules? This is Major League Baseball, not a recreational Little League where you can’t throw on consecutive days or more than three innings in a game.

3 innings and 35 pitches and out of the game! Are you kidding me? I am surprised that they let the kid play Guitar Hero, lest he might hurt himself!

If you are going to make it so that Joba Chamberlain can only throw 35 pitches then he should be in the bull-pen and he can pitch the 7th and 8th innings. Phil Hughes gets the starter spot and that’s it.

What’s the point on being a starting pitcher if you can only go 3 innings? The Yankee’s have the best record in baseball in spite of themselves.

Joba may turn out to be a wonderful starting pitcher, something that was worth the wait. But he’s a young healthy strong young man and if he’s got all this talent and upside they are wasting it.

Exactly what are they waiting for? If he pitches for 15 years and has an exceptional 10 years, what’s the problem with those 10 years being his 1st 10 years?

Either Joba has a condition or injury that has yet to be disclosed, one that will find out that he somewhere down the road, or they Yankees are just morons.

What if he gets hit by a car? What if he falls down the steps? There are 50 bazillion combinations and permutations of things that can happen to a person that would prevent him from being a successful MLB pitcher. The Yankees are at risk of having a pitcher on their roster for 3 years that they claim can be one of the very best in baseball, yet never have given him the opportunity to do that. Jerks.

And how the hell am I gonna get any stats from the guy? He can pitch 3 perfect innings and I can’t even get a win! Gee Wiz!

Has there ever been a pitcher more coddled and babied by a manager and front office than Joba Chamberlain?

When he first came up, the initial "Joba Rules" were developed, mostly to protect Joba from Joe Torre, who made a habit of overusing relief pitchers. That version of the rules prevented Torre from using Joba until his arm fell off, as he had done previously with Scott Proctor, Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon, Tanyon Sturtze and others who didn't have nearly the talent Joba had.

Those rules made sense, because Torre was, and is, an idiot when it comes to managing a bullpen.

Version 2.0 of the Joba Rules began last season in the form of an overall innings limit. When arm trouble prevented him from reaching their innings goal, 2.0 carried into the 2009 season.

Now, with Joba closing in on the presumed limit, we've been introduced to the latest set of guidelines to protect him, which apparently include removing him from a game after three innings and 35 pitches.

P.S. - Does anybody in Boston still want to talk about how Mark Teixeira isn't worth the money? - Peter Costa

Pete is a serious Rotisserie participant playing the same league with the same guys for 17 years. Not only has Peter never finished in the money; he’s finished last 13 times and no higher than 10th (in a league with 14 guys). Join us in following Peter’s trials, tribulations and frustrations, as he attempts to navigate his way out of the basement in 2009.

REMINDER - Starting September 1st, you can get your fill of both NFL and NCAA Football on our sister site @ Extra Point (Football Blogs)

No Joba - Phil

I was in bar / restaurant last night watching the Yankees / Red Sox game and I overheard the bartender asking a baseball trivia question to the 30 or so men sitting at the bar.

Anyone who answered the question correctly was to receive free drinks for the rest of the night. The rules were that you had to write the answer on a napkin and put it into a hat.

The question was:

In this decade, there was a New York Yankee 8th inning pitcher who was Mariano Rivera’s set-up guy. During 26 games he threw 31 innings, gave up only 20 hits and 8 walks for a WHIP of .903, gave up only 3 runs having an ERA of .097, had 39 strikeouts. Who is that Yankee player?

When the napkins were collected and the answers read there were NO WINNERS. Every single guy in the bar answered Joba Chamberlain.

The answer was Phil Hughes. Those are the stats from his last 26 appearances. - 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.

REMINDER - Starting September 1st, you can can your fill of both NFL and NCAA Football on our sister site @ Extra Point (Football Blogs)

Phil Hughes is being primed for the rotation - Joba for the pen

Phil Hughes, the hard-throwing Yankees right hander was as dominant Friday night as he's ever been coming out of the bullpen, striking out six of the nine batters he faced and holding the Tigers scoreless over the seventh and eighth innings of the Yankees' 5-3 victory at the Stadium.

"I just tried to be aggressive and make quality pitches," said Hughes, who touched 97 mph on the radar gun. "It's nice to be in the game when it matters and counts, I guess I've found a comfort zone out there."

Hughes went about 40 pitches this outing. Here’s my take, I think Girardi has a plan. Over the next 3 outings Hughes will work his way up to 90 pitches (about an increase of 15 each time) and then Hughes will get a spot in the rotation and Joba Chamberlin will be moved to the pen. It won't be long before Hughes will be the big-name pitcher on the NY Yankees, and he'll be a fixture for years to come.

In his last 15 2/3 innings, Hughes has given up 0 ER, 8 Hits, only 3 BB and had 19 K’s. That is dominance.

Hughes has nothing left to prove in the minors. He's mow had a taste of being a starter in the majors, he's gotten the time to watch and learn while in the bull pen and he's gotten quality innings in some pressure situations. Those weren't 15 2/3 mop-up innings he pitched, he's ready. It's his time.

Before Friday night's game, Girardi announced that 28-year-old right hander Sergio Mitre would be called up from Triple-A to make a start against the Orioles on Tuesday, filling the void left by an injured Chien-Ming Wang. It will be Mitre's first outing in the big leagues since Sept. 15, 2007, when he lasted 4-2/3 innings for the Marlins. I think this is a temporary move for 2-3 weeks until you see Hughes in the rotation for good.

Now is your chance to pick up one of the very best pitching prospects in all of baseball. If you wait until he’s named a starter, it will be too late. - 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.