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.

Have a Fantasy Football or Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship.

And the winner is!..........

With two weeks left to go in the MLB regular season, the Around The Horn staff has voted on the AL / NL CY Young Award candidates and AL / NL MVP Award candidates (if the season ended today).

Looking at it objectively, in our eyes there really isn’t anything that can happen from here on out that would change the voting.

Here’s how the voting played out.

NL MVP

1 - Pujols, Albert - 1B - STL
2 - Ramirez, Hanley - SS - FLA
3 - Kemp, Matt - CF - LA
4 - Fielder, Prince - 1B - MIL
5 - Howard, Ryan - 1B - PHI
6 - Lee, Derrek - 1B - CHC / Dunn, Adam - LF - WAS (tie)

AL MVP

1 - Mauer, Joe - C - MIN
2 - Jeter, Derek - SS - NYY
3 - Teixeira, Mark - 1B - NYY
4 - Cabrera, Miguel - 1B - DET
5 - Morales, Kendry - OF - ANA
6 - Figgins, Chone - 3B - ANA

NL Cy Young

1 - Lincecum, Tim - SP - SF
2 - Carpenter, Chris – SP - STL
3 - Haren, Dan - SP - ARI
4 - Wainwright, Adam - SP - STL
5 - Vazquez, Javier - SP - ATL
6 - Johnson, Josh - SP - FLA

AL Cy Young

1 - Greinke, Zack - SP - KC
2 - Hernandez, Felix - SP - SEA
3 - Halladay, Roy - SP - TOR
4 - Sabathia, CC - SP - NYY
5 - Verlander, Justin - SP – DET
6 - Lester, Jon - SP - BOS

Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship!

Giants Activate Randy Johnson

I saw something cross the tape late last night that hasn’t seemed to garner much attention. The Giants have activated Randy Johnson from the DL.

The Giants now have Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and now even Jonathan Sanchez all starting, firing on all cylinders down the stretch pitching very effectively, striking out a ton of batters (demoralizing the opposition) and pitching deep into games.

With Sanchez pitching so effectively since his no-hitter, the Giants are going to stick Johnson in the bull-pen. I don’t care how old Johnson is, if he’s coming of the DL that means he’s healthy enough to pitch. He knows how to pitch and if he doesn’t have to pace himself, for one, two, or three innings he can be a dominant force.

The Giants beat the Rockies again last night. They have no pressure on them as no one expects them to actually make the playoffs. They are having fun, playing with house money and are dangerous. Furthermore, in a 5 game series, if you have Randy Johnson coming out of the pen and have to face Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain twice each and Jonathan Sanchez once you have a shot to beat anyone. – Mike Cruise

Michael Cruise is "the biggest SF Giants fan in the nation"

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Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship!

An Old Fashion Pennant Race

We are two weeks into the college football season and the NFL has just completed its first week. If you are not in contention in your fantasy baseball league or your favorite team does not have playoff prospects you are probably not following baseball all that closely at the moment. But there are some interesting races coming down the stretch. There is even an old fashion pennant race!

In the American League, it’s all about the Texas Rangers. They are hanging tough in the AL West hovering 4.5 games behind the Anaheim Angels for the division lead and 4.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox for the Wild Card. With only 19 games left to go they are running out of time BUT they have 7 games left against the Angels (yes – 7 out of their 19 games left are against one team – who made that schedule?) and that makes this one not over by a long shot. It should be an interesting final three weeks.

In the NL East the Philadelphia Phillies lead the Florida Marlins by 5.5 and the Atlanta Braves by 6. The Braves have 3 games left with the Phillies and the Marlins have 5 games left with Phillies. Since the NY Mets are not the team in the lead a collapse is not likely, but stranger things have happened and it’s too early to give up faith if you are a Marlins or Braves fan. Your odds aren’t good but you do have a fighting chance to close the gap directly when you play the Phillies. Also, it’s not likely but there is an outside shot that the Marlins or Braves can still grab the Wild Card spot as they are the same number of games out from that as they are from the Division lead (but they have more teams to climb over).

On to the NL West where some real baseball like it ought to be is being played. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies are tripping over themselves all tied up and the San Francisco Giants are only 3.5 game behind. It hasn’t gotten a lot of press nationally (it’s gotten some here) but if the Rockies win the division it will be the greatest comeback in MLB history (in terms of the number of games) as they would have come from more than 15 games back to catch the Dodgers. The Rockies and Giants have 2 more games left with each other (tonight and tomorrow night) and then they each play 3 games against the Dodgers.

The Giants have some momentum after Tim Lincecum (in line for back to back Cy Young Award's) pitched another gem last night over the Rockies striking out 11 in the Giants 9-1 win. This one is not over by a long shot and is clearly the most interesting race in baseball. Assuming no one backs in here, the runner-up in the division has a real shot at being the Wild Card representative so it’s not all or nothing for any of them. - 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.

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Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie Baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship!

Zack Greinke wins the 2009 AL Cy Young Award

Zack Greinke who pitches in the American League and has one of the worst defenses in baseball behind him has a Major League leading low 2.22 ERA, a WHIP of 1.08, 210 K’s in 198 innings pitched and is tied with Roy Halladay for the most complete games with 6.

Consider the fact that his ERA is even better than the National League reining Cy Young winner and repeating Cy Young winner to be Tim Lincecum, who has an ERA of 2.28 and that certainly puts his remarkable work into perspective!

He’s only got 13 wins so to date but that’s certainly not his fault. Case in point - he pitched 8 innings of shut-out ball this week and got a no decision. That type of thing has happened all too often this year.

Eight times this year Greinke has pitched at least 7 innings and given up only 2 runs; 2 times giving up only one run and 2 times not giving up no runs at all! If the sports writers do not award him the AL Cy Young because he plays in KC or because he only ends up with 15 or so wins, that would be a crime.

Whether the sports writers grant him with the award or not, there is no one that can tell me that Zack Greinke did not win the 2009 AL Cy Young Award. – Mike Cardano

Mike Cardano is the founder of the Around The Horn (Baseball Blogs) and Extra Point (Football Blogs). Mike is also the founder of the fantasy sports games Ultimate Franchise Baseball™ and Ultimate Franchise Football™.

Pedro has gone "Old School"

Admit it - you are rooting for Pedro Martinez to succeed in Philly, even just a little bit.

Last night Pedro went old school and pitched like the future Hall of Famer that we remember from the old days outdueling San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum Thursday night to give the Phils a 2-1 win. Over seven innings, the stingy 37-year-old allowed just five hits and one run while striking out nine - his most since his last start in a Mets uniform on September 25th of 2008.

After the first pitch of the game - a solo homer by the immortal Eugenio Velez - Martinez was electric. His pitch total was economical throwing a paltry 87 pitches. Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge cleaned everything up in a game which lasted just 2:08.

By the way, Lincecum was equally up to task, striking out 11 and walking only one in his seven innings on the night. Of the four hits he allowed, one was a solo homer to Jayson Werth while the other was an RBI double to Ryan Howard. That's the definition of a hard-luck loss for the 13-5 Lincecum, who has struck eight or more batters 19 times this season and has to be considered the front-runner for the NL Cy Young Award.

But Thursday was about Martinez, who is providing a huge boost for the Phillies as they look to extend their lead in the National League East. So far, Martinez is 3-0 with a 3.52 ERA in six starts. His control has been amazing, walking just three in 23 innings while striking out 23.

He’s gone old school on us and is reminding us of what he did back in Boston during his glory days from 1998-2004. Two of those years were among the most dominant seasons in baseball history. He has emerged as an important player for Philadelphia at the perfect time and may actually play a pivotal roll in the playoffs. Who woulda thunk it? - Gregory Shapiro

Greg is an orthopedic surgeon that has a number of professional athletes including MLB players as patients. He’s an avid MLB fan and rotisserie player with some unique insight into the world of professional athletes.

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 best home grown pitching staff in baseball

With all the millions of dollars being wasted on non-productive MLB players it is worth noting that Tim Lincecum won the CY Young making $405,000 last year. He’ll win it again making $650,000 this year. I’m sure many of us would be perfectly happy making that kind of money. But in the world of MLB, that’s peanuts.

Matt Cain has certainly figured it out, and Jonathan Sanchez with his no hitter has definitely shown flashes of what he can do.

Can you imagine how good these guys could be if the Giants could catch the ball? The SF Giants are developing one of the best home grown pitching staffs we have seen in a long time. Now if they can only find a bat to go along with young Pablo Sandoval. - Mike Cruise

Michael Cruise, IS the biggest SF Giants fan in the nation

More on the F. U.

Whoa!........... Lots of questions about the F .U. I certainly wasn't expecting that. Why is it that all fathers of young boys now feel that they have to be Tim Lincecum’s father?

Firstly, we here at Around The Horn take no responsibility for success, failure or injury for anyone going out and attempting to show their kid the pitch. It's just a blog post. Aside from any strain it might put on the elbow, forearm, fingers or any part of the body, the pitch clearly isn’t appropriate for children or midgets. Logistically a small hand just wouldn’t be able to grip the ball that way!

I would suggest that if you didn’t think it was appropriate for your child to start throwing curveballs yet, this probably isn’t a good idea either. Which brings us to another point; On Sunday the NY Times ran an article “Studies Show That the Curveball Isn’t Too Stressful for Young Arms”.

Uh……… I-don’t-know- about-that. I’m not going to call the article irresponsible because I have my own views on the topic and that doesn’t necessarily make them right, but I tend to agree with Dr. Andrews. It would seem to me while each kid is different, 14 or so would be the absolute earliest I would let a child do it. In all honesty, if you could teach your kid spot his fast ball, throw both a 2 and 4 seamer, and throw a change-up – that’s the way to go.

As for the F. U. and all the questions about how it works - the picture in this post shows the grip from the other side. You can clearly see how the index finger and ring finger pull down on the seams (like a split finger) countering the natural rotation of the middle finger. If you are going to show your kid the pitch, just a suggestion - Change the name so you don't sound like you have Tourette syndrome everytime you go out and have a catch.……………….. I’m sure you can come up with something. I’m sure the networks will. I doubt you are going to hear Ron Darling say that that Strasburg struck out David Wright with a 3-2 F. U. - 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.

And the winner is!..........

With the official half-way point in the MLB season upon us, I wanted to take a look at who's stuck out in the first half of the season by selecting who would win each of baseball's major awards if the season were to end today! So here we go:

AMERICAN LEAGUE AWARDS

AL MVP: Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins: Justin Morneau is on pace for a career year, and that's saying something, seeing as he's already won an AL MVP award (2006). One pace for a 40 home run, 135 RBI year, and he's hitting .312 to boot. His teammate, Joe Mauer, could also get some votes, as should Torri Hunter, Mark Teixeira and Evan Longoria.

AL Cy Young: Zack Grienke, Kansas City Royals: Grienke is having the best season out of any AL starter right now, and despite being snubbed for the AL all-star start, he shouldn't miss out on the Cy Young award if he has a second half that's close to matching his first half magic.

Rookie of the Year: Andrew Bailey, Oakland Athletics: Bailey has kind of come out of nowhere and taken reigns of the A's closer position. His 10 saves, 1.92 era and 60 strikeouts lead all major league rookie relievers. Should be a solid closer in Oakland for years to come.

Manager of the Year: Ron Washington, Texas Rangers: The former A's coach took a couple of seasons to get settled in Texas, but he's finally turning that franchise around, as they sit at 48-39, their best record they've had at an all-star break in many years. They're only 1.5 back of the Angels in what should be a tight division race down to the wire.

Comeback P.O.Y.: Aaron Hill, Toronto Blue Jays: After struggling through an injury plagued 2008 season in which he hit just .263 with 2 hr's and 20 RBI in 240 at-bats, he's bounced back and is having a career year. Amongst the AL leaders in home runs (20) and RBI (60) and has had his average right around .300 or better all year.

Rolaids Relief Man: Joe Nathan, Minnesota Twins: Joe Nate just continues to dominate year in and year out. He's aging terrifically, as he's 34 years of age, but quite possibly putting together his best statistical season of his career. I still can't get over the trade that sent him, Liriano and Bonser to the Twins for that POS catcher.

NATIONAL LEAGUE AWARDS

NL MVP: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals: Forget just the mid-season award, I think it's pretty safe to say, unless he gets injured of course, that Pujoles will real in his third career NL MVP Award. The dude has put up numbers (.332 avg, 32 HR, 87 RBI, 73 R, 10 SB) that most stars, not just average players, but most all-stars would take over course of a full season. The best-right handed hitter I've seen on my 25 years on the planet.

NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants: Dan Haren is equally deserving, but Tim Lincecum has led his team atop the NL Wild Card standings and has earned himself the start for the National League in Tuesday's all-star game. Putting up even better numbers than the ones he won his first Cy Young award with last season. Again though, if Dan Haren's era and WHIP continue to drop, it would be hard to argue against him as well.

Rookie of the Year: Randy Wells, Chicago Cubs: Tommy Hanson and Andrew McCuthen have had nice first-halfs, but Wells has been a solid cog in the Cubbies pitching staff all season long and is sporting an impressive 2.72 era and 1.12 WHIP. He's only been credited with 4 wins do to lack of run support, and he's only had one bad start in 12 outings.

Manager of the Year: Bruce Bochy, San Francisco Giants: Boch has the Giants, a team everyone thought would struggle to make it to .500, atop the NL wild card standings and has led them to the second best record in the league at the break. He's been pushing all the right buttons in order to win ballgames and squeeze runs out of an average-at-best starting lineup.

Comeback P.O.Y.: Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals: After missing most of the last two seasons due to a broken down elbow, Carpenter has returned back to his ace-like ways (7-3, 2.47 era, 0.87 WHIP with a 64:13 strikeout/walk ratio in his 83 innings pitched this year. In fact, there are some that feel he's throwing the ball better now than he did during his last healthy season in 2006.

Rolaids Relief Man: Ryan Franklin, St. Louis Cardinals: There's a reason why the Cards are atop a very deep division in the NL Central. Albert Pujols and Chris Carpenter are doing what they do best, but the Cards have developed themselves an elite closer in Ryan Franklin aka "The Beard", and I think his steadiness has really made a difference in the standings. His 0.79 era and WHIP are by far the best in the league and he's tied for third in the NL in Saves. Heath Bell and K-Rod should also get some recognition.- 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.

MLB expands All-Star rosters to 33

This was announced yesterday afternoon but I’ve seen very little coverage on it so I thought I would post it here.

MLB is expanding its All-Star rosters again.

Each league will have 33 players for this year’s game on July 14 in St. Louis with an extra pitcher added to bring the total to 13. The extra spot will be a manager’s choice.

There are eight fan-elected starters, eight player-elected pitchers and eight player-elected reserves, with eight players selected by each manager. In addition, a fan Internet vote is held for the final spot in each league.

Rosters were expanded from 30 to 32 after 2002’s 7-7, 11-inning tie in Milwaukee, when both leagues ran out of pitchers. In last year’s 4-3, 15-inning AL victory at Yankee Stadium, every player was used other than San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum, who was ill.

Rosters will be announced Sunday on a special TBS broadcast. On-line voting ends a midnight tonight. - 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.