Saturday, September 26, 2009

Joba is back, hopefully


Dear Yankee brass: You seem intent on returning Phil Hughes to the rotation at some point despite his success in the bullpen. Can we please not have a repeat of the Joba Chamberlain situation? Joba was a brilliant reliever and showed incredible promise as a starter, but the "Joba Rules" ruined him to the point he was close to needing a shrink to get all the voices out of his head. The inclination to protect your young arms is admirable, but you need to think about the damage the constant changes are doing their psyches. Like Yogi says: 90% of the game is half mental!

He did look like the Joba of old on Friday, limiting a good Red Sox lineup to 3 runs over 6 innings and dominating them for most of the game. Most impressive was his powerhouse pitching in the 5th inning, getting out of a major jam of runners on second and third with no outs without giving up a run. The stern reprimand from Girardi seems to have helped. But I need to see him do it again before the season ends before I believe he is close to being the Joba we know and love.
Many thanks to BubbaFan on en.Wikipedia for the photo.

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