Lineup vs. Blue Jays:
Brett Gardner CF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Travis Hafner DH
Juan Rivera LF
Chris Stewart C
Dan Johnson 3B
Jose Pirela 2B
Gil Velasquez SS
David Phelps RHP
Lineup vs. Astros:
Eduardo Nunez SS
Jayson Nix 2B
Zolio Almonte RF
Matt Diaz LF
Melky Mesa CF
Francisco Cervelli C
Corban Joseph 3B
Luke Murton 1B
J.R Murphy DH
Brett Marshall RHP
Thanks for the two line-ups Delia, good work! Your up in the air for Brett, that ain't all bad, let's hope he can stay healthy all year. :)
ReplyDeleteFor anyone to give input on.....
ReplyDeleteJoba wants to be a starter again, any opinions?
Here is mine, even if it is wrong/right?!
With his delivery and shoulder problem...he could do it but, it would take about a year of hard work. The big drawback, is the last two words, he had a bad work habit until lately. He has lost weight and it shows and is throwing much better.
In a nut-shell here it is:
Take him down to the Tampa complex and teach him a new/better way to use his lower half to help his arm/shoulder do the job with much less pressure on his arm alone (as it is now). There have been a few good pitchers turned into very good starters by doing this. He has the stuff and make-up to be a darn good pitcher but as he is now...his only place is in the BP as the next closer of the Yankees.
K-Rob, I like very very much but his place is where he is...Joba, on the other hand could become a top of the line closer if he wouldn't throw that slider all the time, for the TKO!
Ok, guys/lady give it a shot!
Joba said he thought he could do it if he got the chance... he has the pitch mix to do it and if he thinks he can hold up then great... why would you want the type of player that is content being a 7th inning guy. on the same note he said he'd also like to close. so ya...it's probably got a lot to do with money, but there's also the fact that he wants bigger challenges.
ReplyDeletenow..... as far as the sherman article is concerned (for those of you who haven't read it, it's in the blogs) i just want to say how much that guy makes me want to throw up in my shoe and make him eat it. i generally use the term "journalist" around sportswriters fairly loosely, but in sherman's case it's not even in the same zipcode. the guy is a vile hack and if it weren't for gutterpigs like him the world would be a better place. he's a true bottom feeding self serving waste of bandwidth and it's really a shame girardi didn't knock his teeth out and strip his credentials last year.
it wouldn't shock me one bit to find out that sherman himself delivered the quote to joe g and cashman knowing the response he could illicit, and no doubt with the visions of writing yet another trash article that is backed by nothing but his own imagination and serves only to accrue page clicks that line his pockets.
end rant.
JimmyT...
ReplyDeleteWhy stop now, keep going...heck I have been saying the same thing about those guys for years. Heck, half the time they hear something and twist it just enough to make it sound a lot different then it was spoken, they get their name in the pages and money in the bank, while others have to end-up with egg on their face or worse...they are not reporters at all. :)
Anyhow, I would rather have Joba as a closer than a starter, the need of the team is a good closer. I honestly believe, as long as he works at his job and all that intails...he could be a very darn good closer.
Until K-Rob shows me other wise he is and could be one of the best set-up guys around.
What say you?
Joba can be a starter again. It just won't be with the Yankees. They made it clear they wanted him in the bullpen. Maybe another team will give Joba a shot but at this point, there's no room for Joba in the rotation, even if someone goes down. He's more needed in the bullpen. Plus, we have David Phelps in case someone does get injured. Most likely, if Hughes can't get ready for the beginning of the season then Phelps could take that spot. Joba's dream of starting will have to be put on hold until he goes to a different team.
ReplyDeleteOnce again Joba showed his lack of machurity, he should try and be a good 7th inning guy first. I know all relief pitchers want to be starters because that's where the money is, but he hurts himself jumping on a trampoline in the past also. He looks great this year and needs to consentrate on pitching.
ReplyDeletei'll always go with the guy that can give more innings. having mo has kinda skewed our view on the 9th inning, but the reality is that there's more value in a starter. if joba could be a ~4 ERA guy and throw 180+ then i'd take that. more and more teams are shuffling that 9th inning and aren't running out to spend big bucks to lock down the end game. i see no point in wasting a guy with that kind of pitch mix in a relief role, unless there are serious indications that he can't hold up to the rigors of the workload. joba barely got a chance to do that, yet put up better numbers than either hughes or nova. oh well... i hope he goes elsewhere and gets his shot.
ReplyDeletefar as robertson...i have no problem handing him the keys to the ninth, although i'd rather he was used on a high leverage basis due to his K rate, but that's another debate. i don't get all worked up over his small sample size of coming up short in that spot in 2012. over the long haul he's proved he can do it, and he's even dropped his BB rate this last year so all the blustering because he scuffled a little is way overblown, like many things in NY.
the sherman article got me riled up but that's nothing new... lol. i don't know what gets me more... the fact that these guys take half a quote and manipulate a story out of it, or that the fanbase continually buys into it and works themselves into an angry mob over what amounts to nothing. i'm much better off putting it all on ignore and going about my day.
and here's where things get derailed.... joba spoke of wether he thought he could start, and all of the sudden it gets twisted into this big convoluted bag of crap suggesting that joba went looking for a microphone and stated to the world that he was looking for a starting role in 2013. horsehockey! of course the final part of his statement hits the cutting room floor... you know, the part where he said he was going to focus on the year at hand..... :
ReplyDelete"I’ve been in the role of in the bullpen for a while, but am I confident that if I got the chance to start again somewhere – wherever that’s at – I could do it? Without a doubt. I just have to focus on this year and what I can do to improve to help this team win, continue to try to win ballgames for them.” "
Ya..... *totally* sounds like he's making a plea to the Yankees to put him in the rotation. For Darwin's sake people THINK.
Truer words were never.........you know the ending to that!
ReplyDeleteYup, you got it. I had read the whole bit and didn't read anything about what that guy wrote. Have you ever thought you were trying to turn a brick wall into sand? Try convincing a fan what he believes is a made-up story by a so-called reporter!
You have a good head on your shoulders, even when you dare to disagree with me...LOL!
jimmy, that's a tradition vue, it might be better to have all pitchers throw less innings as it has been proven that the relief pitchers have lower ERAs than starters. MLB Network had a good program on it, showing that having pitchers pitch less innings by starters might be the way to go. Joba looks like a relief pitcher to me. I like the Yanks relief core for next year, guys like Robertson, Whitley, Monty, Rondon, Eppley, Pinder, Kahle, Rapada, Rimirez, and Warren. The future relief looks good for the Yanks.
ReplyDeleteJoba is not a rookie, he should know what the press it going to do. I knew that when I played in AA ball. It is simple Joba wants to start because he can make more money it's that simple. His problem is that he has to realize that that Yanks want him to be the 6th or 7th inning guy and get over it.
ReplyDeleteThis is what makes baseball great, there is always something to write about the whole year round. As far as the Yanks are concerned it's an non issue, Joba will be gone at the end of the year.
ReplyDeletedidn't catch the MLB show but it's not surprising.. relievers don't turn over lineups which helps quite a bit. they also don't have to hold anything back. dunno if i buy their assessment that everyone should throw less innings though. sounds like they're trying to over simplify things.
ReplyDeletei like the relief core too. you can add claiborne, goody and probably black to that list. i'm not sold on corey developing enough endurance to keep his stuff up over a 6-7 inning outing. ramirez at this point has no business being relegated to the pen though. the way his slider came along last year it is very possible he sticks in the rotation. two plus to plus plus pitches and an easily above average breaking ball will keep him in the rotation. his durability and mental side of the game are his hurdles right now, so we'll see.
jimmy, the Rockies tried it last year, not throwing the starters more than 75 pitches. When I coached High School ball coaches would throw pitchers only 3 innings sometimes to get around the pitching rules. You could throw your best pitcher at the end of the game. Sabermatician, James has brought it up. Could you see in the future a team starting the game with Joba, then Rapada,then Eppley, finish the game with CC, and keep Robertson for the 9th.
ReplyDeleteI heard Cashman on WFAN yesterday, he said he wanted Martin back but they couldn't work out a deal. He likes the pitching, and defense, at this point he is looking in spring training to solidify LF until Grandy returns from within if possible and the catching is set with a platoon of Stewart and Cervelli. He said there is room to pick up a player if need be. He expects the team to make the playoffs even though he said they will hit less homers which is a concern. Cashman said that he doesn't mind the Yanks not being picked to win this year because they haven't been picked to win the last 2 years with most people picking the Rays last year and the Sox the year before. He did say that health for all teams plays a big part in who makes the playoffs.
ReplyDeletethe rockies are a horrible example, as their starters have historically been trash after pitching in that altitude. i'm as big a saber fan as the next guy, but james doesn't have me sold on this one. the more pitchers you bring in to a game, the better the chances you bring in a guy that doesn't have it that day.
ReplyDeleteas far as saving the "best" for the ninth, i'm kinda over that too.... i'm all for using your best reliever in the highest leverage spots, wether that's with 2 out in the sixth, a fresh start to the eighth or a traditional "save", depending on the situation.
jimmy, I know, that is what they MLB Network, it's about a philosophy not Colorado. I agree with you on throwing your best in highest leveraged spots, they said that also.
ReplyDeleteUsing your best reliever in high leverage spots makes all the sense in the world on paper but it isn't always that easy in live games over a 162-game season. The Red Sox tried it in the early 2000's, using a closer by committee approach and they quickly abandoned it. Also, it can be difficult to identify the most high leverage situation while the game is going on. If you bring Mo with 2 on and 2 out in the 6th who's to say there won't be a bases loaded situation in the 8th with no outs, for example.
ReplyDeletePitchers are creatures of habit and love their routines and knowing what to expect. Over a long season I think it's better to slot guys in general roles for the most part then go balls out in the post-season. That's pretty much what teams do now. Not to say you can't bring your 8th inning guy in the 7th, I'd do stuff like that but the my Closer stays at the end of the game. I know it seems like an inning is an inning but those last 3 outs are harder to get and certain guys don't handle the pressure as well. I also think it hurts a team's psyche more to blow leads in the 9th inning.
The thing I would like to see more of is leaving in a hot reliever for multiple innings. For example if Joba comes in and strikes out the side in the 7th, leave him in for the 8th and give Robertson the day off. I think Girardi uses too many pitchers in a game sometimes and should play the hot hand rather than constantly going with lefty-righty matchups or 7th innng guy, 8th inning guy, etc. The more times you change pitchers the greater the chance that one doesn't have his command or stuff that day.
i think you tailor your approach to the kind of players you have in the pen. if there's one guy that only performs well as a 9th inning guy then sure you leave him there, at least as much as you can. maybe using the term "best" was to vague too.... i want my high K guy that doesn't care when he pitches as the floater... or maybe a high GB type that can come in to clean up an inning before it gets out of hand. if i need to get a double play or squeak out of a bases loaded jam i call on the groundball or strikeout guy.
ReplyDeleteagree on riding the hot hand too, so long as the pitch count doesn't get out of hand.
doug...
ReplyDeleteI must take umbrage with your assessment of Jobas' reasoning for wanting to be a starter.
I don't know about you, or others for that matter but, I played with and against the guys in A, AA and even AAA a time or two. My opinion of the pitchers that were good was, large ego, unbelievable self confidence, pride and knows their own weakness and strong suites.
I think it is the Pride thing with Joba! There is still a little stigma on being in the BP and not a starter.
I know myself well and know I was the best of the best at my job and had all the things I said the good pitchers have...except it wasn't a game.
And most of the stuff fashjam wrote above is the way I handled things as the coach and player coach of teams I played with.
Every coach has their own way of doing things, if it works it is fine...the wins tell one a lot about the style!
fish, I agree, just look at Soriano last year he was much better as a closer compared to the year before as a set up man. I also like riding the hot hand as long as it's overdone. Don't mess with a good thing theroy.
ReplyDelete