Ah, the "Joba Rules", the brilliant long term plan of the New York Yankees management to protect their young fireballer. Not only was it a great plan to keep the 23 year old from overextending his arm, but it made some awesome t-shirts.
Oops, did I say "brilliant" and "great"? I meant "foolish" and "catastrophic".
Up until this season, there was some semblance of rhyme or reason to the Yankees' decision to limit his arm with an innings limit. When he was coming out of the bullpen, it is was understandable that it would be necessary to monitor his pitches to keep him from wearing out over 162 games. However, when Joba made the move to full time starter this season, the "rules" became more confused and complex than the infamous Obama-care flow chart.
Chamberlain came out after the All-Star break pitching like a man on fire, winning 4 straight games and looking like he had finally hit his stride as a starter. Then the clock struck midnight and the "Joba rules" limit kicked in after a loss to Seattle on August 16th. Joba didn't make his next start for 9 days; a decision that appears to have doomed the Yankees' prized prospect, at least for this season.
Since his 9 day hiatus from the mound at the end of August, the Chamberlain experiment has been an absolute train wreck. Joba has not been allowed to pitch anymore than 4 innings his last 6 starts and has looked downright terrible in every single one of them. In September alone, his ERA is north of 8 and he has an 0-2 record. Anyone who can't see that the long layoff and newly instituted innings limit clearly cannot understand the finicky nature of pitching.
Maybe more so than any other position in professional sports, starting pitchers are creatures of habit. On the mound every 5 days, throw around 100 pitches, get the hook from the manager, hit the whirlpool, repeat in that order for an entire season. When there is a wrinkle thrown in that routine, pitchers usually begin to struggle and it can be tough to get out of a funk. In the case of Chamberlian, the struggles have been more pronounced simply because the Yankees appear completely adverse to letting him work out of it. Take the game against the Rays on September 9th; Joba throws 55 pitches in 3.0 innings and gives up 2 runs (both in the 1st inning) on 3 hits. Then just as he begins to hit his stride by retiring 6 in a row after a difficult first, Girardi makes a switch. Why? Afraid he's going to throw his arm out? Joba a young man, he's not an aging pitcher who demands constant attention to his health.
Making the transition to starter forced Joba to alter his pitching style from the max effort he showed out of the bullpen, to rationing his pitches and depending more on control than overpowering stuff. The man was used to coming out every night and throwing everything he had into his pitches, so why is the Yankees brass so concerned with him wearing his arm out in the rotation? And if Girardi and Co. never let Joba work out the jams he gets himself into, how is he ever supposed to figure out how to get out of them? It's not like he was entrusted with holding the lead as bridge to Mariano Rivera for almost 2 seasons...oh wait...
Not only have the Yankees brought a giant mess upon themselves this season, they could be dealing with a bigger problem in the future. Yankee fans better hope that the "Joba rules" haven't done permanent damage to the man entrusted with the future of their rotation.
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