Wow, Joba after Gaudin’s short stint; the entire BP gets to audition this series.  & Why do I suspect that Halladay will pull himself together tonight on a lighter-hitting NYY lineup?

I heard that Joba gets three innings. I don’t see how the Yankees believe the Joba rules will protect Joba. There can’t be any real evidence to support it since no pitcher in the history of baseball has ever been used this way.

Can pure #2 hitter Johnny Damon survive a move to leadoff?  Can Eric Hinske keep his Yankee SLG over .600?  Can the Yankees even get a baserunner against THE Roy Halladay?  Can the Yankees not only do that, but win behind a scuffling Joba Chamberlain and continue their seven game winning streak?  How many innings will the Joba rules allow tonight?  Two?  Three?  Four?  Tune in to find out.

Yes. No. Yes. No. 3.2.

What?  Is it really so far-fetched to think that pitching less will result in less wear and tear on a young and previously injured arm?

So Abraham posted this on his blog earlier today:

Where can I find WAR info for this season? I am very intrigued by the AL MVP race. I respect Mauer and what he is doing this season, but come on it’s funkin Derek Jeter. Probably going to split some votes with Tex, although the media machine that ESPN is doing it’s best to campaign for Cap’n Clutch (see front page).

[5] - I thought the exact same thing.

I don’t know which enantiomer of the hot brunette Evony chick I like better.  Maybe the left handed one.

You don’t think there’s something compelling about the strange nose of Evony-Blonde?

Joba’s command sucks.

Haven’t seen those last two pitches from Joba in a while.  Eric Hinske looks really strong in right field

Wow.  I can see where this game is going….

Right on a tee.

His breaking stuff looks good.  The fastball command is off.

DaPuj - 17.3 vocabulary points.

Good to see Roy’s back.

Lots of empty, lonely, abandoned basements on a Friday night, apparently.

Depressing.

Are Joba, his 8.22 August ERA and splendid first inning really going to be the fourth starter in a projected LCS and WS?

Terrible command.

Really nailing those spots.

The persistent misuse of the term aside, Joba really has been inconsistent.  Stretches of light-out pitching, stretches of lousy pitching.
Given the timing, it is entirely reasonable to hope for a hot stretch leading into the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the announcers are talking about a possibly hurt shoulder accounting for decreased velocity… in spite of those post-break games with increased velocity…

Joba will be the David Weathers of 2009.

Did you know Weathers is still pitching at age 40 and has made over $21 million in his career?

Way to work the count, Pena.

Congratulations to Roy Halladay on his first perfect game.

Meanwhile, the announcers are talking about a possibly hurt shoulder accounting for decreased velocity… in spite of those post-break games with increased velocity…

Plus, they are going by the YES gun which is grossly inaccurate.

Well, Kay just mentioned Halladay’s perfect game on the air.

That will have cursed it, no?

Fgas, don’t you think that any reasonably conceived social order should reward David Weathers’ talents and efforts to the tune of at least $21 million?

It’s like Joba has never pitched before.  He’s all over the place.

Four pitch walk quote met.

*Quota

Ingredient of a Yankee win, haven’t we been saying here?

Joba needs to face a team of Kevin Millars.

Answer: David Weathers

Question: Who’s the only member of the NYY ‘96 world champions who is still active but not playing for the Yankees?

The ump is being an obvious dick now.

Melancon warming.

Gameday has ball one to Scutaro smack dab in the zone.

Joba = Dippin’ Dots

Stretches of light-out pitching

Ummm, a stretch of light’s out pitching right after the ASB and ending when the month changed.  When else?

[35]
Well put… although his showing to date is still far better than that of DD.

So was Roy tanking against the Sox on purpose or what?

If he can’t work off the fastball, he can’t throw other stuff.  The curve looks good.  The change looks good.  I have to imagine the fastball is the easiest thing to fix.  Though probably won’t happen for good this season.

You know, the last time I saw Phil Hughes pitch was at Camden Yards.  He didn’t last too long, but he did stick around long enough for Adam Jones to rope two doubles off of him.  He’s a different pitcher now.  And I expect that Joba will be pretty decent next year.

Final thing, Joba would have fared better if Hinske had played the ball like a major leaguer.  And the third run scored on a turf ball.

I wish it were better, but I don’t think it’s terribly alarming for a guy who’s barely allowed to pitch.  He’ll be there next year

Hey, has anybody had a problem with wrongful blackouts on mlb.tv? I’m in Durham, North Carolina right now, and it’s blacking me out of the yankee game because my billing address is in NY.

[41] should be a small link that says something like “I’m not where you think I am.” It will check your ip address among other things

I am no longer gonna defend Joba usage—putting him back in the Farnsworthing pen would be better than this…

I had that when I was in CA all the time, w.

halfz has the double peanut mark of grace.

I hope Joba’s a different pitcher next year.  This one’s lost, and it’s not just about the time between starts, that’s crap.  He came off the ASB looking great, he had a string of every five day starts in August where he averaged over 2 WHIP.  They need a warm body in the rotation with CMW down for the year and Hughes in the pen, otherweise I’d have liked to see him sent down.

That’s a little harsh.  He’s going to need to work off of his fastball like almost everyone else.  That’s regardless of velocity.  If he spots his fastball early in counts, he’s a much stronger pitcher.  And come on…it’s not like he’s Adam Eaton out there

[42] Didn’t see that. I called the mlb.tv help line though. They put me on hold for 20 minutes, but it took about 40 seconds to fix the actual problem. Pretty good service.

Congratulations on the no-hitter Roy.

Only twenty minutes?  That’s about five times faster than they used to be.

I hope the no-hitter is broken up by a ball that goes off Vernon Wells head and over the wall for a HR.

Ever since his Nazi meltdown, Michael Kay seems more determined than ever to talk over potential no hitters

Defense has been extremely mediocre today.

“Nazi meltdown”?

So what’s keeping Robertson and Melancon from starting?  Lack of tertiary pitches?

When he lost his ever loving mind because some caller accused him of “jinxing” Wang’s possible perfect game.  He described his non-conformism to the tradition of not talking about no-hitters by asking, “you know who followed rules blindly?  The NAZIS!”

I’m paraphrasing, but you can relive greatness here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuUTqSKNAH0

Strike one to Scutaro.  At least it should have been.

[55] Yikes, thanks.

Melancon not getting a lot of help re the zone here.

It’s Halladay, so I don’t mind half as much as I should.

After listening to that roofing commercial while checking out the last innings pitch fx on gameday it seems to me that the fix is in with regards to this game.

WTF Melky

[46]
No, he’s not Adam Eaton, but he’s also nothing like the pitcher I think/hope he can be, and if the team had the choice, I think he’d have been better off working on spotting the fastball, refining his secondary pitches in AAA.  he’s young, he didn’t spend much time there, I’m just saying that I think it would help.  It’s not punishment, but development.

Yay Pena!

Cool.

The game just became much less interesting

Yeah, he’d have done better in AAA, but the injury to Wang probably precluded that.  I’m just saying calling it a “lost year” is harsh.  He’s shown enough to be encouraging, and plenty to be really damn frustrating

OK, try to win the game now boys.  But just nobody get hurt.

Teixeria could make things interesting.

He’s going to strike him out on a 3-2 breaking pitch

Guess not.  His location is slipping.

Nice one, Alex.

[66]
Off by one batter.

[63]

Wondering whether I was overreacting, I went to BBREF and looked at his splits as a starter last year. 

2.76 ERA
2.96 K/BB;
4 HR in 65 innings,
.245/ .319/ .322/ .641 BA/OBP/SLG/OPS
1.3 WHIP

And that was after starting the year in the pen. 

Yeah, I do think this has been a lost year.

[66]
Off by one batter.

And the pitch type.

[70] Difference between “lost” and “down.”  He’s not throwing to good spots early in the count.  And the league has adjusted to it by swinging at fewer of the nasty breaking pitches.  He’ll need to make the next adjustment

[71] And the count.

Though I feel good that I was able to think along with Roy on that 3-2 pitch, even if he missed

I’m just happy Paul Byrd does in fact suck.

OK .. . look on the bright side.  Why not.  If he absorbs his lessons and spends the winter working on what he might in other situations have wrked on in AAA, he’ll be a much better pitcher.

At least he won’t have some of the distractions he had last year.  We’ll learn a good bit about his make up now.

Yeah, I’m watching Chicago murder Boston…I have to say I can’t stand how much Byrd thinks pornography is a problem.

Dunn’s True Yankee Moment….

That’s enough Dunn, we get it, you can walk guys on four pitches just like all the other Yankees.

In fairness to Byrd, we don’t know what kind of porn it was, do we?  If it was brother-of-Pedroia material, he could feel justifiable shameful.

Mixing it up with the 5 pitch walk there.  Nice.

I can see why Pete Abe liked this guy.  Nice and husky

Michael Dunn is the answer to a question that should not have been asked.*

*The question was, “What is Joba turns into a lousy pitcher—which five guys can we use in relief, and are any of them named ‘Dunn’?”

If looking at brother-of-Pedroia porn is widespread in MLB, I may have to just stick my head in an oven.

Going to be one hell of a comeback.

[84] you mean a tease?

Yankee minor leaguers certainly have mastered the art of walking batters.

So with Joba knowing he has a pitch/innings limit, this is the best he can do?

I’m more interested in whether the Yanks can get 27 outs before the next game is supposed to start.

[83] It’s probably just Byrd.  And Curt Schilling.

On the plus side, Chicago humiliating the Red Sox and KC clinging to a lead against the Angels’ best.

Don’t you wish the Yankees had Ohlendorf back?  Or Jeff Karstens?

I smell what the White Sox are cookin’.

[92]

I think that’s just socks being socks - stinky.

And Jose Tabata looks like he could be developing too.

OK, so is it worth signing Halladay just so he stops doing this to us when he’s also got an awful record against the RS?

[91] Think we can get Rasner back from Japan?

Daniel McCutchen showing promise.  But we have Damaso Marte!

[96]  The Yankees have Kei Igawa, the Japanese Darrel Rasner.

Seriously, Joba looks bad.  Getting him “more pitches” and “more innings” wont make a difference if he pitches like this.  I don’t know if he’s still hurt, or still recovering, or has his confidence shot for some reason, but He is not the answer right now.

Or maybe just “he is not the answer,” because He is always the answer…I mean, of course, Mariano Rivera.