Wednesday, June 4, 2008
So, Now What?
Joba Chamberlain’s debut as a starter didn’t go so well, and the bullpen imploded behind him as the Yankees fell to Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays, 9-3. Joba had a tough time finding the strike zone in the first inning even though he threw mainly fastballs but seemed to get better in the second. A strict pitch count and a clear game plan by the Blue Jays to wait him out led to him only going 2.1 innings, but he did work up to 62 pitches and should be able to throw about 80 in his next start, so by mid-June he should be able to get up to 100 or so without much of an issue. Assuming good health he probably will get about 20 more starts in by the end of the season, so he should end up around 140 innings or so if all goes according to plan.
Although Dan Giese was reasonably effective in relief of Joba, holding the Jays to one run over 3.2 innings, he didn’t really pitch all that well. He may be serviceable as a long man although last night wasn’t necessarily a ringing endorsement. The rest of the pen pretty much sucked, with Jose Veras and Edwar Ramirez giving up six runs and putting the game out of reach. I’ve never been sold on Veras because his command stinks. As for Edwar, he was due for an ERA correction, but I still think he can be useful going forward. LaTroy Hawkins may not have actually given up any runs of his own, but the bases-loaded double he gave up to David Eckstein was probably the death blow in this game. Hawkins seems like a nice enough guy but at this point I don’t see any use for him in the pen. The Yankees probably need to start at least thinking about building a pen for next year and Hawkins’s innings would be better served going to Chris Britton and Veras.
The offense again failed to impress, but at least it was against Roy Halladay. According to this notebook, Jorge Posada’s rehab is going well and he may be back Thursday. Posada’s return will help a little, but as long as Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter continue to hit like Wayne Tolleson and Alvaro Espinoza, the Yankees are going to have problems.
Jeter did tie Mickey Mantle on the all-time Yankee hit list with his 2415th last night, so that’s something, I guess. He’s also cracked the magic .800 mark in zone rating, and is on pace to be only 10 runs below average this year, which would be pretty good if he can hit like he was projected to going forward.
The Yankees are still only seven games out of first, and with Boston losing David Ortiz for some time the Yanks have a chance to stay close if they start playing better soon, but unless they get a 20 game homestand against Seattle I’m not sure if they can do that.
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