Can we trade Joba + others for Halladay before Joba's value decreases any further?

Hideous loss. Probably the worst loss of the season, not counting any of the losses to Boston. A couple of things for me:

#1 - I'm really getting tired of Joba's medocrity as a starter. I mean, seriously, WT flyin' F is wrong with this guy and how long a leash do we give him now after this lastest stinker against the Angels? He's been spotty all damn year and absolutely atrocious the last 2 starts. Velocity has been down all year and it continues to be one of the biggest mysteries in baseball. It almost looks as though he's pitching entirely with his upper body and getting no drive at all with his lower half... Look, I'm realistic - I'm not looking for 98-100 MPH on every pitch as a starter but even in put-away situations he's barely cracking 90. Once in a blue moon he'll show us 96 so you know it's there but he just can't seem to bring it consistently and believe me the word is out all over the league. Even his breaking pitches seem lifeless. This guy had an absolute hammer for a slider. Where the hell did it go? I mean did he leave it in Nebraska?? WTF???? I'm done being patient with him - he got what he wanted, he's a starter and as of right now, he's done nothing with the role. Not sure what the answer is but unless anyone's got a better idea, I say if he continues to pitch this poorly to start the 2nd half and they still see him as a starter (I did at one point but not anymore - the experiment's been a failure - he belongs in the bullpen), I say send him to the minors for a stretch to work on some things. If anything else, it should humble him, get his head back in the game & hopefully light a fire under his ass. This is a guy pitching w/o his mojo.... Terrible off-season with the stuff with his mother and the whole argument in the bar/the DWI/talkin' smack about NY & Yogi to the trooper disaster, then he gets absolutely punked by Aubrey Huff TWICE in one trip around the bases early on & now he's pitched terrible of late. Unless he's pitching hurt which would be a whole 'nother story (which I hope isn't the case but you never know with these guys - I mean there is pressure on these players to perform and half these guys all think they're cowboys and heros anyway - look at the **** Pavano pulled pitching hurt, Hughes pitching hurt, etc..), I seriously think a demotion might be in order. It's a little extreme I'll grant you, but it might be just what the doctor ordered. Hey, Hughes has been up and down several times for us and he appears to be a better pitcher today because of it... I mean tonight was awful - 4-0, 5-2 lead halfway through in THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME OF THE YEAR and you can't put that team away, a team w/o Vlad and Torii Hunter????? Come on man... Very disappointing and you know what, **** it, I'm calling this kid out on it now!! Something needs to be done here - either put this kid in the bullpen where he belongs and where HE WAS DOMINANT (maybe a simple flip-flop of Chamberlain and Hughes might be all we need here) or, if they insist on keeping him as a starter send him down for a short stretch and send him a message to get his act together.

#2 - The middle relief on this team is awful. Coke's been decent of late and thank God Hughes took to his new role as well as he did (maybe we can take the gloves off and start using him a little more now for Christ's sake).. Other than that, it's the pits. Bruney? AWFUL. Robertson? AWFUL and UNRELIABLE - I don't care how his #s look, strikeouts per innings and all that.. He's scares the piss outta me everytime we bring him in in a close game. Marte coming back soon? Big deal - he was terrible before he got hurt, terrible last year too. Now Melancon doesn't appear to be the answer either (this guy's been bad both times he's been up so far this year and looks like nothing more than a David Robertson clone out there stuff-wise to me). I think we would've been better off trying to get Jose Veras straightened out. He had better stuff than any of these guys and we just tossed him out with the trash and when we had options to keep everyone mind you.. I hate to go back to this but I really thought beefing up the middle relief during the off-season should've been more of a priority. We had Juan Cruz just sitting there for the taking - a guy who just dominated guys late in ballgames coming out of Arizona's bullpen the past few years. A guy who has closer stuff that we could've gotten for setup man money. He was far and away the best bullpen arm out there in the off-season. Oh well...

Thanks for letting me rant. I'm just so pissed off that we lost tonight, the way we lost. In my book we had 2 of our 3 biggest weaknesses on full display tonight (obviously Wang's been the other): Joba's continued poor performance and the spotty middle relief pitching. Just gotta throw this one out and forget it and go get these guys tomorrow afternoon. What else can you do? Make no mistake though, we're a very good team but we have some major problems that need to be addressed here and quick. Problems that need to be corrected if they expect to compete for the pennant this 2nd half..

[Edited by - finestrg on 07-11-2009 04:37 AM]

We had no business losing this game.

baseball is such a funny game. joba's imploding inning had to do with a blown thrown out stealing call by the ump and then an error by arod.

can't get on melancon at all. he gave up 2 runs but also gave us 2+ innings fresh from AAA since we blew out the bullpen the game before. and then jeter's error opens it up for bruney. bruney has been a very big dissapointment coinciding with his stupid remarks about krod.

ransom should be shot and pena should be up here.

it's all good. joba needs to get his head together b/c he's pitching like a pansy.

but all of these things happen in anaheim b/c we are never supposed to win there - it has been written.

i think Cashman makes a deal at the deadline for another starter, possibly someone like Jarrod Washburn, who's putting up solid #'s this year for SEA & whose name has been mentioned several times in past rumors... i doubt we get any superstar starting pitchers, definitely not Halladay cuz the cost would be too prohibitive in terms of talent they'd demand in return... the name that keeps coming up to me is Roy Oswalt if a big blockbuster gets made.

Trade for Halladay, take on Vernon Wells, tell them to **** off with the amount of propsects they want, get Frasor too, move Joba to the pen.

Posted by SupremeCommander:

Trade for Halladay, take on Vernon Wells, tell them to **** off with the amount of propsects they want, get Frasor too, move Joba to the pen.

would u like anything else Mr. Steinbrenner?

can't wait to see how they lose this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by SupremeCommander:

Posted by TMS:

Posted by SupremeCommander:

Trade for Halladay, take on Vernon Wells, tell them to **** off with the amount of propsects they want, get Frasor too, move Joba to the pen.

would u like anything else Mr. Steinbrenner?

Cheetos and Rachel Nichols

Dude.. I still think you and I are the only ones on the Rachel Nichols bandwagon. I'm tellin you that chick has GOT to be a freak.

and he strikes out...yikes.

now it's arod time, bases juiced, 1 out, down 4-2 in the 7th...

[Edited by - djsunyc on 07-12-2009 5:38 PM]

Posted by nyk4ever:

Posted by SupremeCommander:

Posted by TMS:

Posted by SupremeCommander:

Trade for Halladay, take on Vernon Wells, tell them to **** off with the amount of propsects they want, get Frasor too, move Joba to the pen.

would u like anything else Mr. Steinbrenner?

Cheetos and Rachel Nichols

Dude.. I still think you and I are the only ones on the Rachel Nichols bandwagon. I'm tellin you that chick has GOT to be a freak.

She looks like she could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch... I saw her in person and she is infinitely hotter in person. There's a reason she gets the best sound clips from pro athletes... so effin hot!