Posted by djsunyc:
Posted by TMS:
shoulda never messed w/him to begin with... he was throwing well... if it ain't broke don't fix it, unless it's Joba, in which case let's jerk him around as much as possible... to hell with the Joba Rules... time to take off the diapers & let this kid throw.
ever since the shoulder injury last year, he hasn't consistently hit the 96-98 mark. when he was throwing at that speed, he was looking like a potential dominant starter. his speed is down sub 94 so he's throwing alot more sliders like 2-3 times an at bat.
the reason he hasn't hit the 96-98 consistently is because he's become a fulltime starter... he is not Justin Verlander who can sustain that kinda velocity throughout a full 9 innings... when he was throwing relief for 2 innings every other night, he could let loose & fire his fastball w/o worry about tiring out later on in the game... he no longer has that luxury... now his fastball tops out around 94 mph for the most part, where sometimes he can crank it up to around 96 or 97 on a pitch here & there in a big spot... u can see the same kinda velocity increase in Phil Hughes ever since he's been put into the setup role... he's now hitting 96 mph consistently whereas in most of his starts i've seen him being clocked usually around the 92-93 mph range on his fastballs through 5 or 6 innings.
we discussed all this ever since Joba was put into a starting role, he's just not as dominant as he was when he was pitching in relief... same goes for Phil Hughes... these kids will have to learn how to pitch & vary speeds more in the right situations if they want to achieve the "ace" potential that the Yankees see in these kids... right now they are throwers more than they are pitchers relying on their fastballs & 1 other out pitch... that's plenty good enough for relief work but as a starter you need more to fall back on than that... even Joba acknowledges in interviews the fact that he wishes he could throw a better changeup & that he's working on that, but it's a feel pitch & it takes time to perfect... u see this happen in many talented young pitchers coming up in the majors... Zach Grienke is an example for the Royals before he finally took the next step towards achieving ace status this season & he had depression issues to deal with as well... when Joba perfects a 3rd pitch to go w/his fastball & devastating slider, he'll be a much more effective pitcher on a more consistent basis, because he may not have have all of his pitches working for him on any given night... if the fastball location is off 1 night or if his slider isn't breaking quite the way that it should, then he will need that 3rd go to pitch... developing a change or a splitter would do wonders for his effectiveness & ability to get the better hitters out at the ML level... the same goes for Phil Hughes, he can't just rely on his fastball & curve all the time if u put him back into the starting rotation... he's thrown some cutters & 2 finger but those are both essentially fastballs too... for Hughes i think a change would be particularly effective cuz of his quick, snappy throwing motion, so he should be able to better sell the deception of the change than Joba can... just my personal opinion.
IMO the only way for Joba & Hughes to learn is by letting them take their bumps & bruises in whatever role u choose for them, whether that be as a starter or as a reliever... constantly jerking them around in & out of the rotation & in & out of the bullpen is hurting their development IMO... just take off the damn kid gloves & let these kids settle into the roles u want them in & leave them there i say!
After 7 years & 40K+ posts, banned by martin for calling Nalod a 'moron'. Awesome.
9/21/2009 11:43 PM