This headline tells you all you need to know: "(Joba) Chamberlain most likely to start '09 in the bullpen."
Tyler Kepner has quotes from Brian Cashman saying that Chamberlain will not reach his innings limit and feels that having pitch about 200 innings next season would be too risky.
“We do believe you can put some guys in jeopardy by putting way too much on them,” Cashman said. “If someone is adding a significant amount of innings from a previous season, history says those guys will have a breakdown or a significant underperformance the next year.”Sigh.
I think there's a difference between protecting the player and babying him. Depending on what the starting pitching staff looks like in spring training, Chamberlain may have to start.
Throwing more innings could be harmful, but pitching innings here and there out of the bullpen and then stretching the arm out to become a starter could be harmful as well.
Just let the guy pitch. He wants to start. Upper management wants him to start. What's the problem?
5 comments:
They have to protect Joba's future. A shoulder injury can easily end an young pitcher's career.
If they succeed in signing CC and Burnett next season, there'll be no need to rush Joba into a starter's role.
For all we know, the shoulder injury could have happened as a result of the transition into the rotation.
It really all depends on how the rotation looks as ST ends. If they're in a position where they need Joba to start (i.e. a Rasner/Ponson situation), they have to have him start.
Let's pray they won't have to do that again. They really need to transform Joba into a starter properly and extremely carefully.
He deserves a grand long career as one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history.
I think for them to do it right, he'd have to spend some time in the minors. Again, this is all contingent on how the staff looks.
I also don't think innings are a great way to judge a pitcher's work. If he has a lot of easy, stress-free innings, that shouldn't count against him. There's a difference between a five-pitch inning and a 30-pitch inning.
Yes, it should be pitch count.
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