............having said that, Joba should stay in the pen this year

Okay, so Mike and the Mad Dog and their many minions may be dead wrong about Joba being a starter in the future, but they are dead on accurate that he shouldn't be moved from the pen this year. Why? Here are a few reasons.

Enough is Enough - You already have two rookies in the rotation right now. How does it make any sense whatsoever to pull one rookie for another rookie? Now, granted, Joba has better stuff than either Kennedy or Hughes, but anyone who thinks that Joba is immune to the "growing pains" of being a rookie starting pitcher is crazy. He's gonna get hit, and he might even get hit hard. The Yanks struggles right now are about lack of quality innings and the chance for a pitcher to implode. You don't stabalize a rotation with another rookie.

Even if you replace Mussina with Joba, you are then looking at 3 starters in the rotation. Come ON!!!!!!! That isn't a formula for winning.

Patience my friends - Brian Cashman and the Yankee front office put their eggs in the Phil Hughes basket, and if he doesn't succeed and take over control of the third starter spot, no one, not Joba, not anyone from the minors, is gonna help the team. He had the most major league experience starting for the Yanks last year, he's had the most minor league experience, and his innings limit was not nearly as constrained as Joba's. Yes, he is only 21, but of the big three, he has the most experience. Now, let's assume the Yanks didn't get it wrong with Hughes and that, down the road, he is gonna be a very, very good pitcher. Well, you would assume that his assention to greatness would begin next year, and having a full year under his belt there would be little to no limitations as to how many innings he could pitch. That would mean that, with a veteran like Pettite (who admitted this week that this probably wouldn't be his last year), a top starter like Wang, and now Hughes with a year under his belt, you would be able to absorb a learning year from Joba. The Yanks could easily absorb a learning year from Hughes this year if they had done the right thing and added another veteran, quality starter to the rotation, instead of fortifying it with a second rookie. Next year, Hughes could allow for Joba to make the transition easily and smoothly.

Your honor, there is precedent - Remember two years ago when that crummy St. Louis Cardinal team won the world series? They won with Adam Wainwright as their closer. When Jason Isringhausen went down with an injury, Wainwright, a top prospect with nasty stuff, was called up to solidify the pen, and by the end of the year he was closing the games out for the Cards. In 2007, the Cardinals moved Wainwright out of the pen and into the rotation. After a VERY shaky start, Wainwright began to live up to his talent, won 14 games, and posted an ERA of 3.70. This year? He's off to a 2-1 start with an ERA under 3. He is the Cardinals best pitcher. What's my point? My point is, Wainwright pitched 75 innings in the bigs in 2006 and by 2007 he was pitching in the rotation, logging over 200 innings. Now, because Wainwright had more minor league starts, he did log more innings in 2006, but there is no reason why Joba wouldn't be able to make enough of a leap in innings next year after a full year in the pen this year. It CAN be done without making him a starter.

A win is a win is a win - The Yanks are obviously going to have some problems with their rotation this year, no matter what they do. Mussina might be done and Kennedy and Hughes are still gonna experience "growing pains" even if they find a way to get past the third inning. So what does that mean? It means that the Yanks are going to NEED to win all the games they are leading after the 6th inning and, even more importantly, they are gonna have to win all the games Pettite and Wang pitch. That means, for this year, you are gonna need a shut down bullpen.

Here is the thing: you need to have an elite pen or an elite rotation. Now, it is infinitely more important to have an elite rotation, but that seems to be very unlikely this year. So that means, to have any chance of winning #27, or maybe even making the playoffs, you are going to have to have a great bullpen. With Joba, the bullpen has the chance to be outstanding. Mariano looks like he is 30 again, Joba is virtually unhittable in the eighth, Brian Bruney looks nasty this year and is a very difficult guy to hit when he is on, Billy Traber is a nice lefty specialist, and Ross Olendorff looks on the cusp of being a shut down quality reliever. Add in the warm bodies of LaTroy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth, and the bullpen is formidable to say the least. If you take Joba away, you weaken the pen without any guarantee that you will be able to strengthen the rotation. This year, you have to try and win with the pen, and Joba gives you that chance. Next year, when Olendorff might be capable of handling a later inning roll, when a guy like Humberto Sanchez will be up showing off his nasty stuff, or when more quality relievers might be available via trade or free agency, the pen might be set without Joba. This year, they need the youngster.

You are gonna do WHAT? - So, the Yanks, in what promises to be a tight race for either the division or the wild card, are going to yank Joba out of the pen, send him down to the minors for a month, let him stretch it out down there, the bring him back and jettison someone from the rotation, all the while not having a suitable back of the pen replacement. Yeah, that sounds like a great plan. All aboard the Brian Cashman express.

Hank wants Joba to start right now. Brian Cashman wants Joba to start in June. What is wrong with just playing this year out and seeing where you stand next year? The Yanks have a $200 million payroll and they ask each fan to basically pay a pound of flesh to attend a game. The Yanks demand loyalty from their fans, both in attendance and in what they are willing to pay to support their team. The New York Yankees are about fielding competitive teams. I have no problem with planning for the future and taking some lumps along the way. I have no problem with this team being a long shot to win a title this year as long as their is a payoff with Hughes and Kennedy down the road. However, playing with Joba like they seem to be planning to do essentially makes them a minor league squad, making decisions contrary to what is best for the team in exchange for what is best for the player. If the Yanks wanted Joba to be a starter they should have left him in the minors to get some innings, where those innings could be controlled without worry, and then brought him up in the middle of the year. This isn't Scranton, this is The Bronx. I want Joba to succeed as much as the next guy, but I don't want his progression as a starter to be put ahead of the team's chance to win.

The Mike and the Mad Dog debate............stupid is as stupid does.

I am a fan of Mike and the Mad Dog. I always have been. Their show is interesting for the most part because the two will delve into areas of sports that you wouldn't necessarily think about. They'll have Ken Burns on to talk about his Jack Johnson movie, or have Steve Garvey in to talk about all of his interesting stories from the time he played. Also, unlike a lot of the other shows, their arguements seem real, the types of arguements we all get into with our buddies when we are hot over an issue. They get loud, the interupt each other, they condradict themselves constantly (something you always do in a fight with a friend, because it becomes about beating down your buddy than actually making good points) and they seem like two guys who need a time out from one another.

But, for as much as I enjoy the show, what startles me is how little each really seems to know about the games they cover. They have the basics down, and they are great at regurgitating information that has been passed on to them by "experts" in the field as if it is their own idea, but neither one of them do any homework, they seem almost bothered by the idea of perparation, and their ideas of what is right and wrong in the sports world at times is sooo perplexingly stupid it boggles the mind.

Case in point, the Joba to the pen or the rotation arguement. Mike Francesa has been saying for more than four months now that he would take the dominant reliever over the dominant starter in this day in age of baseball. Honestly, that is just the dumbest thing anyone could ever say. Why? Because everything that has happened in baseball over the past 20 years, including what has happened in this town, negates that idea. Look at the names of the guys who have closed on championship teams over the last several years. Bobby Jenks, Adam Wainwright, Braedon Looper, Keith Foulke. Is that a list that you expect to see in Cooperstown any time soon? Look at the Yankees. They have had Mariano for the last 7 years. Have they won a championship? Of course not. Why? Because relievers don't matter without great starters. Everyone likes to say that Mariano was the most important pitcher on the Yanks during their championship years. It isn't true. Mariano was the most dominant and the most clutch, but as we have seen now for the past 7 years, Mariano is irrelevant if your starters can't get you to him. Mariano was never as important as a David Cone or a David Wells or a Orlando Hernandez because if those guys didn't provide the start, didn't pitch good to great in the first 7 innings, Mo would do what he has done the majority of the time in the last 7 years; watch the game from the bullpen.

Now, whether to move Joba this year or not is an interesting debate, and I feel it is too soon to talk about that in the middle of April. In my opinion, the ONLY chance, with two rookie starters in the rotation already, to win this year will be to have Joba in that bullpen. However, in the future it would make no sense to keep him there. Whether it is as a close or a set up man, it is a waste.

One of the favorite "comebacks" from Francesa and Chris Russo is "you have to prove that Joba can be this kind of shut down starter" yet neither one of them wants to actually put the kid in the rotation to see if he can be that starter. How can you "prove" that without seeing it? Is there some sort of equation Francesa knows about that can prove whether he can be a great starter, or is there a specific blood test you can run to try and prove it? The only way is to actually pitch the kid. If he failed as a starter, what would be the ramifications? They would move him back to the bullpen. No harm, no foul. If they kept him in the pen, they would never know if they had a Johan Santana or a Josh Beckett or a Roy Halladay. Do you honestly think anyone has a guy they believe can be a Josh Beckett in their bullpen right now and they are going to keep him there?

Bullpen pitchers are there for a reason. Look at Ross Olendorff. He was brought over to the Yanks as a starter, he imploded. He couldn't get the job done and was pitching poorly. The Yanks decided to put him in the pen and, suddenly, he has been very, very good. Look at Humberto Sanchez. By all accounts, he has electric stuff and was, in the Tigers organization, a starter. But Sanchez has proven that he just can't handle the work load of being a starter. So, what does that mean? It means he is going into the pen. It means that, while his stuff says he can be a starter, his body won't allow him to do it. There are reasons why guys go into the pen, and it is NEVER because they are the most dominant force on their team.

Joba has the best stuff in the Yankee organization. He has four pitches, two of which are devastating. He has a bulldog mentality that, unlike his friends Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, translates into needed confidence. Should the Yanks move the man into the rotation this year? Probably not. Should he be moved eventually? Absolutely, on that there should be no question, and Mike and the Mad Dog don't know much about baseball, or have very, very short memories, if they honestly believe the most important pitcher on the team is one coming out of the bullpen.

Quick thoughts on the first three games of the season...........very quick thoughts.........

A couple of quick hits as we enter the first weekend of the season:

*The Joba Chamberlain fist pumping controversy is about the dumbest thing I have seen in a while and goes to show why talk radio is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it gives fans a forum they would NEVER have and brings the barstool debate to the airwaves. On the other hand, most of these guys on the radio have IQs that, if rubbed together would still only make one. When you have the biggest sports talk radio show on the air in Mike and the Mad Dog talking about Joba pumping his fist and showing emotion for an entire afternoon, it tells you three things: the two guys (Mike and Chris) aren't exactly putting off their induction ceremony's to Mensa, there isn't enough ACTUAL news to talk about so guys need to make shit up to fill the never ending hours, and they usually do that by CREATING controversies rather than discussing them, and that all of these guys, from Mike and the Mad Dog to Mike and Mike on ESPN, to Michael Kay and his horrid career on the air, they all think they are somehow the stewards of the game, as if THEY have the right to decide what is and is not accepted anymore and what can and cannot be discussed. Joba pumped his fist and got excited for game 1 of the season and, you know what, if I could throw 100, drop the nastiest slider on the planet, get laid by gorgeous women at 23 years old, and have NYC eating out of my hand, yeah, I would be pumping my fist as well. What always makes me laugh is the idea that some freakishly fat talk show host (Mike), who can barely fit into his chair, or some borderline retarded OCD-racked weirdo (Mad Dog) would have the nerve to tell someone who can do things only a handful of people in the world can do how to react to that is astounding. Yeah, if I were Joba, I would listen to those two guys about how, exactly, to play this game, right? Because, let's face it, if there is anyone who would know, it would be two guys who would be picked last to play on their company softball team. Absolutely.

*So far I like what I have seen from Girardi a lot. First, he left The Donger (Wang) in there in game one in the seventh inning after going out and talking to him. That would have been an automatic yank out of the game under Torre, yet Girardi let Wang pitch out of any trouble. Hey, it could have back fired but it didn't and it was the right call. Second, he took Hughes out tonight. Smart move. Hughes had an easy 6th, but the game was tied and Hughes is gonna be on pitch and innings counts all year. Why not Yank the kid when he can't lose the game, he hasn't thrown an excessive amount of pitches, and he feels good about his performance? I am usually all for leaving pitchers in games, especially ones going along as smoothly as Franchise was tonight, but this just felt like the right move, didn't it?

*I have been impressed with the pen so far. Joba and Mo are just dominant and both look in mid season form already. But besides those two, I really like what I have seen from Bruney (tonight) and Olendorff (last night). Both are hard throwers, good arms, younger guys and guys that can either miss bats (Bruney) or get you to dig a hole in the dirt with grounders (Olendorff). I still have no confidence whatsoever in Farnsworth (waste) and Hawkins is the only guy to give up a run so far, but the rest of the pen seems like it has some real potential here. Again, it is only three games, but last year, once you were forced to the pen before the seventh, it spelled disaster. The last three games, aside from Hawkins, the pen has been perfect.

*All that running doesn't seem to have paid off all that much for the offense I'll tell yah. I think it might be the weather because NONE of these guys look on their game (and the Jays pitching is better than I thought. Their pitching can actually be great if they stay healthy this year). I think the place to watch closely is Giambi in the fifth hole and Cano in the sixth. Everyone else will come around but Giambi still has to prove to me that it is just about staying healthy. His bat seems slow and his power seems down to me. He might have to be moved out of that fifth hole and, perhaps, out of the everyday lineup if Duncan can hit. Then, there is Cano. He has all the talent but, is it me or does it seem that when he is put in a position to drive in runs, in other words positions in the order that demand RBI's, he struggles? I wonder if Cano doesn't like being in a run producing spot in the lineup. Hey, only three games, but we will see.

*I think Melky, on the other hand, could have a much better year than anyone was predicting. He seems to be playing really well right now, seems to have a much better idea at the plate, is drawing some walks, has gotten a few nice hits, and his defense has obviously been stellar. We always talk Hughes being the PIECE to that Santana deal but people forget Melky would have been a part of that trade as well, and we could be all thanking GOD at the end of the year that BOTH Hughes and Melky are wearing the pinstripes still.

Yankee Predictions for the season

Position Players:

Johnny Damon - .285 21 72

Derek Jeter - .334 19 91

Bobby Abreu - .301 23 110

Alex Rodriguez - .306 47 135

Jason Giambi - .265 25 75

Robinson Cano - .328 27 108

Jorge Posada - .273 21 81

Hideki Matsui - .291 19 76

Melky Cabrera - .296 10 63

Shelley Duncan - .278 19 60

Wilson Betemit - .247 10 41

Morgan Ensberg - .269 6 29

Starting Pitchers:

Chien Mien Wang - 18-9 3.45 211 IP 112 K's

Andy Pettite - 16-10 4.01 223IP 185 K's

Phil Hughes - 17-9 3.87 189IP 192 K's

Ian Kennedy - 12-10 4.45 193IP 135K's

Mike Mussina - 10-11 4.83 186IP 140K's

Relief Pitchers:

Mariano Rivera - 43 saves 2.01 ERA

Joba Chamberlain - 6 saves 1.78 ERA

LaTroy Hawkins - 4.54 ERA

Brian Bruney - 3.25 ERA

Kyle Farnsworth - 4.89 ERA

Billy Traber - 1.87 ERA

Ross Olendorff - 2.67 ERA