Joba teaches a reminder course.........

Here is the thing about Joba: he is so damn talented, and burst on the scene with such an amazing display of electric stuff, it is impossible to lower the impossible standards to which he is subjected at this point.
Before the All Star Game Yankee fans had essentially done a 180 on Chamberlain. The most beloved young player on the Yanks was being booed and, once Roy Halladay's name was mentioned in trade rumors, everyone was wondering how much gas it would cost to drive Joba to the station to make the exchange.
But this afternoon, Joba reminded us of a few important facts.
Joba reminded us that he still has the stuff to be one of the best pitchers in the game. He reminded us that his fastball hasn't gone the way of the dodo bird and that, when his slider is diving in and out of the strikezone, he can go on an extraordinary run of creating swings and misses.
He also reminded us that he is 23 years old, something we have a tendency to forget, and while all of us would love for him to have matured to the point of consistent dominance, sometimes these things take a while.
It was pretty darn interesting to watch Joba duel Edwin Jackson this afternoon, considering where Jackson is in his own maturity as a pitcher. At 23-years old, while with the Rays, Jackson, in his first full season as a starter, went a terrible 5-15. He went 161 innings and gave up 195 hits, accounting for a 5.76 ERA. Last year, at 24 and a full season under his belt, Jackson lowered his ERA to 4.42, nearly 1.5 runs per game better, winning 14, pitching 183 innings and giving up 199 hits.
Now, in Detroit at age 25, Jackson has begun to fully realize his outstanding potential. He is projected to win anywhere between 13 and 15 games with an ERA under 3, going 230 innings and striking out 182. He made the All Star team for the first time and is establishing himself as one of the best young pitchers in the game.
Can you imagine if Jackson had put up those kinda numbers for the Yankees early in his career? He would have been shipped off to the next available team for a bag of balls.
Joba, in New York, at 23, has a 4.05 ERA, is on pace to pitch 169 innings, give up 178 hits and strike out 153 while winning 10 games. For his first full season as a starter in the majors, after having only 150 innings at the minor league level, that isn't too bad, is it?
Look, Joba can be absolutely infuriating to watch pitch, and I am sure he will pop up another sub-par performance before too long that makes us all scratch our head, but for today Joba was able, with his 97 MPH fastball and devastating slider, to collectively slap us all across the face and remind us that the talent is there and, sometimes, you do have to wait a little while for it to come around. The Rays didn't and they handed the Tigers a guy who could be a top pitcher for 10 years. The Yanks can't make that kind of mistake.