What about Joba?

Joba Chamberlain has been anything but mesmorizing this season. He is sporting an above-5 ERA, has given up 37 hits in 33+ innings or work, and batters are hitting a whopping .334 with runners in scoring position off him. Those aren't exactly the types of numbers you want to see from a guy expected to pitch only one inning at a time, and routinely secure relatively small leads.
But, Joba's struggles are not unique to this season. It isn't as if Chamberlain fell off a cliff once the calendar shifted to 2010. Joba's performance has been on a steady decline ever since he left the mound in Texas on Aug. 1, 2008, with an injury.
In 2007, Chamberlain was a phenom. He came in throwing 100 MPH, hitting the black on the corners, and dropping a wicked slider that seemed to drop off the end of the Earth. He was a main reason why the Yankees, looking to solidify their bullpen at the time, was able to make the playoffs.
In 2008, the Yankees decided on what I believe to be an ill-fated program to "transition" Joba from the pen to the rotation in the middle of the season, at the MLB level. I firmly believed that Joba needed to be tested as a starter, since starting pitcher remains the most valuable commodity in baseball, but doing it in some haphazard way, in-season, was just peculiar.
In April of 2008, while in the pen, Joba pitched to a 1.92 ERA, giving up 2 runs in 11.1 innings, striking out 14. In May, he pitched to a 2.92 ERA, mostly based on one bad outing where he gave up 3 runs, and struck out 16 batters in 12 innings. In June, the transition began, and Joba began his quest for the rotation with a 2.1 inning stint on June 3, and finished the month with a 6.2 inning effort on June 25. All in all, his assention had gone well up to that point, with a 1.80 ERA in 25 innings of work, where he recorded 26 strike outs and gave up 22 hits.
In July, it appeared everything was on the right track. Joba, in 6 starts, failed to go less than 6 innings only once, and had a 2.52 ERA in the month, pitching 35.2 innings, striking out 43, walking 10. Then, he was injured on Aug. 1.
When Joba returned, he headed back to the bullpen. His numbers were fine (2.32 ERA, 11.1 innings pitched, 14 strike outs) but he did give up as many hits as innings pitched for the first time as a reliever and his velocity seemed far more inconsistent during each outing. Instead of living at 98-100, he seemed to be at 94 or 95 some nights, at the most.
Then came Chamberlain's 2009 season, which he started in the rotation. Gone was the explosive fastball. Gone was the pinpoint control. Gone was the intimidating presence 60 feet, 6 inches away from each batter. The numbers, by the end, were pedestrian: 4.75 ERA, 157.1 innings pitched, 167 hits, 133 strike outs, 76 walks, and 21 home runs allowed. Joba had gone from one of the prized young pitchers in the game to a huge question mark, and the debate over his useage raged.
Many, who had firmly believed Joba was misused in the rotation, argued that his true talent lay in the pen. There, those who wanted Joba as a reliever argued, he would regain the aura he had a few years before. But, what Flaherty and others refused to accept was that, for whatever reason, Joba was no longer the same pitcher. Whether he was in the rotation or the pen, one only got small glimpses of the original power-pitcher that had so taken the city by storm in 2007. Joba to the pen promoters turned a blind eye to the fact that his relief appearances, which dominated his September, when he was transitioned away from the rotation to keep his innings down (a horrendous idea that hurt every bit as much as his transition to the rotation the year before) took on the same feel as his starts. In September, where he averaged about 3 innings a game, he pitched to a 7.15 ERA.
In the playoffs, those wishing for the Joba Reliever, got their wish, and he was placed back in the pen. However, it was obvious manager Joe Girardi didn't have a tremendous amount of faith in him, only allowing him to pitch a full inning only three times, and while Joba ended up only giving up 2 runs in 6.1 innings, he allowed 9 hits. Not exactly dominant.
This year, the decline has been even more pronounced, and it doesn't appear he is getting any better. While his fastball stays at about 96 MPH, it no longer crackles with the same explosiveness and is routinely hit hard, even by mediocre players. His control remains elusive and his aggresiveness within games waivers, a problem he has acknowledged now more times than I am sure anyone would care to remember.
Simply put, since Joba Chamberlain left the mound in Texas on Aug. 1 2008, he has been ordinary. This year, you can make the case he has been downright bad.
Joe Girardi, who never fails to try and imitate a soccer mom after games in defending his players, continues to insist that Joba "has gotten the job done" more times than not and that his struggles "are going to happen." There is something so annoying about Girardi's simplistic yet condescending explanation for players struggles as "something that happens." We all understand that players will struggle. We get that. But, there is a difference between struggling and not being able to perform up to par. There is a difference between struggling and getting pummeled. When you have a 5.4 ERA as a one-inning-at-a-time reliever, where people are hitting .334 off you with runners in scoring position, that's not isolated struggles, that putrid performance on a season-long scale.
Girardi's comments are even more frustrating when one ponders what he views the job of the manager to be. All players are going to struggle. Isn't the job of the manager, and coaches, to get players out of those struggles as quickly as possible, or to manage those players in a way that shields the team from their problems as best as possible?
Girardi continues to put Joba out there despite his now year and a half resume which suggests he isn't up to the task. Perhaps Girardi sees himself as a minor-league manager worried about the psyche of younger players above all else. However, Girardi is there to win games, and Joba isn't helping do that at all.
Something needs to change. In three months, it is absolutely inexcuseable that the Yankees have not addressed their pen. The idea that they continue to run Chamberlain and Chan Ho Park out in important games is absolutely mystifying. The fact that some younger pitchers have not been brought up to try and prove themselves is equally inexcuseable.
Girardi likes to throw his hands up and say "this is what we have." Well, then change what you have. Try Dave Robertson in the eighth. It might fail, or it might work. Get rid of Chan Ho Park, who doesn't have a resume which would suggest he is doing anything other than what you would and should expect. Bring up some younger relievers and give them a chance. You might catch lightning in a bottle.
Continuing to trot these guys out there is on the manager, and within he and Brian Cashman's power to change. And, realizing that Chamberlain is who he is, and has been for some tome, would help everyone involved.