had been wining, Joba would have stayed in the best back end of the bullpen in all of baseball, but they obviously felt it was time to shake things up…It’s been pitiful watching each game lately.
Anyway, they have so much dead wood on this team right now I don’t know where to begin, but at least they got a win.

On May 5, 2008 in a posting on this site, SenorSwanky first broached the subject about piggy backing Joba in the majors. I offered doing it with Rasner or Mussina’s starts and several guys including Ronster22 and DeathSquire 36 were in agreement.

For Rasner’s (or Mussina’s) next start, Joba will probably go three innings, then three innings again, then four innings, the four innings again, etc all piggy backed on Rasner or Mussina (more likely Moose).

At the five inning mark the Yankees will likely have Joba make a start (or two) in Scranton. But I still would rather have Joba get his starts here in the Bronx instead of Scranton. At that point JB Cox (or David Robertson) will likely be brought up from Scranton and both those guys are being groomed to throw two innings.

The reason for going three and four innings twice with Joba is the 3 or 4 inning stint is what separates relievers from starters. During a 3 or 4 inning stint, the pitcher sees hitters more than once through the order and should use more than his two pitch arsenal. Also, the pitcher at this point must conserve himself more by limiting the effort on every pitch. Notice how Joba really over exerted himself on a couple pitches last night? He won’t be able to do that as often in a 3 or 4 or more inning stretch.

This was Cashman’s plan all along to limit Joba’s innings this season and make him a starter. He won’t win every game he pitches and the Yanks will lose some of his starts, but it is the right move now, especially now with how well three young relievers (all former college closes) are doing in the minors.

I see a plane ticket out of town for LaTroy Hawkins, the $3.5 million mop up man. Think the Mets would trade Aaron Heilman for Hawkins?

Anyway, Joba’s slider looked pretty fierce last night but his fastball didn’t get cooking until this second inning.

Ronster22 said – “I think the transition will go smoothly, and finding an 8th inning bridge might be easier than we think. We have some good arms down below, and I’d grab the one with a closer mentality and hand it to him.”

That is probably JB Cox, who closed out the 2005 College World Series for the Texas Longhorns. Look that final game up on Youtube. It is quite impressive.

The more I think about it, the Yankees are more likely going to go with one of the young guns in the minors for this 8th inning role, just to show that another one of Cashman’s draft picks are capable of the Bronx pressure cooker. Sort of a validation measure for Cashman who has been under fire recently.