Jobanalysis

On the game yesterday, Kay and Cone mentioned the discrepancy between Joba Chamberlain's home and road numbers a few times. They were mostly focusing on his inability to get a win at home, but as it turns out the contrast in his performance as a whole is pretty stark.

At home: 8 starts, 38.1 IP, 0-2, 5.17 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, 40 K's, 24 walks
On the Road: 7 starts, 42.2 IP, 4-0, 2.74 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 33 K's, 16 walks.

So on the road you have a fairly dominant pitcher, averaging over 6 innings per start. At home you have a guy with a high ERA that averages less than 5 innings per start. Kay and Cone speculated that Joba may be nervous pitching in front of the home crowd, but I think there's a much better explanation here. It seems like Joba is bat shy at the stadium while he pitches a lot more to contact on the road. This is shown by his elevated K and BB rates at home. The job for Girardi and Eiland now has to be to convince Joba that the ball isn't traveling at Yankee Stadium like it was in April and that every fly ball he gives up isn't going to go out. On the bright side, I think these numbers imply that if he starts pitching agressively at home, Joba can be a top of the rotation starter this year even if he doesn't regain the 98 mph heat.