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Originally Posted by nyjyrk
I hope they stick to the plan and don't ruin his arm by overworking it out of the pen. They need to designate someone to eventually take over for Mo, specifically Ross Ohlendorf or Edwar Ramirez.
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With all due respect, just thinking about the idea of Edwar Ramirez taking over for Mo is going to give me a panic attack. Edwar's a gimmick middle innings guy who will only be effective until big league hitters get more tape on him and figure out his changeup.
I think that Joba should be put in the bullpen for a couple of reasons. 75 games is more valuable than 30 games (less actually because Joba will be capped at 150 innings next year.) The Yankees have a definite need in the bullpen and Joba's shown that he can fill it--the value of a dominant setup man (and dominating closer, a role that I hope Chamberlain will eventually fill) is wildly underrated. To prove that, check out the digging that
Nick Kendall at Bugs & Cranks did on Cincinatti last year:
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Your starting pitcher has just given you six quality innings and your team either has the lead or is tied heading into the seventh. How often do you expect your bullpen to pull out a victory? If you are the 2007 Boston Red Sox, you’ll win 90% of the time. If you are the Cincinnati Reds, it’s only 67% of the time. Here is the kicker. Boston was ahead or tied after 6 innings 95 times in 2007. Cincinnati was in the same boat 94 times. The difference in success and mediocrity came down to the bullpen.
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But even past that, I'm not convinced that Joba will be as dominating a starter as he was a reliever. He's shown that he has a great four seam fastball and a plus slider, but that's pretty much it. You need more than two good pitches to be a #1 starter, even if they are great pitches.
Either way Joba will be an incredibly valuable part of the Yankees staff next season, but I definitely believe that he is more valuable to them out of the pen.