[新聞] Short Hops: The Joba/Wang Connection
看板NY-Yankees作者ILuvDumpling (let's play some cardz)時間15年前 (2009/05/29 12:31)推噓46(46推 0噓 60→)留言106則, 51人參與討論串1/1
http://0rz.tw/dCJXE
這篇蠻長的 最後結論就是記者建議把Joba推去當Setupman,小王進輪值
目前是Yes頭條
副標:
The Yankees have miscast two of their best arms
05/28/2009 11:30 AM ET
By Jerome Preisler / Special to YESNetwork.com
An 18th round draft pick in 2004, he was a right-handed, flame-throwing
starter with an attitude who shot up through the team's farm system as a
starting pitcher, made his Major League debut the next year in both starting
and relief roles, and eventually became a late-inning reliever due to another
player's ineffectiveness out of the bullpen. As the 2006 season approached,
the team continued to see him as an eventual starter, but his particular
mental and physical makeup, and the team's short — and longterm needs, led
them to review and eventually revise their plans for him.
His name was Jonathan Papelbon and, as the team's closer, he has been
critical to the Red Sox's success over the past several seasons.
When Joba Chamberlain burst upon the New York baseball scene in 2007 as a
lockdown eight-inning setup man, the energy he brought to that role took the
city — and in some ways the entire country — by storm. And with good
reason. Here was a kid throwing fastballs in the upper nineties and
occasionally seared into the triple digits, complimenting with 89 mph
sliders. Here was a kid who attacked batters with a bulldog mentality and an
arm that backed it up. Here was a jolt of emotion that made the Stadium roar
and set opposing batters on their collective heels as they flailed their way
back toward their dugout. One, two three.
The eighth inning was Joba time. And as he left the mound, it was time to key
up "Enter Sandman."
It is now time to end the debate about Joba Chamberlain, to stop equivocating
about his Yankees future to the detriment of the team. Joba should be
returned to the bullpen's eighth-inning setup role and groomed to replace
Mariano Rivera as its closer. He is Rivera's best, and perhaps only,
realistic successor.
Rivera has one year remaining on his contract after 2009 and has said he will
retire after it expires. When that happens, it will do more than end an era
of dominant, unsurpassable greatness at his position. It will leave the
Yankees grappling with a paradigm shift unlike any they've faced since the
start of the Joe Torre era.
If the maxim that winning teams are built around pitching is true, then it
can be argued the New York Yankees have built from the ninth inning on back
since 1997, when Rivera became the bedrock of their pitching staff. In the
decade and change since, Rivera has been the one consistently reliable
element of the team's winning formula and its single most valuable player.
The assumption that late leads will be protected when Rivera enters the game
— even in the biggest games, the postseason games that count the most —
instills a unique confidence in every player and coach's mind. That is a
luxury few teams possess, and that no other team in the history of baseball
has enjoyed for the length of time — or to the degree — that the Yankees
have since Rivera's emergence.
The departure of Rivera is so dreaded in the Yankees' universe it appears
that few choose to consider its ramifications in a clear, levelheaded light.
Instead they focus on the cost of acquiring top-tier starting pitchers
through free agency and decide slotting Chamberlain into the rotation is a
viable, inexpensive alternative.
With his inconsistency and recurrent tentativeness on the mound as a starter,
Chamberlain who many inside and outside the Yankee clubhouse view as a
solution to the Yankees' bullpen problems and the logical heir to a closer
role that Rivera will eventually vacate, has become yet another problem that
has to be solved if the team is to succeed — now and in the future.
And a future without a closer who at least approaches Rivera's success rate
is there for us to see now, as evident as flowers in a field — or perhaps
"weeds in a field" would be a better metaphor. In the Yankees' own division,
both the Toronto Blue Jays and last year's AL East champions, the Tampa Bay
Rays, are stumbling toward irrelevance largely due to bullpen inefficiency
and, most specifically, lack of a reliable closer.
Rivera, whether through his participation or waiting presence in critical
games, is the exclamation point at the end of the sentence that reads, "The
Yankees win!" When he retires from baseball. along with the uniform number he
is the sole remaining player to ever wear, the sentence will be left to trail
off into indeterminacy with an ellipsis followed by a question mark.
Or to put that starkly in view: "The Yankees win ...?"
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi have repeatedly
indicated the organization has made its decision about Chamberlain. But in
every aspect of life, success is contingent on intellectual flexibility, an
ability and willingness to reevaluate positions as evidence that challenges
them appears and circumstances change and evolve. When we unwilling or unable
reassess important decisions, we have succumbed to inertia and are in the
process of fading into decay.
It is fitting and somewhat ironic that Chamberlain's future is tied to that
of another Yankees asset-turned-problem, Chien-Ming Wang. Even as they
reconsider their decision to shape Chamberlain into a member of its starting
rotation, the Yankees should stop allowing a proven starter, two-time 19-game
winner Chien Ming Wang, to languish in the bullpen waiting for mop-up and
garbage-time roles. He is out of Minor League options and, barring another
rehab stint on the disabled list, must remain on the Yankees' 40-man roster.
Wang's two recent performances out of the bullpen, the first against the
Philadelphia Phillies on May 22, his second in Texas Wednesday night, make it
clear that he has nothing more to rehab but his stamina and confidence, and
this can — and when we speak of confidence, must be — accomplished at the
Major League level. His lost velocity has nearly returned, and his control
and command are on the way.
Wang's current status, so aptly detailed by my colleague Jon Lane (who
disagrees with me on Chamberlain) is untenable. To let it abide would be
organizationally myopic and irresponsible.
Wang is not just a sinkerball pitcher, but a 29 year-old power sinkerball
pitcher who, between 2005-2007, and then into his injury-shortened 2008
season, built a reputation as the best in the sport. This makes him a premium
commodity at the new Yankee Stadium.
Wang's entire game is premised on keeping the ball down. And just ask a
longtime Yankee pitcher — and the rotation's sole holdover from the
championship years — how vital that can be for the home team.
"It's simple: If you leave a ball up and they hit in on the barrel, right now
it's a home run," said Andy Pettitte after his most recent start at the new
Yankee Stadium. He went on to add, "You have to get the ball down, especially
if you are not overpowering. If you don't have, or if you are not throwing,
overpowering stuff, you cannot let your guard down ever out there right now."
After Wang's impressive two innings of work in Texas, catcher Kevin Cash
said, "Sinkerballers are contact pitchers, rollover, ground-ball type guys.
He got swing-and-misses on his sinker, that's how good it was [Wednesday]. I
know everybody harps on the velocity, but the big thing is the movement. You
can pitch with that kind of movement at 88-91."
Girardi would underscore Cash's remarks with these words: "That's as good as
I've seen (Wang) this year," Girardi said. "That's the Chien-Ming Wang we've
seen so often. That's what we want to see from him. That's a huge building
block."
The Yankees must open their eyes to what is before them, and listen to their
own words. They must formulate a cohesive, expedient plan that simultaneously
reinserts Chien-Ming Wang into their starting rotation (along with CC
Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes), and that moves Joba
Chamberlain into the eighth inning setup role to solidify the current bullpen
and finally crown him the heir apparent to the greatest closer of all time.
The less time wasted, the better.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 123.204.137.29
推
05/29 12:33, , 1F
05/29 12:33, 1F
推
05/29 12:34, , 2F
05/29 12:34, 2F
推
05/29 12:34, , 3F
05/29 12:34, 3F
→
05/29 12:34, , 4F
05/29 12:34, 4F
推
05/29 12:34, , 5F
05/29 12:34, 5F
→
05/29 12:34, , 6F
05/29 12:34, 6F
推
05/29 12:35, , 7F
05/29 12:35, 7F
※ 編輯: ILuvDumpling 來自: 123.204.137.29 (05/29 12:35)
推
05/29 12:35, , 8F
05/29 12:35, 8F
→
05/29 12:35, , 9F
05/29 12:35, 9F
→
05/29 12:36, , 10F
05/29 12:36, 10F
→
05/29 12:36, , 11F
05/29 12:36, 11F
推
05/29 12:37, , 12F
05/29 12:37, 12F
→
05/29 12:37, , 13F
05/29 12:37, 13F
推
05/29 12:37, , 14F
05/29 12:37, 14F
推
05/29 12:39, , 15F
05/29 12:39, 15F
推
05/29 12:40, , 16F
05/29 12:40, 16F
推
05/29 12:40, , 17F
05/29 12:40, 17F
推
05/29 12:41, , 18F
05/29 12:41, 18F
推
05/29 12:43, , 19F
05/29 12:43, 19F
推
05/29 12:45, , 20F
05/29 12:45, 20F
→
05/29 12:45, , 21F
05/29 12:45, 21F
→
05/29 12:46, , 22F
05/29 12:46, 22F
推
05/29 12:47, , 23F
05/29 12:47, 23F
→
05/29 12:47, , 24F
05/29 12:47, 24F
→
05/29 12:49, , 25F
05/29 12:49, 25F
推
05/29 12:54, , 26F
05/29 12:54, 26F
→
05/29 13:08, , 27F
05/29 13:08, 27F
推
05/29 13:28, , 28F
05/29 13:28, 28F
推
05/29 13:34, , 29F
05/29 13:34, 29F
→
05/29 13:35, , 30F
05/29 13:35, 30F
→
05/29 13:36, , 31F
05/29 13:36, 31F
推
05/29 13:42, , 32F
05/29 13:42, 32F
推
05/29 13:43, , 33F
05/29 13:43, 33F
→
05/29 13:43, , 34F
05/29 13:43, 34F
→
05/29 13:44, , 35F
05/29 13:44, 35F
→
05/29 13:45, , 36F
05/29 13:45, 36F
→
05/29 13:45, , 37F
05/29 13:45, 37F
→
05/29 13:46, , 38F
05/29 13:46, 38F
還有 28 則推文
推
05/29 15:50, , 67F
05/29 15:50, 67F
→
05/29 16:16, , 68F
05/29 16:16, 68F
推
05/29 16:35, , 69F
05/29 16:35, 69F
→
05/29 16:37, , 70F
05/29 16:37, 70F
推
05/29 16:49, , 71F
05/29 16:49, 71F
推
05/29 16:57, , 72F
05/29 16:57, 72F
→
05/29 17:29, , 73F
05/29 17:29, 73F
→
05/29 17:38, , 74F
05/29 17:38, 74F
→
05/29 17:38, , 75F
05/29 17:38, 75F
→
05/29 17:38, , 76F
05/29 17:38, 76F
推
05/29 18:20, , 77F
05/29 18:20, 77F
→
05/29 20:21, , 78F
05/29 20:21, 78F
推
05/29 21:20, , 79F
05/29 21:20, 79F
→
05/29 21:21, , 80F
05/29 21:21, 80F
→
05/29 21:23, , 81F
05/29 21:23, 81F
推
05/29 21:24, , 82F
05/29 21:24, 82F
推
05/29 21:24, , 83F
05/29 21:24, 83F
推
05/29 21:36, , 84F
05/29 21:36, 84F
推
05/29 22:04, , 85F
05/29 22:04, 85F
→
05/29 22:57, , 86F
05/29 22:57, 86F
→
05/29 22:58, , 87F
05/29 22:58, 87F
→
05/29 22:58, , 88F
05/29 22:58, 88F
→
05/29 23:21, , 89F
05/29 23:21, 89F
→
05/30 00:29, , 90F
05/30 00:29, 90F
推
05/30 00:34, , 91F
05/30 00:34, 91F
→
05/30 00:40, , 92F
05/30 00:40, 92F
→
05/30 00:41, , 93F
05/30 00:41, 93F
推
05/30 01:14, , 94F
05/30 01:14, 94F
推
05/30 02:59, , 95F
05/30 02:59, 95F
推
05/30 02:59, , 96F
05/30 02:59, 96F
→
05/30 02:59, , 97F
05/30 02:59, 97F
→
05/30 03:01, , 98F
05/30 03:01, 98F
推
05/30 03:12, , 99F
05/30 03:12, 99F
→
05/30 03:13, , 100F
05/30 03:13, 100F
推
05/30 04:51, , 101F
05/30 04:51, 101F
推
05/30 06:51, , 102F
05/30 06:51, 102F
→
05/30 06:52, , 103F
05/30 06:52, 103F
→
05/30 07:18, , 104F
05/30 07:18, 104F
推
05/30 10:19, , 105F
05/30 10:19, 105F
→
05/30 10:24, , 106F
05/30 10:24, 106F