Joba Chamberlain Keeps Rolling As A Starter

Joba Chamberlain just might live up to his potential as a starting pitcher and possibly the hype. Oh wait, did I say the hype? Forget it because it’s “New York, you better get it done or we’ll boo you out of town” hype. However, if he continues to progress and does as well as he did versus the Cincinnati Reds this afternoon in a 6-3 Yankees win, Chamberlain should be just fine.

Joba went 5.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits, walking three, and striking out six. This was the longest outing this spring for the Yankees’ fan-anointed next best farm-grown superstar. In Joba We Trust, indeed. However, despite a 4-0 record, Chamberlain has been somewhat inconsistent this spring, particularly with his velocity, but against the Reds, he was touching the mid-90s and all seems to be going right again. Hopefully, Joba does it like he did last year when he just got better during the regular season.

As you may or may not recall, Chamberlain stunk worse than one of Cecil Fielder’s undershirts after hitting an in-the-park homerun as Joba pitched 7.1 innings, giving up five earned runs on eight hits, but when the regular season came around, Chamberlain got busy and did damage (when healthy) dealing for 100.1 innings, a 4-3 W/L record, 19 holds, 118 K, 39 BB, and a 2.60 ERA. Hopefully, it happens again.

In Joba We Trust.