Adios Ian....Woah There Joba

It was only a matter of time before Ian Kennedy was given a bus ticket back to AAA and Darrell Rasner was sent to the head of the class. I feel bad for the kid considering how well he threw at the end of last season and how much promise he still has. But numbers are numbers and you can't stay in the show with an 8.37 era. The short and simple of it is that Kennedy has been losing games for us. A game here and there is understandable, but to lose every time you start is simply unacceptable. His trip to Scranton should help him figure a few things out. If it doesn't hopefully we can get him looking like the top prospect he used to be so that we can at least pawn him off for someone else. Regardless, I have come to the decision that it is NOT time to move Joba up into the rotation, at least until maybe after the all star break.

It just goes to show you how difficult pitching in the Majors really is. I've tried unsuccessfully to to figure out the percentage of minor league pitchers who end up in the big leagues, and of those, the percentage who have a respectable era and winning record. I don't know the number but I would be willing to be that it is around 8%. That's pretty darn low considering any kid who even gets drafted into the minors has some potential and most likely can throw at least 90 mph. That's not even to mention the physical toll that pitching takes on the body. There is a reason why fast ball velocity has not changed much in the past century. These guys are throwing the ball at the absolute limits of human ability. When a pitcher throws 100 mph fastball his tendons literally come off from his elbow.

So why not try out Joba in the rotation now? Even if he isn't great as a starter he could still be put back into his roll as a set up artist right? Well yes and no. As we have seen with both Kennedy and Hughes, rushing a young pitcher into the rotation with somewhat unreasonable expectations takes not only a physical toll, but a mental one as well. I think that both Hughes and Kennedy caved to that mental pressure and it had an effect on their ability to control the ball, win games, and in the case of Hughes may have ultimately led to him ignoring his injuries until they got even worse. It is nothing new. Almost all young players go through it at first, but few rookies in that situation are being asked to be a starting pitcher for a Yankees organization suffering through such extreme growing pains. Chamberlin is not exempt from any of those same spotlight issues. Whenever it finally does happen Joba is going to be under more pressure to preform than any young pitcher in recent history. And Talk about un realistic expectations, there is no way that Chamberlin will be able to make it through 7, 8, 9 innings the way he makes it through 1 or 2 as a set up man. He is going to start to give up some runs, even home runs, and that inevitably will make people wonder if he is really the iron man we all thought he was. In my opinion he is that iron man which is why there is no reason to rush it. The more time he has on the mound the better prepared he and the fans will be on the days where he just doesn't have it. Not to mention the fact that the Yankees need him to work on his other pitchers and let him get comfortable with them again. You can't win consistently against teams like Boston and Detroit with only one pitch.