A baseball told ya so!

As I noted waaaaay back in April, I completely disagreed with the decision to make Joba Chamberlain the set-up man to the HOF (Hall of Famer) Mariano Rivera on the MFY (Mother Fuckin' Yankees). I respect the heck out of their General Manager, Brian Cashman, but I felt this was a mistake at the time.

After a while, injuries piled up and Joba had to be moved into the starting rotation as I thought he should have been.

I note this is a small sample size, but I still think it is instructive to give a glimpse of how good Joba has been and how good he could be in the starting pitching role:

In his first 10 starts in MLB, Chamberlain, who also struck out a season high-tying nine, improved to 2-1 with a 2.30 ERA.

There are missing pieces here that I could not find in a simple search, considering I am busy at the moment. I'd like to see how many of those 10 are Quality Starts (QS - defined by many as a start where the starting pitcher goes 6 or more innings and allows three or fewer runs). The phenomenon of the QS as a stat has been a relatively recent invention and is somewhat controversial stat for some. I'd like to know Joba's WHIP, which is defined by walks+hits per innings pitched (anything under 1.00 is considered good). It also doesn't account for errors in the field that can limit his earned run total and thus, ERA.

But no matter what is missing from the stat line, the 2.30 ERA is impressive. The W-L record is useless because we don't know how much run support he got in those 10 starts. For example, in his 10th start he beat my Sox 1-0, which counted as a win for him. But, his 1 loss could have been a 2-1 game, where he pitched well. From my memory, I think the MFY had been struggling offensively for a period like my Sox have, and this could be the reason for only 3 W-L decisions in 10 total starts.

No matter, I think Joba has proved he can be a darn good starting pitcher who could develop into a dominant pitcher if he keeps working at his craft. This, all despite the season where his father collapsed due to a heart problem and died. He's had an emotional year so far, but he appears to be doing well and he's only 22 years old.