Joba

Not sure if I blogged about this already and I'm too lazy to check but I think Joba should stay in the bullpen. I'm well aware of the numbers involved, and how 200 innings of Joba are better than 100, but we're still better off with Joba the freaking dominant set-up man.

Since 1996, Mariano Rivera has been the pitcher any sane Yankee fan would want on the mound with everything on the line. He pitches 1 inning a game, maybe 2 in the playoffs (or 3 if it's the epic 2003 Game 7). Now, if you translated his numbers into the role of a starter, obviously they would be better than the crappy 5th starters we've had through these last few years, but then in the later innings we'd be forced to rely on someone less than the best, and why would we want to do that.

With that said, we can apply the same to Joba and the 8th inning (or in the playoffs Joba in the 6th-7th, Mo in the 8th-9th, Jeter Christ that sounds sweet). I would rather have Moose start, go 5 or 6 giving up whatever he does, but then if we make a comeback, know that we have Joba and Mo to lock things down, than have Joba go 7 innings giving up 1, and then watch The Hawk or The Farns compete to see who can blow a 5-1 lead faster (note: Farns is my boy and I like the Hawk signing, but let's try to use them in the 7th, mmkay?).

30-40 years ago, when starters went 9 (and even pussy starters went 8), then Joba in the rotation would make sense. Now, baseball has changed; the best starters only go 7 (while the pussies and Igawas go 3), maybe 8 on a special occasion.

Remember 1996? Wasn't that fun with our solid starters going 6, Mo in the 7th-8th, Wetteland in the 9th? Or 1998-2000? Mendoza, Nelson, Stanton, Mo shutting things down routinely? Joba/Mo (plus Farns, Hawk, Veras, Edwar and Ohlendorf et al.) would make ours the best bullpen in the league. (But if Michael Kay tries to QuanGorMo them with some FarnsJobMo crap, I and many others might finally snap and light his oversaturated liver on fire.)

Also, for the last few years the prevailing worry had been what the Yankees would do when Rivera retires. We've been blessed to have the best closer of all-time, and it seemed there was no way anyone could fill his shoes. We found the guy, his name is Joba, his dad's really nice, and he'll be a sick set-up man until Mo retires, at which point he'll do what he can to become the new best closer of all-time.

In other news:

Dachs & Elie may be making their return tonight, depending on how Elie's feeling, so WYUR it at midnight.

Britney's still alive, so that's good news.

Position-by-Position breakdowns and other previews coming up in the next few days and weeks, so that's definitely something to look forward to since no one else will be doing it.

And finally, I always say click on the ad, but I've noticed that the current ads are for crappy NJ Giants apparel. Feel free to not click on the ad, wait for something that doesn't suck.