Posts tagged JobaChamberlain at FanHouse

When the Yankees are officially eliminated from the playoffs in a few weeks, there's going to be a lot of blame going around. Fans will blame Alex Rodriguez for never coming through in the clutch, Brian Cashman for never making the deal for Johan Santana, and Hank Steinbrenner for forcing Joe Girardi to move Joba Chamberlain to the starting rotation.

They'll also be blaming the Rays and Red Sox for having superior teams. Still, there's one person who probably deserves more credit for the Yankees demise than anybody else, it's just that most Yankees fans probably don't even realize it. That man is President of the United States, George Bush.

Are Yankees fans also Barack Obama supporters? The Yankees have won eight world championships during Democratic administrations in the past 50 years but haven't won a title with a Republican in office since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958. Since then, the Yankees have won titles during the terms of John F. Kennedy (1961-62), Jimmy Carter (1977-78) and Bill Clinton (1996, 1998-2000).

The Rocky Mountain News' Tracy Ringolsby also digs a little further and notices that the Red Sox haven't won a World Series with a Democrat in office since Woodrow Wilson in 1918. So it looks like Yankees fans will have a lot easier time figuring out who to vote for this November than I am.

It's going to be an odd postseason in baseball this October. Though it isn't official yet, I think it's pretty safe to say that for the first time since 1993 the playoffs will not include the New York Yankees. While this pleases me greatly, for the Yankees and their fans, it probably sucks quite a bit.

Enough to drive them to drinking even. Though if the Yankees are hoping that they'll be able to fulfill their competitive thirst this October with some good old fashioned drinking games, it looks like they're going to need to practice more.

IT would be tough for average Joes to beat a couple of Yankees at baseball, but slamming them in a game of beer pong was no sweat. Last week, Jason Giambi and Joba Chamberlain were celebrating their win against the Kansas City Royals at Southern Hospitality, on Second Avenue, when a table of fans challenged them to a game of the college drinking sport. Our spy said, "The fans gave them a beating. Toward the end Chamberlain and Giambi got really competi tive, but it wasn't enough."

The spy's quote could also be used to summarize the Yankees season.

Not mentioned in the blurb from Page Six? When Hank Steinbrenner came out of nowhere after the game started to tell Giambi that Joba should be going first, not last, then saying nothing when Joba came out of the competition with a sore throwing shoulder resulting from those extra turns.

Joba Chamberlain will make his long-awaited return to the mound today ... when he throws 30 pitches in a carefully-monitored bullpen session. He's only going to throw fastballs and change-ups, and even if things go perfectly, it's still not clear when he'll actually appear in a game.

As speculated last week, Joe Girardi does sound open to putting his young ace back in the bullpen, at least until Chamberlain builds up his arm strength. From Ed Price of the Star-Ledger:

"We've always thought of him as a starter," manager Joe Girardi said Friday. "That's how I still think of him.

"There's not a lot of time to build up, so we might have to be creative how we build him up. ... We're not exactly sure how we're going to do it."

As Price notes, it'd be one thing if Joba were trying to return in the middle of the summer, but with the Yankees' farm clubs approaching the end of their seasons, he simply won't be afforded the opportunity to make a handful of three-, four- and five-inning minor league rehab starts until he gets back into shape. Instead, once he's ready to test his shoulder in a game situation, he'll probably have to be thrown into the fire as a big league long reliever.

Joba Chamberlain was expected to resume throwing today for the first time since going on the disabled list earlier this month. Assuming all goes well, there's at least a chance he'll return to the field within a week -- he's officially eligible to come off the disabled list on Wednesday -- but it wouldn't be a surprise if the Yankees give him a little extra time just to be on the safe side.

This team may or may not have already conceded making the playoffs, but there's a still a benefit to having Joba return this year instead of simply shutting it down for the season, including not having to worry all winter long whether his shoulder is sound. His official diagnosis was simply tendinitis, but considering the team was concerned enough about his health that they sought a second opinion from famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Edwards, it makes you wonder if the team at least suspected structural damage.

But assuming he does return, where will he pitch? According to George King III of the New York Post, the Yanks are thinking about putting him back in the bullpen in an effort to reduce the stress on his shoulder. It might be a good idea in theory, but sometimes working as a reliever is actually more stressful, especially if he's asked to warm up several times before entering the game or has to enter the game in the middle of an inning. (Brad Lidge knows what I'm talking about.)

If the long-term goal is still for Chamberlain to remain in the rotation, I think there's more to gain by letting him continue in that role this year. Shoulder injuries are a tricky thing and it's almost impossible to pinpoint what causes them, but it's possible that Joba brought them upon himself by not learning to take a little off his pitches so as to pace himself to work several innings in a row. If that's the problem, it's something only experience as a starter will help him get past.

There's not a lot that we know about Joba Chamberlain's injury at the moment. The latest report is shoulder stiffness, that he's had an MRI, and that the results of that MRI won't be made known until after Joba visits with Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama today. Andrews is, of course, the guy that's best known for doing most of the Tommy John surgeries that happen these days. As a result, I've seen some speculation today that Joba's visit to Birmingham is going to result in a TJ surgery. Joba's problems are quite possibly much worse than that.

As baseball injuries go, a torn ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow isn't the death sentence to a career the way it once was. It does result in ligament replacement surgery (the technical term for the TJ surgery) and a missed year, but many pitchers come back and pitch just as good as ever with their bionic elbows. Joba's problem isn't in his elbow, though. It's in his shoulder, which almost certainly means a problem with his rotator cuff or labrum.

It's impossible to know what's wrong with Joba's shoulder until we hear about it and it might just be routine stiffness, but a torn rotator cuff or labrum is a much worse injury for a pitcher than a torn UCL. Follow along after the jump and I'll explain.

It wouldn't be the dog days of summer without a good old fashioned panic attack in the Northeast, where baseball fans live and die with the outcome of each night's game. In almost perfect symmetry, the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets all got bad news on the injury front Wednesday.

Considering where the big three sit in the standings, fans in New York and Boston have plenty to be concerned about. Let's look at each team's situation and try to assess how bad things are right now and how bleak they could get.

Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz has already missed almost two months this season with a torn tendon sheath in his wrist. Now the slugger is reporting that he's hearing a "clicking" sound in the wrist he injured back on May 31 in Baltimore. The good news for Boston fans is that, on its own, the clicking sound isn't a concern. Indeed, Ortiz was back in the lineup for Wednesday night's game against the Royals.

However, as injury guru Will Carroll points out, the problem could be more mental than anything. If Ortiz's swing gets less violent and vicious because he is afraid of getting injured, it could hurt his productivity -- a frightening proposition for Boston in the wake of the Manny Ramirez trade.

Joba Chamberlain got hammered last night (and not in a fun, Jake Peavy kind of way), giving up five runs in four and two thirds innings to the Rangers. The good news? No one will remember how he pitched. The bad news? No one will remember how he pitched because he left Yankees fans in a panic by leaving in the top of the fifth with shoulder pain. From Peter Abraham of the Journal News:

Chamberlain said his shoulder became tight in the fourth inning, then worsened in the fifth. "It was something where it grabbed and popped and got stiff," he said.

Grabbed, popped and got stiff? Yeah, that's enough to warrant a closer look. The Yankees have sent Chamberlain back to New York early to undergo more tests. At the very least, he'll miss one trip through the rotation, though considering how careful the Yanks have treated their young ace, it won't be a surprise if he misses more time.

While it's too early to know for sure what's up, Joba did tell reporters that the training staff doesn't believe there's anything structurally wrong with his shoulder. That said, even a realtively minor muscle pull would be extremely inconvenient for the Yankees, who currently sit two and a half games (not to mention three teams) in back of the wild card.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that the bullpen blew this game, with Damaso Marte giving up a walk-off grand slam to Marlon Byrd. Granted, the Yanks didn't really deserve to win in the first place given how awful Joba pitched before leaving, but it's more fuel to the fire for anyone who wants to second guess his mid-season transition to the rotation.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Oakland Athletics (51-46) at New York Yankees (52-45) - 1:05 PM ET

In case yesterday's Yankee starter Joba Chamberlain needs a role model to help him make a more seamless transition from reliever to starter, he need look no further than across the diamond at today's Oakland starter, Justin Duchscherer. "Duke" is 10-5 with a 1.82 ERA after making the transition, and has been keeping the Athletics in the race even after guys like Rich Harden and Joe Blanton were sent packing. But with Duchscherer looking for a long term deal, could he be the next to go? Just as Duchscherer would be looking to cash in on his best season, Billy Beane may be looking to cash in as well, as Duchscherer is a free agent after this season.

But in the meantime, Duchscherer will try like heck to prevent a Yankee sweep as he goes up against Andy Pettitte.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

You know, throughout the course of baseball history, there have been plenty of relief pitchers who made the transition to being a starter. Hell, before the specialty roles we've all come to know and love (I heart LOOGYs) started, the bullpen was just a place for managers to park starting pitchers who couldn't cut it.

They didn't want to use them, so they put them somewhere as far away as possible.

Anyway, I'm getting off track, what I was getting at was the fact that the move from bullpen to starter happens all the time nowadays. Just look in Chicago where Ryan Dempster has gone from being the Cubs closer last season to being their #2 starter this season. Boston's Jonathan Papelbon was a starter who became a closer then tried starting again only to return to closing and thrusting his pelvis in any given direction at any given time.

So why is Joba Chamberlain's move from the back of the Yankees bullpen to the rotation such a big deal? I swear to God, you turn to ESPN on any day that Joba is pitching and they're breaking into PTI to let us all know that Joba has reached the fifth inning.

"Not the fifth inning!" you scream from your sofa. "I better tune in to see if he makes it to the sixth, no time to feed the kids now!"

Seriously, the hype surrounding this "big" move is utterly ridiculous, so let's add to it after the jump, shall we?

I'm sure this is the way Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman drew it up coming into the season. The last turn through the Yankees rotation went like this: Mike Mussina, Dan Giese, Andy Pettitte, Darrell Rasner, and Joba Chamberlain.

Ok, so Mussina and Pettitte: check. Joba? Wasn't he supposed to be setting up? Instead Yanks fans get treated to a rousing rendition of Kyle Farnsworth in the 8th ... woo hoo! Rasner was an uninspiring injury replacement last year, and who the heck is Dan Giese? Sidney Ponson is next to the party. You remember him, right? He's the fat dude pictured here who got kicked off the Rangers for being a royal pain in the arse and enjoys driving after a few pops.

Injuries got them here.

The major issue is Chien Ming-Wang's foot injury -- because the NL hasn't grown up.

Ian Kennedy is on his way back from injury and threw impressively -- seven K in three shutout innings -- in a rehab start last Monday.

Finally, Carl Pavano is apparently closer to a MLB return than Phil Hughes.

Whaddaya say we fantasy spin it up for each dude after the jump ...