http://wizbangsports.com/2008/04/hank_steinbrenner_a_chip_off_t.
Gee, I guees the old saying is right: Rotten apples don't fall far the tree do they?
New York Yankees co-chairknucklehead Hank Steinbrenner is following in his father's footsteps in telling the manager--in this case, Jor Girardi and not Billy Martin, Bob Lemon, Dick Howser, etc.--how to manage his pitching staff.
Hank is insisting--OK, demanding--that the much-hyped Joba Chamberlain should be in the Yankees starting rotation.
"I want him (Joba) as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now. There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."
First, you don't tell the manager (aka: the guy with 15 years of MLB catching experience and 2006 Manager of the Year award winner) how to manage his staff, idiot.
Second, Chamberlain is a very gifted and talented pitcher. He has a tremendous fastball and slider and a uber-competitive spirit. Those are all great things.
But he ain't ready to be a starter. Period. Not yet. And maybe not even this year.
Plain and simple, his arm isn't ready to handle an MLB workload.
Chamberlain has pitched all of 112 innings and made a grand total of 15 starts in professional ball. He needs to build up arm strength and endurance through setup roles and long stints of middle relief before he can even be considered for a start. Even when his day comes to be a starter, and it will, his pitch counts and innings pitched must be limited or risk being injured. The Yanks certainly don't want that.
Furthermore, it would benefit Chamberlain to use this time to better develop his changeup and curveball to compliment his upper-90's fastball and slider.
And honestly, this kid is a little immature right now and I personally question not his heart, but his head to be a pitcher in MLB and not just a thrower of heat. It takes stuff and smarts to make it in this league. The stuff is there, but like nearly all young pitchers learning how to pitch to MLB hitters, Joba needs to mature, gain patience and demonstrate a willingness to learn and study hitters. Right now, he's just blowing guys away--and that will only work for so long before hitters catch up.
So for Steinbrenner to pop off like this just makes him sound like a ignorant owner who knows very little about baseball. And he is.
Just like his father.
