Tuesday Linkstavaganza

Can you tell what that pile of rubble used to be?

In the news department, as expected, Juan Miranda has been called up from AAA. We should have something a little later when the Yanks announce who is getting sent down.

Mike from the Yankeeist was at the game in Detroit last night. Not only did he make it to Comerica but experienced the city, from the partially-abandoned neighborhoods to the plush suburb of Grosse Pointe. Mike does a great job of describing the state of Motown and even though it's sort of depressing, it's well worth the read.

Joe DeLessio from New York Magazine went up to Boston for a game and compared to Mike when he was in Detroit, was treated quite kindly by the Fenway faithful. Having been to a decent number of games on Landsdowne during my college years, I can tell you that the people there aren't that bad. Like anywhere else, there are the occasional horror stories, but if you're not being obnoxious, you most likely won't have any problems.

If you are planning on heading to a game when the Yankees return to town or during the next homestand after that, check out the special "e-saver" deals listed by NYYSI.

If the Yankees keep signing catching prospects, they are going to have to start adding some more minor league affiliates so they all have a place to play.

Speaking of catchers in the system, Chad Jennings talked to Mark Newman who confirmed that, as was widely speculated, Jesus Montero was benched for not running out a ground ball. Some have made a big deal out of this, but the kid is 20 years old and it probably won't take more than one benching for him to get the message. And it's not like he was dogging it in the Majors. As Matt mentioned last night, Scranton has been without an actual starting pitcher for two out of their last four games. The emphasis just isn't on winning as much as it is in the Bronx and it might be easy to lose focus during a loss like the one the team suffered on Friday.

As Rebecca pointed out over at TYU last night, Randy Winn left seven men on base (I should have noted this in the recap, so I'm atoning for that omission here). Winn came up with runners on the corners in the 2nd and hit a foul pop out to first. The bases were loaded for him in the 6th but he flew out to end the inning. And in the 8th, he had runners on the corners and made the second out of the frame without getting the run home. Of course, the one time he came up when there was no one on, leading off the 5th, he notched a single. Good timing, dude.

On Friday, Larry from The Yankeeist did an excellent, in-depth interview with Moshe from TYU, touching on all sorts of personal and blogging stuff.

And one more from the TYU crew: Stephen R. shares a Kevin Youkilis story from 2008.

Via BBTF, if you've got $25K, you can buy the generator from the Old Yankee Stadium.

Chris Carter, the player the Yankees claimed off waivers to throw a wrench into the Red Sox/Mets Billy Wagner trade, has finally made his way to Flushing. The original move was little more than an inconvenience to the Sox but it screwed over Carter, who would have had a chance to get some playing time for the Mets last year. Hopefully he can make good on his opportunity this time around.

The Detroit Free Press is running Ernie Harwell's final interview in three parts: One, Two, Three.

CitiField has a garbage problem and it's not even Omar Minaya's fault!

Here's an interesting AP story on how teams are scouting umpires.

Congrats to Sky Andrecheck of Sports Illustrated and Baseball Analysts who just accepted a job in the Indians' front office.

The Honorable Morgan Ensberg presides over the case of Evan Longoria and his attempt to break up Dallas Branden's perfect game with a drag bunt. His verdict is basically that doing it when you are trying to help you team win (which he thinks Longoria was) is okay, but doing it when your team is down by a lot and it's late in the game, just to break up the no-no/perfecto is not.

Larry from Wezen-Ball lines up the career of Ken Griffey Jr. side by side with the 20 year run of The Simpsons and finds a lot of parallels. I've never been a huge fan of The Simpsons, but I'm sure some of you will appreciate the level of detail Lar went to in his analysis.

Dave Cameron thinks the fact that two players told reporters about Griffey's mid-game snooze indicates that the he doesn't have the respect of the clubhouse (otherwise they might have woken him up). He argues that you have to actually be a good player to be a leader.

Yesterday was the first day along the road to the U.S. Open for John Smoltz. Unfortunately, it was also the last. Smoltz shot a 76 and missed out on being one of the nine people to qualify for the next level by six shots. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he had a gallery of about 30 people at all times and took time to sign a bunch of autographs after he was done playing.

How could anyone fwah-get when Jason Varitek split the uprights and sent the Patriots to the Supah Bowl? Nawt the fackin' May-uh of Bahston! Manny Ortiz is rolling over in his imaginary grave right now.

This might be more egregious that the "Natinals" disaster. Less visible to be sure, but still completely inexcusable.

Is Adonis Cardona the best name for a baseball player ever? Probably not, but it's awesome as shit and has an awfully nice ring to it.

That's it for now, we should be back with something on the Miranda move in a bit, but if not we'll still have the preview at 5.

There Is No Such Thing As '07 Joba

Like many fans who adamantly believe that Joba Chamberlain was born as a relief pitcher and should stay in the bullpen forever and ever, Steve S. over at TYU looks at the one inning Joba pitched last night and sees him re-emerging as a dominating force:

The first batter he faced was Scott Sizemore, and he went 96-97-97-97 and struck him out on three swings and misses. The next batter was Gerald Laird, who managed to see 6 pitches and foul off two but struck out looking. The final batter was Adam Everett, who looked completely over matched, striking out swinging on 4 pitches. All totaled Joba threw 14 pitches and hit 98 three times during Adam Everett’s at-bat.

Scott Sizemore (OPS+ of 74 this season), Gerald Laird (35) and Adam Everett (28) - talk about a Murderer's Row! They've combined to strike out 20% of the time this year and have 14 extra base hits (two homers) in 231 plate appearances.

Questions were raised on air by Kay about the radar gun, which also seemed to have every Detroit reliever throwing somewhere between 97-101 MPH. But don’t shortchange that Tigers bullpen, it’s currently the best in Baseball and the best in the AL by a wide margin. Zumaya throwing triple-digit heat should surprise no one, he’s been doing it for years. Gameday had Joba sitting at the same 96-98 MPH with little variation pitch by pitch. It was for real, and hopefully was a sign of things to come.

Just because the Tigers' bullpen is the best in baseball doesn't mean they all throw extremely hard. The wind was blowing in from center all night long so the readings - be they from PitchFX or YES's radar run - were probably accurate in a technical sense but not indicative of how hard guys were really throwing or are likely to their next time out.

Jose Valverde usually sits around 95 and was living at 97-98. Phil Coke is typically around 92-93 was up to 95. Ditto for Boone Logan. Zumaya averages about 99 and was consistently in triple digits, running it up to 102. It was 50 degrees last night, there's no way all of these pitchers just happened to be pitching with significantly more velocity than normal. Is '06 Zumaya back too?

It was not "for real", just like it wasn't after the second game of the season. Examples of confirmation bias don't come much clearer than this. Joba struck out the side, and that's great, but he did with the wind at his back against two veterans who have never been able to hit and a rookie that has struggled to thus far.

Chamberlain is who he is now - a guy that throws about 95 (sometimes a little higher, sometimes lower), gets a lot of strikeouts but has somewhat spotty control. He's not all of a sudden going to become the pitcher he was for 24 innings one shoulder injury and three years ago, no matter how much we'd love him to.

Game 51: Patience

Sorry, G&R fans, tonight's song comes from a Cleveland-based hip hop group called the MuAmin Collective. I had never heard of them before vowing to find a song other than "Cleveland Rocks" for this post, but they've got a smooth jazzy style reminiscent of Mos Def, De La Soul, Reflection Eternal, Common, Blackalicious and some of GangStarr's early work, and it's right up my alley. 

Enjoy:

After Joba Chamberlain's last start in Texas, during which he was pulled in the fourth inning after giving up three runs, the predictable chorus of those who think Joba should be in the bullpen started chirping.

I don't think putting Joba in the 'pen is an indefensible position, not by a long shot. The Yanks are lucky to have in Chamberlain, a valuable weapon that could be deployed in one of two roles, neither of them are wrong. I just happen to think that one is less right.  

We saw Joba set the world on fire in 2007 as a set-up, consistently throwing 98mph with a disappearing slider. Those two pitches were good for 34 strikeouts in 24 innings and a 0.38 ERA. That's the lasting image of Joba Chamberlain people have as a reliever. 

If the Yankees could summon that Joba, even triple his ERA to 1.14 and assume that he could pitch about 60 innings a year, the B-Jobbers would have a leg to stand on. Unfortunately, that's not the Joba Chamberlain that is available to pitch for the Yankees this year. Present Joba still has minor shoulder problems that don't prevent him from pitching, but do make it difficult for him to warm up quickly and could lead to some of his first inning struggles. 

Brian Cashman, would you please summarize what I'm trying to say here?

If he's throwing 95 in the first inning, let people throw that argument out there," Cashman said. "We haven't seen that yet, so why would they think that's going to suddenly happen by going to the bullpen?

Thank you, sir.

Folks, Joba is a good starting pitcher. In 21 starts over the past two years, he carries a 3.25ERA, has fewer than one hit and more than one strikeout per inning. Injuries are a concern, of course, but we don't know enough to say whether pitching out of the bullpen would actually diminish that risk or not. Hang in there, this situation will play itself out. Don't overreact to every below average start. Have a little patience. 

Opposing the Jobinator tonight will be Jeremy Sowers. The lefty is making his third start of the year for the Indians. His other two were marked by ineffectiveness and had a ERA of 12 when he was sent back down to AAA. He was recalled on May 23rd and appeared against the Rays in the infamous 11-10 game on May 25th, where the Indians scored 7 in the 9th inning to win it. Sowers needed only 57 pitches to coast through 5 scoreless innings of mop-up duty after Fausto Carmona got KTFO, and collect a win in the process. 

Which Jeremy Sowers will show up tonight? Was his success in his last outing just a function of the game being out of hand? We'll find out soon enough. 

One other note: The Yankees are carrying a Major League record 17 game errorless streak into tonight's contest and Angel Berroa is playing third base. See where I'm going with this?