Yankees baseball blog

Dellucci unhappy with Joba's antics during Yankees' victory over Indians

Two nights ago, Indians outfielder David Dellucci pinch-hit a go-ahead three-run homer off Joba Chamberlain. After giving up that shot, the 22-year-old reliever bent over, avoided watching the runners score and otherwise appeared upset.

Thursday was a different scene in the Yankees' 6-3 win over Cleveland at the Stadium. Chamberlain screamed and pumped his fists three times in celebration as he spun off the mound after striking out Dellucci to end a three-batter eighth inning. Dellucci was not amused by Chamberlain's antics. Continue

Achy Joba idle again

A barking hamstring, suffered Thursday night on a wet Chicago mound, has idled Joba Chamberlain the past two games, and the Yankees don't know when the best setup man in baseball will return. "He wasn't going to pitch today," manager Joe Girardi said after yesterday's 6-4 loss to the Indians. Instead, Chamberlain spent the second straight day receiving treatment on his left leg and didn't want to discuss the problem. Continue

Day off for Joba

Because the Yankees told Joba Chamberlain to stay off his feet during batting practice yesterday, it was likely the set up man wasn't available for last night's 6-4 loss to the Indians in which the need for him didn't surface. "He slipped on the mound (Thursday night) and tweaked his legs," manager Joe Girardi told The Post during batting practice. Continue

Hank: I want Joba to start

Hammerin' Hank Steinbrenner is at it again. He says it's time for Joba Chamberlain to join the starting rotation. With only two-fifths of the rotation pitching well - Phil Hughes (0-3), Ian Kennedy (0-2) and Mike Mussina (1-3) are struggling - Steinbrenner has seen enough. New rules for Joba! And now!

In a story posted on The New York Times' Web site last night, Steinbrenner said: "I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now ... You don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. ... You have to be an idiot to do that ... The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever. I had no say in it last year and I wouldn't have allowed it ... The starting rotation is not what I would have chosen at the beginning of the year, but that is not a big news flash to anyone." Continue

Joba's father continues to improve

The Yankees are looking forward to getting setup man Joba Chamberlain back sometime soon. They don't have a date yet, but Chamberlain released a statement indicating that his father, Harlan, who was hospitalized Sunday night, continues to improve.

"After several difficult days, my father is feeling much better," he said. "He is still in the critical care unit of the hospital and more tests await him, but he is off the ventilator and breathing on his own. Each day, he's acting more and more like himself, and he's even giving people grief - myself included - because the hospital doesn't carry Yankees games on television." Continue

Out of a Joba for series

The Yankees are fortunate the schedule maker dropped the Red Sox into The Bronx for two games this week instead of four. Beginning tonight at the Yankee Stadium that didn't have a Red Sox jersey buried in it, the Red Sox and Yankees renew sports' best rivalry three days after completing a three-game set at Fenway Park, where the defending world champions took two after Chien-Ming Wang hurled a complete-game, two-hitter in the opener. Continue

Joba leaves team after dad collapses

The Yankees likely will be without Joba Chamberlain on Monday night in Tampa Bay, as the reliever left the team on Sunday night to tend to his ailing father.

According to sources, Harlan Chamberlain collapsed at his home in Lincoln, Neb. He was listed in critical condition at St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln, a nursing supervisor there told the Daily News on Sunday night. Chamberlain learned the news after the Yankees' loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Continue

Matter of Jo-Mo

The Yankees have three victories this season, and it is impossible to ignore that in each Joba Chamberlain has handed the ball to Mariano Rivera. It is obvious early in the schedule that the Yankees' mojo is now built around Jo-Mo.

After all, the final scores of the three wins have been 3-2, 3-2 and, yesterday, 2-0 over a team that is suddenly the Rays of hope. That is three wins by a total of four runs. Would the Yanks have even those three victories if the eighth-inning job still belonged to, say, Kyle Farnsworth , who has proved as trustworthy as Eliot Spitzer with time on his hands and money in his pocket?  Continue

In bullpen, Joba Chamberlain rules

Joba Chamberlain may be a superb starting pitcher in the future, but one day after the Yankees sent him back to the bullpen, he reminded everybody why he took New York by storm late last season. Chamberlain struck out the side in one inning of relief against the Blue Jays on Thursday, dominating three Toronto minor-leaguers with the same authority he showed during his first two months in the big leagues.

"It was exactly what I thought it would be - maybe a little more - as far as feeling and getting the adrenaline going," Chamberlain said. "I don't care who is hitting, they all want to hit you. Just to come in, get your mind right when you step over that line and it's time to turn it up and go to work." Continue

Joba Chamberlain will begin in pen for Yankees

One of the hotly debated questions in Yankeeland - Is Joba Chamberlain a starter or reliever? - was answered yesterday. Chamberlain will begin the season as a setup man, the role that he flourished in last year. Manager Joe Girardi revealed the team's decision after a closed-door meeting with Chamberlain.

Girardi reiterated the team's company line - "We consider him a starter" - several times during his session with reporters yesterday. But the first-year manager steered away from saying Chamberlain will be a starter sometime this season, as has been the Yankees' plan. Continue

Bombers to discuss Joba's role

Joe Girardi and his staff will meet soon to discuss what pitchers fit into what roles. There will be other names on the table but the one who is most critical to the Yankees' success will be Joba Chamberlain.The plan from January on has been to open the season with Chamberlain in the bullpen setting up Mariano Rivera .

Eventually, the Yankees believe the electric right-hander will go into the rotation and haven't ruled that out happening this year.Nevertheless, if the Yankees want him to acclimate to the bullpen it's likely they will want to use him in relief for an inning or two at some point instead of working him as a starter. Continue

Breaking in more pitches, Joba Chamberlain starts to turn heads

Joba Chamberlain didn't look like a pitcher struggling with his command as he did in his last start, but he didn't look like the two-pitch wonder he was last year, either.

That's because after making a name for himself late last summer with a blazing fastball and a filthy slider, he displayed a pretty effective curveball Monday night in the Yankees' 4-0 win, showing why the Yankees believe he can succeed as a starter, not just Mariano Rivera's setup man. Chamberlain made several Reds hitters look silly with his slow curve, though none more so than Edwin Encarnacion, who lost a 14-pitch battle with the Yankees' 22-year-old phenom when he swung through Chamberlain's hook. Continue

Weapons of mass distraction

his is a new season and a new set of Joba Rules. Manager Joe Girardi and GM Brian Cashman made that clear yesterday. They want Joba Chamberlain to continue to be his outgoing self - but they also want to make sure the rookie right-hander does not get carried away with his newfound celebrity status and spread himself too thin.

There's only so much Joba to go around, and pitching for the Yankees must be his top priority. Chamberlain has gotten the message. "He's kind of drinking from a fire hose right now," Cashman said at Legends Field. Continue

Joba Chamberlain bitten by HR ball

Joba Chamberlain called it "just one of those days." Of course, Chamberlain had never experienced a day like this since joining the Yankees last August, at least one without midges around.

The hard-throwing 22-year-old allowed two runs on two hits - one of them a towering two-run blast by Twins outfielder Garrett Jones - in two innings, giving up twice as many earned runs as he did in his 19 outings last season. "These days are going to happen; it's what you learn from them," Chamberlain said. "You learn from your successes, but you learn more from your failures." Continue

Joba rules legends workout

Mike Mussina has 250 big league wins. Chien-Ming Wang posted back-to-back 19-win seasons. Yet, it was Joba Chamberlain who sent a buzz through the Legends Field crowd yesterday when he took the mound to throw batting practice. "He got the loudest cheer and the guy before him [Wang] has won 38 games in the last two years," Joe Girardi said of Chamberlain. "He brings a lot of excitement."

What Chamberlain didn't bring yesterday was his 98-mph fastball and filthy slider. Not on the first day facing hitters. His best pitch was a change-up, which ranks fourth behind the heater, splitter and slider. "Whether you are a starter or a reliever you are going to need them all," said Chamberlain. "We aren't all so gifted that we can throw a cutter," like Mariano Rivera. Chamberlain will open the season working the eighth inning in front of Rivera but the plan is for him to be shifted to the rotation at some point. Continue

Joba Chamberlain makes rule No. 1 winning Yankees' 27th championship

Before this winter, Joba Chamberlain never owned a tuxedo, never traveled to Puerto Rico or Arizona. Rarely, outside of his hometown of Lincoln, Neb., had people approach him on the street because they recognized him. All that changed after his Yankee star turn last season. In one instance, a man in Phoenix approached him holding out his iPhone with Chamberlain's picture on the screen. The man said, "You're my favorite player."

Chamberlain, taking a break after throwing a bullpen session at the Yankees' minor-league complex Monday, smiled as he told the story: "I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, dressed in regular clothes and I think I even got some facial hair, maybe" - Chamberlain sported a small "soul patch" under his bottom lip Monday- "and this guy comes up to me. It's great. Continue

Joba could start year in bullpen before joining rotation

Joba Chamberlain could begin this season in the bullpen before moving to the New York Yankees' starting rotation. Chamberlain, a sensational reliever as a big league rookie last season, is already throwing off a mound -- more than two weeks before the start of spring training. The Yankees plan to use him as a starter this year, the role he was accustomed to in the minors and college. But the team wants to limit his overall innings, which means beginning 2008 in the bullpen is one option under consideration.

"We're going to have a plan going into spring training," new Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland said Monday. "There already has been ideas tossed around. I think we have a pretty good handle on what we're going to do going into it." 

Joba: Clemens' work is the proof

Joba Chamberlain hasn't talked to Roger Clemens since the release of the Mitchell Report last week, but that didn't stop him from defending former teammate yesterday during yesterday's "Yankees Universe" event in the Department of Pediatrics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

"It's a question that's gonna be brought up for a long time, but the man has been successful for so long, he obviously was doing something right," Chamberlain said. "That's really all you can say. His work ethic has been shown, and he does what he does. Continue

Joba not a lock to start next season

Those who have seen him start strongly believe Joba Chamberlain can evolve into Josh Beckett and insist his greatest value to the Yankees is working every fifth day as a No. 1 stud. Others, who only witnessed Chamberlain bounce out of the bullpen and finally build a sturdy bridge to Mariano Rivera last season, believe the Yankees are nuts to delete Chamberlain from the bullpen.

And the Yankees? A month ago, before Joe Girardi replaced Joe Torre and Dave Eiland took over for Ron Guidry, Hank Steinbrenner said Chamberlain would be in the rotation and that's the way the organization is tilting, but . . . “It's not 100 percent but I think we are leaning that way,'' Eiland said yesterday about using Chamberlain as a starter. “We haven't had long discussions on that part of it yet. I am sure we will in the near future. We are leaning that way and that's where we would like to see him.''  Continue

Chamberlain can be Yanks' ace in hole

The temptation is great, and it'll be there most of the winter, and for the early portion of Joba Chamberlain's career. The bullpen has become the overwhelming baseball obsession of the new millennium, the thing that keeps fans awake at night, keeps GM's ears permanently glued to their telephones and keeps manager's stomachs awash in Maalox.

Somehow, somewhere, we have forgotten about the Ace. Keep the capital letter precisely where it is. That's how important the Ace is going back to the beginning of baseball time, the man around whom an entire team - hell, an entire city - can rally every five days. The guy you know - you just know - will deliver you when you need delivering. Continue

Joba role?

Joba Chamberlain's work coming out of the bullpen since being called up on Aug. 7 was one of the main reasons the Yankees reached the postseason, but he isn't sure what his role will be next year. "They haven't said anything," Chamberlain said of the Yankees' brass.

The Yankees have quite a list of things to figure out before wrestling with Chamberlain's situation. Because he's been in the majors for two months, Chamberlain didn't offer an opinion on what Joe Torre's fate should be, but who the manager is next season will ask a lot of him. Continue

Bugs irritate Joba Chamberlain, Yankees

The bugs descended upon Jacobs Field in the eighth inning of Game2 last night, like heat-seeking, Yankee-destroying missiles. Here was a Biblical plague come to destroy a rookie reliever, then to wreck the New York postseason on a bases-loaded single for a 2-1 loss in the 11th.

There was no deflecting these cruel critters, dispatched from Lake Erie or some other polluted lagoon into the tropical, breezeless night. They buzzed Joba Chamberlain's eyelids and perched on his neck and turned the poor guy into a human sugar cube. It wasn't enough that the rookie was thrown into this game with chaos enveloping him from all regions of the park. There already had been silly rally pies floating across the scoreboard and loud apocalyptic music and 44,732 people waving white towels. Continue

The buoy wonder

Randy Johnson's cranky back was deleted. Jaret Wright's shoulder full of gravel will no longer be asked to pitch Game 4. Alex Rodriguez isn't going to bat eighth. Gary Sheffield's on-the-job training at first base has been replaced by Doug Mientkiewicz. Melky Cabrera throws better than Johnny Damon in center field.

And yet the No. 1 reason the Yankees are better this year heading into the ALDS against the Indians that starts Thursday in Cleveland no longer requires a last name. Joba will do. "We got Joba," Damon said when asked what makes this year's version better than the outfit that was shoved out of the first round by Detroit a year ago in four games. Continue