I think that anyone who throws as consistently hard as Joba is at true risk of burning out that arm. He's already been injured once. With Mo retiring, I think he's a perfect set up man for innings 7 and 8, and then eventually to take over as closer once Mo retires, which is only one or two seasons away. He is definitely lights out.
It's 3 years away. Joba's throwing motion is hard, but not kinsthetically rough on his body as, say, a Dontrelle Willis or a Francisco Rodriguez.
By that logic, having Joba as a starter would improve his durability since he would not be throwing as hard over the course of 6 innings as he would as a reliever over 1 or 2.
Originally Posted By: Sicilian Babe
There is no doubt that we need starters, but I do not think that Joba is the answer. If we re-sign Moose and pick up Burnett and Sabathia (if wishing only made it so!), then we would have 4 excellent starters. I think that Hughes has potential to be consistently good at some point.
Even if we re-sign Moose he is a year-to-year player at this point, not long term. Burnett is Pavano pt. II. Sabathia would be great and exactly what we need. Hughes has only two pitches and has not shown the ability to stay healthy or pitch consistently at the major league level.
Unlike all of those above, Chamberlain actually a.) plays for us b.) plays exceptionally well and c.) is a long-term solution.
Without Joba, our rotation is Wang. That's it. Wang is the only reliable starting pitcher we have on the roster as of now besides Joba. Moving him to the pen weakens an already dismal rotation.
It's great Joba can be "lights out" but not if he's pitching in meaningless 7th and 8th innings because we have to trot out guys like Rasner and Ponson who give the game away in the early innings anyways.
Originally Posted By: Sicilian Babe
I don't think we should re-sign Pettite, but that may be inevitable. Either way, if we can pick up two new starters, and utilize Wang (although he's not without injury problems, either) and Moose, then fill out the 5th spot with either Pettite or Hughes, I think we'd have a consistent rotation.
Pettitte will be a cheap option as a back-end starter but can no longer be used as a #2. Wang's injury was a freak accident, not indicative of his previous injury history (which is relatively mild). Hughes has not shown he can pitch at the Major League level with any degree of consistency. Moose might not come back. We'll need to sign at least two pitchers to have a chance. Three, if we decide to hop on the extra chromosome toting bandwagon and move Chamberlain to the bullpen.
Originally Posted By: Sicilian Babe
The bullpen has improved. Unfortunately, our lack of starting pitchers who could last more than a few innings burnt out too many potentially good guys over the last few years. Let's keep our fingers crossed for 2009.
So you acknowledge we have a lack of starting pitching, and thus it's logical to take arguably our most dominant starter and move him to the bullpen?
And our rotation has been shit for the last several years. People hated guys like Randy Johnson but he did get wins. There was also bad signings, and bad luck too. Of course, in hindsight, you do the Santana deal a year ago simply because the players who would have been involved are now huge question marks anyways - Hughes will likely start the season in AAA, Kennedy is a veritable bust, Melky will be a bench player, and Tabata is now on the Pirates.
Maybe I'm not optimistic as some, but we can "cross our fingers for 2009" all we want but without a serious overhaul of this team during the offseason we are going to be pretty mediocre next year.
