NEW YORK – Just decide. Please. Put us out of our misery, New York Yankees, and pick a role for Joba Chamberlain(notes). Start him. Relieve him. Do something with him, and make it consistent. This flip-flopping must stop, or the poor kid is going to lose his marbles, not to mention everything on top of his head.
“My hairline gets deeper and deeper every time I look in the mirror,” Chamberlain said Thursday, a day after a two-pitch, one-out relief appearance in the Yankees’ 7-2 victory against Minnesota in Game 1 of the American League Division Series. “This will make you age quickly. I saw my first picture from my first year, and my hairline was strong. Feels like I’ve been here a while, huh? I have trouble believing I’m only 23.”
Joba Chamberlain pitched in relief during the Yankees’ ALDS opener with the Twins on Wednesday. No kidding. Bar rooms have raged with debate for three years now about Chamberlain’s best role. The emotional set favors him as a reliever, so dominant was Chamberlain in that role during 2007 that the image of his 99-mph fastball remains in their minds’ cache. The logical party prefers Chamberlain the starter, arguing that even a moderately effective pitcher who logs 200 innings brings far more value than a one-inning-and-done automaton.
Both sides make their points with such conviction that what began as a rational examination of value has turned into a toxic pollutant, permeating the New York radio airwaves, tabloid columns and message boards with the odor of good intentions gone wrong. An opinion on Chamberlain’s role turned into the Yankees fan’s version of a political leaning.
So imagine, then, the fervor caused Wednesday night when Chamberlain trotted out of the bullpen, like old, for the first time in the postseason since the midges attacked his poor, bug-sprayless self in Cleveland. The relief wingnuts went nuts. The starting birthers had conniptions. On went the debate, preserved for not just another day but at least a few more months – and probably longer.
“I don’t honestly think it’s ever going to change,” Chamberlain said. “Maybe one day it does.”
It can. The Yankees have constricted Chamberlain with pitch-count rules and eased him from the bullpen to a starting role all in the name of keeping him healthy. Lost in their dealings is the mental abuse dealt Chamberlain, who wants to start but also wants to help the team and reconciles the two only because the alternatives are so unappealing.
Chamberlain could go public with his demand to start and start only. He’d look like a foof, particularly since his career as a starter has been, well, whelming. Not overwhelming and not underwhelming, just whelming. He could, too, ask Yankees management in a discreet fashion to give him a role and not move him for any reason. This is the better option, of course, and yet approaching management in such a fashion comes off more as ultimatum than request.
Either way, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi must assuage him. One year of debate is too long. Three years is cruel. Figure it out. End it.
There is the possibility that this move to the bullpen is temporary, that Girardi will forget that Chad Gaudin(notes) outpitched Chamberlain in the season’s last six weeks and choose Joba to start Game 4 in the AL Championship Series, on which the Yankees have their eyes. Reality is, the prospect of a Chamberlain-Phil Coke(notes)-Phil Hughes bridge to Mariano Rivera(notes) must intrigue Girardi.
Particularly considering Chamberlain’s career numbers:
As a starter: 4.18 ERA, 342 baserunners in 221 2/3 innings, 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings.
As a reliever: 1.50 ERA, 60 baserunners in 60 innings, 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
It’s stark. It really is, even with the small sample size in relief. His fastball whistles a few mph higher as a reliever, his slider is of the wipeout variety and Chamberlain is simply more effective out of the bullpen. When he assesses the 2009 season that makes up the bulk of those starting statistics – a 4.75 ERA in 157 1/3 innings over 31 starts – Chamberlain asks, somewhat sheepishly, “I didn’t have a terrible year, did I?”
By normal measures, no, it wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t good, either, not close to it, and so the solid inning of relief Chamberlain threw against Tampa Bay in the season’s last week compounded with his retiring Delmon Young(notes) on Wednesday whet the appetites of those who yearn for old Joba, dominant Joba, impermeable Joba.
“The fans want to see you where you’re successful,” Hughes said. “They want to see the team win. So if you go to the bullpen and have immediate success, you should be there, the thinking goes.”
That frightens Hughes. In 28 career starts, his ERA is 5.22. Since moving to the bullpen earlier this season, it’s 1.40 in 51 1/3 innings. The Yankees intend on putting Hughes in the rotation again next season. Which sets up the possibility of him becoming Chamberlain, Part II.
“I certainly hope not,” Hughes said. “In the offseason, there’s not much to really talk about, so I’m sure it’ll come up a little bit. It’s good that fans and media don’t have a say, because it might never die.”
Chamberlain and Hughes could pitch again tonight, as the Yankees look to run their series lead to 2-0 before flying to Minneapolis for Game 3. Chamberlain is excited for that. On the off-day, he’ll meet up at the Mall of America with his family and spend the day hitting all the kid-friendly attractions.
“Maybe all this hair is gone,” Chamberlain said, “because I have a 3½-year-old.”
Maybe. But probably not.
