Saturday, September 8, 2007

Joba Fires it Up For Yanks

In his short Yankee career, Joba Chamberlain has quickly become my favorite Yankee. I'm not alone as he's also become a big time fan favorite everytime he takes the mound at the Stadium. Joba has wowed baseball with his 100 mph fastball and 88 mph killer slider - which is as fast as some pitchers throw a fastball. In 11 games this season, Chamberlain has pitched 14.1 innings, struck out an amazin 18 batters, given up 7 hits and no runs. It's a statline that it pretty amazing.

Chamberlain was a starting pitcher in the minor leagues and to get him up to the big show, the Yankees converted him to a relief pitcher. As a result, they've gotten much, much more than they bargained for He's quickly become the best and most reliable Yankee reliever and the definitive link to getting to Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning. Last week, Joba was suspended for two games after throwing two heaters over the head of Red Sox Kevin "Lip Full of Dipshit" Youkilis. Whether they were purpose pitches or not, Joba has quickly shown himself to be a tough fireball pitcher that won't back down from anyone.

It'll be interesting to see if Chamberlain keeps his ridiculous strikeout and scoreless streak up for the remainder of the regular season and into the October playoffs.

The Yankee magic number to make the playoffs is 19...for every Yankee win and every Detroit Tiger loss (2nd in the Wild Card race), the magic number is subtracted respectively by 1.. What once seemed a ridiculously insane proposition is now closer to become a true reality. Go Yankees.

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