So What to Do About Joba Chamberlain?

There's been a whole to-do this week about the Yankees and weight. First, CC Sabathia said he lost 25 pounds after he dropped his habit of devouring full boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal (hey, maybe that's what the CC stands for in his name!) Now Joba Chamberlain admits to packing on a few pounds, but claims it's all muscle. Right.

I'm of two minds about Joba. On the one hand, I think the Yankees did him a tremendous disservice with moving him from the bullpen to the starting rotation and back. And I think it was ridiculous for Brian Cashman to characterize anybody who disagreed with the Yankees' strategy as "stupid."

However, there's also some real questions, I think, about Chamberlain's work ethic. And showing up to spring training packing on a few extra pounds doesn't help. If you're working in a cubicle farm, it doesn't matter how much you weigh. But if you're a professional athlete struggling to keep his job, you might want to take a cue from your veteran teammates and show up in shape. Or at least pitch well enough so that your weight isn't an issue.

When I slammed the Yankees last month for the way they handled Joba, I got a lot of responses from Yankee fans who were angry at Chamberlain for his work ethic, for him not being in shape, etc. and who felt that he was the only one to blame for his predicament.

On the other hand, it seems like the Yanks have let him get away with that for a long time; it's interesting that only now Cashman mentions using the minor league options with Joba when he flat-out last year said they wouldn't do it.

Wally Matthews made a point I have wondered about myself when he wrote:

Fans ask me all the time if the Yankees know something about Joba Chamberlain that the rest of us don't, some unflattering bit of information that makes them continue to treat him as if he is fragile, or unstable, or in some way unreliable.

Clearly, they know the Joba Chamberlain who chose to reveal himself on Wednesday: the 25-year-old who already knows so much about pitching he no longer needs to bother with the little things anymore.

Like getting in shape.

I don't expect to hear the inside story, if there is one, anytime soon, though. Heck, I'm still waiting to hear how A.J. Burnett got that black eye!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Why David Price deserved to finish ahead of CC Sabathia in the AL Cy Young race

Even many Yankee fans seem to agree that Felix Hernandez was the best pitcher in the American League this season. The only argument in favor of CC Sabathia would be that he pitched in the pressure of a pennant race, but even there, he fell short.

Sabathia was very inconsistent down the stretch, allowing at least five earned runs in three of his last seven starts, including seven against Tampa on September 23. He was great in most of his other games, allowing no runs in eight innings twice, including a game against Tampa on September 13.

But if you're going to use pennant pressure to help decide the Cy Young, it's not good enough to be feast or famine. You've got to be the kind of pitcher who steps up his game in crunch time. That's what David Price was in 2010.

In September, Price went 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. Two of his wins were against the Yankees and the Red Sox, both on the road. In another game against the Yankees, Price allowed no runs in eight innings in a game the Rays eventually won in the eleventh.

Price's two games against the Yankees happened to be the two that Sabathia pitched. The two aces both pitched eight scoreless innings in one of them, while Price gave up three earned runs and Sabathia seven in the other.

Hernandez was unbelievable down the stretch, allowing no more than one earned run in nine of his last ten starts, pitching at least seven innings in eight of them. Four of his wins came against pennant contenders Boston, the Yankees and Texas, with three of those games on the road. (One of the games against Texas came after the Rangers had already clinched the division.)

Squawker Lisa, while I agree with your giving Price credit for his strong pitching in a pennant race, I can't go along with your picking Price over King Felix until they change the title of the award to Most Valuable Pitcher.

My thoughts on Yankees-Twins, Game 1

I was pretty grumpy for the first half of last night's game, between CC Sabathia looking shaky, and Jorge Posada's passed ball contributing to a run. (I wondered on Twitter whether Jorge would blame CC for it!) And the fact that the Yanks looked flummoxed against Francisco Liriano for the first five innings ticked  me off.

But then the sixth inning came, Jorge Posada redeemed himself, and Curtis Granderson proved to be something sort of Grandish (I wonder how John Sterling called his big hit -- I hope it was better than the TBS announcers, who muffed it!)

I really thought that after the Yankees scored  four runs in the sixth inning, that Joe Girardi should have had a reliever ready to go, especially since CC may be needed to pitch on short rest in the series. Sabathia looked D-O-E-N  DONE, as Jerome from Manhattan would spell it! As great as Sabathia has been for the team this season (they wouldn't be in the playoffs without him), he labored yesterday, throwing 27 pitches in the sixth, 111 overall. He walked three batters his last inning, including the tying run. Yet he ended up with the win, thanks to Mark Teixeira's homer (another call the TBS broadcasters messed up on.)

I thought CC should have been pulled earlier -- getting the Yankees the win, not CC the win, should have been the priority. Others disagreed with me on Facebook.  Fortunately it all worked out, though.

But how about the messed-up call on Greg Golson's catch last night? The Yanks had to get 28 outs, thanks to that. Joel Sherman wrote this in support of instant replay in his blog today:


... "this is strictly about the blown call. There is a way to get a high percentage of them corrected, so why would we not want to do that. One argument I hear is that it would eliminate the human element. Stop. The human element is that Jorge Posada has trouble catching the ball, not umpires messing up.

After years of cheerleading for Jorge, Sherman's really down on him, isn't he?

Anyhow, had a late night watching  the game, so I'm way off schedule. Coming later today -- more thoughts on Carl (Iron Man) Pavano!

C.C. the Squawker Cat: 1996-2010

Sad news today: I had to put my cat C.C. to sleep this morning at my vet's office. C.C. was almost 15 years old, and had been battling cancer for the past year. She was able to survive that, but then she developed kidney failure, and it became too much for her in recent weeks. So I had to make the decision to end her suffering today. Someday we'll up meet again at Rainbow Bridge, along with my cat Rusty, who passed away last year.

A few weeks ago, my minister blessed C.C. at our church's Blessing of the Animals event. And I swear I saw C.C. nod and understand what my minister was saying about her!

Squawker readers may remember hearing about this remarkable cat. She was the original C.C. and was irate when CC Sabathia came to the Yankees with a similar name, but left the periods out of his name. She also liked to sit in my Yankee Stadium chair, although I was never totally sure what team she rooted for!

C.C. was also my very first cat, literally showing up at my doorstep in 1997, looking for a home. I wasn't looking to take a cat in, but she somehow talked her way in, and she was a big part of this Squawker household ever since.

In 2004, she broke her hip when the Yankees were in the ALDS against the Minnesota Twins. It didn't look good for her at first, but she survived that with flying colors, and as time passed, you couldn't even tell which hip she broke.

Unfortunately, her recent health problems were too much to deal with. That, combined with advanced age, meant that it wasn't fair to keep her around, when she was suffering so.

Anyhow, I keep on looking around my home today, half-expecting to see her snoozing on the Yankee chair, or giving grief to my other cat, Rocky. But she's not here any more, and I will really miss her.

What do you think? Tell us about it.,