Ever since bringing up Joba Chamberlain the Yanks have enforced the so called Joba rules in which for every inning he pitches during a game he needs a day off. This somewhat makes sense since Joba is a starting pitcher and is not used to throwing daily and he is a prized jewel in the organization so why risk damage to his arm. The Yanks should be cautious and make sure nothing destructive happens over the last month and a half of the season. Meanwhile the Little League World Series was going on and I was very much annoyed by their new pitching restrictions on players. You could only throw 85 pitches in a game? Come on. The kid from Texas had a chance to make history twice but was kicked to the curb cause he hit 85 pitches. And they implemented a strict 20 pitch rule where if you threw over 20 pitches in a game you couldn't throw the next day, so sometimes kids didn't get threw a single inning and had to be taken out so they could be brought into the game the next day.
Then last night when Joba couldn't pitch because of the Joba rules it hit me, the Yankees are treating Joba like a little leaguer. And I decided to look up Joba's stats and his pitch counts per game and it was even more extreme than I initially thought. The Joba Rules are more restrictive than the rules for 11 and 12 year olds.
Joba has entered 8 games this season thus far, in those games he has throw 2 innings twice and a single inning the remaining six times. In his two inning outings he threw 21 and 33 pitches respectively, in Little League rules this calls for a single day off, in Joba rules it calls for two days off. In Joba's single inning appearances he has yet to reach the 20 pitch mark, his largest total being 19 against the Red Sox on monday. In Little League rules Joba could have pitched the next day every single time, in Joba rules he needs to take a day off before his next appearance.
Now I'm in favor of not blowing up the kids arm, but he's not an 11 or 12 year old. And in reality the Yankees are treating him with standards so extreme that every single appearance the Joba rules have called for an extra days worth of rest from the overly strict Little League Rules.
Loosen up the restrictions a little bit Cashman, he's the best arm you got in the bullpen (Did You Watch Farny Last Night) and the kid can certainly be held to hire standards than a 5 foot 2 115 pound 12 year old Texan.
Comments