Joba's Call Is To The Rotation

The great Joba debate begins again. With the recent free agent additions of CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett many have thought that Joba Chamberlain should be moved back into the bullpen to set-up Mariano Rivera. I disagree.

As enticing as Joba would be in the 7th and 8th innings I think he is more valuable as a starter, unless proven otherwise. Peter Abraham also is in favor of starting Joba. My fellow blogger Rob Abruzzesse also agrees with me. He points out a slew of opinions on the matter.

I liked Joba as the set-up man for Mo, but the fact is that with Joba he can be a dominant guy. He outdueled Josh Beckett in Fenway back in July 1-0, a sign of promise. Abraham notes that innings 1-6 are more important than the 7th and 8th. I'm with him on this. You need a guy to get you to the 7th in the first place, if he doesn't then the 7th and 8th innings don't mean much. To go with the arguement is that the Yankees have a pretty decent bullpen. They likely will use the combination of Jose Veras and Brian Bruney to set-up and manybe mix in Damaso Marte for lefties. So the need for Joba is in the rotation.

Joba surely won't be pitching 200 innings as the Yankees will limit him to around 150. His potential and talent can attribute to a 15 win win season, if not more. I could be wrong but I believe that's a fair assessment. For right now Joba's in the rotation, where he belongs.

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