Franco really has good points regarding his pitching ability and overall value to the team. I have been a Joba advocate since he came up and I hate the comparisons between Joba and Hughes.

First, Hughes, altho one year younger has been in the Yankee system longer than Joba. He and Kennedy were brought up as starters and both failed miserably, whether health related or not. That was 2007. Repeat 2007.

The same year that Joba blew through the minor leagues and was called up as a reliever. His time as a reliever in 2007 is legendary and expectations for Joba were extremely high. In 2008 he was doing well as a starter and was injured. When he came back he was reliever again. Most purists believe that the constant back and forth is not considered good development for a rotation pitcher.

Whether he may have been injured more than is widely known as SJ 44 has mentioned could be a key to why his velocity is down. It appears Joba is only worthy if he is pitching 98 – 100. The man has FOUR pitches, for chris sakes. He also keeps the game close enough for the offense and bull pen to win the game. As another fan posted, Joba is not usually hit hard. His hits are easily caught or fieled. Think about it. He has a total of 69.5 innings pitched. I posted his innings pitched on another thread yesterday.

Although I was not on this board last year I don’t know if the topic of shaking off pitchers was a constant as it has been this year. Joba is a strong willed young man and had to struggle hard as a young man to reach this level of success. That said, he may be trying to over achieve to compensate for the lower velocity.

He is going to be an ace of the future, barring injury, and should be given the same opportunities as Hughes was given after 2007. Fair is fair, don’t you agree?

Fans need to be patient, Joba has god-given talent and he will succeed and in a couple of years when he is winning games you will forget his struggles this year.

All of these guy fail more than they succeed. That wasn’t a poke at Jeter, just pointing out the flaw in the logic.

As Cashman would say, their contracts say baseball player not table setter or cleanup guy.

Last night A-Rod was capable of getting a walk. Some nights he’s capable of getting a hit, striking out or hitting into a double play. Every player is capable of all of those same things depending on the pitcher and the circumstance.

They hit back to back last night with a chance to win. One walked, one DPed. Last night I preferred A-Rod.

If Jeter was out at a club until 2 am, would that make him not focusing on earning up to his contract?

the pitching has been great though.
positives from the pen,hughes,wang,burnett.

we are within striking range.

There should be no need to put an immensely talented team on any one player’s back. And when he did that in 2007 it meant nothing and no one cared.

As far as bringing stuff on himself he certainly does.

I don’t care about that Post article. It was probably the Post that had the “Party On” headline when George said Jeter is out too much.