NYCurve Yankees Blog

It’s All About Joba

A little under four hours. That is how much time is left until Joba Chamberlain makes his first major league start! Expectations are high as fans all around the Yankee universe anticipate the event. It will certainly be one for the ages, as Chamberlain is expected to become a great starter. We must still remember that he is still being built-up to the position though, still having the 65-70 pitch limit. Success may not come immediately, as Joba will have to get situated with his new role. but looking at the way Joba moved into the majors, it certainly seems plausible. Hank Steinbrenner is out and about speaking of the young phenom once more and again saying that he thinks Joba should’ve started the year in the rotation. He doesn’t understand the importance of pitch counts yet (which has caused some minor uproar), but his intentions are good. Here is a quotation from the man himself:

“This is about what Joba can do for us over the next 10 years. That’s what we’re going to look at in a lot of way, with the new dynasty, hopefully, we can build.”

It sure is about the future. Let’s watch and see as Joba plays in what will hopefully be the start of a long and illustrious career as start for the New York Yankees.

Twins Top Yankees, 6-5

The Twins took the lead in the 8th tonight and left with the victory. Andy Pettitte started for the Yankees, pitching into the seventh and giving up 5 runs. The one that really stung was a homer to Joe Mauer in the bottom of the 7th, that tied up the ballgame. Pettitte later said that he it was an “ignorant pitch”, realizing that he shouldn’t have thrown the four-seam fastball with a 1-1 count. Delmon Young gave Minnesota the go-ahead run in the 8th off of Kyle Farnsworth and the Twins left victorious. We lost, but there is some good news with all of this.

Since we seem to love being at .500 so much, that means that we will probably win tomorrow night, the night when Joba makes his debut as starter. It is the moment we have all been waiting for and I for one really feel it. Joba will make the start against division rivals, Toronto, who will start Roy Halladay. The game is at 7:05EST and will be on YES, stay tuned to this blog for updates on Joba’s big day.

.500… Again

Yes, we lost today, putting us back at .500. Darrell Rasner started, going for a bit over five innings during which he allowed four runs. Not really a bad day, but the run support was almost non-existent. The Yanks only scored one off of eight hits. On the bright side, that one was by slumping captain Derek Jeter, who hit a homer in the fifth.

The big story of the day was not really Jeter’s homer or the Twins win. Instead it was when Bobby Abreu hit a liner in the fifth that bounced off of Twins pitcher Nick Blackburn’s glove and hit him in the nose. As soon as Abreu hit it he knew it was going to happen and he immediately winced upon leaving the batter’s box. Blackburn was bleeding and would be taken out of the game. Abreu was shocked, but no one was really mad because everyone knows it is a part of the game and that it wasn’t intentional. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything serious and Blackburn only had some bruising and swelling, which he should recover from shortly.

Tomorrow is the final game in the series with the Twins. Andy Pettitte and Livan Hernandez will both start. The game is at 7:10EST and will be aired on ESPN.

Ensberg Out, Patterson In

With Joba moving up to the rotation and the bullpen drained last night, the Yankees are focusing on bringing in some more relief support. Scott Patterson has been called up from Scranton, where he recorded three saves, a win, and a 3.04 ERA in 22 games. It is really no surprise that he was called up because without Joba the Yanks will need some extra bullpen help and Patterson was the best candidate from spring training who was cut.

So with adding a man to the roster comes removing another. Morgan Ensberg is that man. The Yankees designated him for assignment today, knowing that they don’t really need him much with Betitmet and Duncan on the roster already.

Yanks Beat Twins in Twelve

It took twelve innings, but the Yankees were able to beat the Twins today, putting us one over .500. Bobby Abreu got the game-winning single, which drove in Johnny Damon for the run. The final score of the game was 7 to 6. The Yankees combined for 11 hits, including one by Derek Jeter, who has been slumping lately. Alex Rodriguez had two RBIs on the day as did Abreu. It looks like A. Rod.’s return has got the team back to normal offensively. Thank god for that.

The Yankees weren’t bad on the other side of the ball either. Chien-Ming Wang struggled a bit, giving up five runs in a little over five innings pitched, but other than him everyone looked great. Wang has had a rough couple of weeks, but it doesn’t look too serious and he should be back to normal soon. The relief played well instead of him today, giving up only one run and four hits in almost 7 innings pitched. Ross Ohlendorf ended up getting the win and Mariano Rivera got the save, making it his 15th on the year. Who says Rivera is old? He has yet to blow save this season.

And now we head to June baseball… First game is tomorrow against the Twins at 2:10EST. Darrell Rasner will take the mound for the Yankees and Nick Blackburn will suit up for the Twins. The game will be aired on YES.

Joba Set To Go

Well, the wait is finally over… officially. Joba Chamberlain is set to make his first start with the Yankees on Tuesday. He will go up against the Blue Jays and limited to somewhere around 65-70 pitches. He is expected to gradually make his way up to 100 pitches/game, moving up by 15 or so each game. Joe Girardi got everything ironed out with Cashman and management and everyone is on the same page. Now, it is time to wait and see what our young star can really do.