One of the benefits of a nice long vacation is that you miss some of the daily minutae, especially when covering a game/team on an almost-daily basis. Sometimes it’s good to step away, regroup. Then I had a chance to see a small part of Really? This is “The Plan”? The almighty Joba Rules? And here’s my conundrum: I like it and hate it at the same time. I have no idea how to reconcile this, either.
I’m glad the Yanks are being careful with this kid. I wish they’d take the training wheels off and let him get the seasoning in, though. Perhaps this is a necessary evil for this year in order to turn him loose in 2010. Or, are the Yanks merely being overprotective?
King Felix, younger than Joba, has already become a beast. After 84.1 IP at age 19, Felix has pitched 191.0, 190.1, 200.2 and 185.1 (this year) innings. Is comparing Joba to Felix a fair comparison? Well, I could have picked Mark Prior… Or Tim Lincecum. Lincecum’s a year older and jumped from 146.1 IP his rookie season to 227.0 in his Cy Young winning 2008 season and already has 193.1 IP this season. Could Felix and Lincecum be more of a “horse” than Joba? They couldn’t be more different in terms of body styles, that’s for sure. Felix and Joba are both big dudes while Lincecum is quite the opposite. Mark Prior had the prototypical pitcher’s body: big, tall, great legs (they called him “Calf-zilla”, IIRC). Yet he fell apart physically.
Will the Joba Rules save Joba? Ya got me.
