Joba Progress Continues

89 pitches (approximately 55 fastballs) in six full innings of work were logged by the Yankees top pitching star as he continues on his path toward becoming a full time starter. The word is that the next time out, there will be no pitch limit for Chamberlain. He apparently was throwing in the mid to high nineties even in the sixth inning. Things are looking good right now for Joba and the real test will come down the road at the end of the season, where it remains to be seen if he can stay healthy and productive.

Chamberlain struck out two and walked four, and needs to work on efficiency on the mound when he's starting. All three Yankee youngsters, Hughes, Kennedy, and Chamberlain have had a tendency to get worked deep into counts and have hefty pitch counts.

Jose Veras got the win and was the go-to guy in the set-up role. In a shocking move, Girardi used Farnsworth as a closer to hold down the one run lead in the ninth inning. I don't know if this means Joe still does have ultimate faith in the dicey Farnsworth, or that he just felt bad for not having played the guy in a while. Personally, I've got Veras penciled in as my set-up guy and Ramirez as my alternate closer when you need to give Rivera a night off.

Jose Molina, Robinson Cano and Wilson Betemit are batting .216, .217, and .218 respectively. It will be interesting to see what the Yankees do catcher-wise next year, when Cervelli will hopefully be healthy again and Chad Moeller remains an option. Robinson Cano is trade bait in my mind. Perhaps some desperate team thinks he's got potential and can actually get him to listen to a pitching coach. Betemit is the caliber of a bench player on the Pittsburgh Pirates. I'd cut or DFA him as soon as possible and get Alberto Gonzalez back. Then again, if you read this blog on occasion, you already knew that.

Kudos to Derek Jeter for his timely home run that put the Yanks on top.

Back Above .500

It took extra innings, but the Yankees toughed out an exciting win last night. The winning pitcher? Ross Ohlendorf. Joe Girardi brought Ross to pitch the 10th and 11th innings and the struggling reliever walked 2, gave up 2 hits, and struck out 4 all the while allowing no runs. Granted Joe didn't have a lot of other options, but it looks like he's still got faith in the young pitcher.

Notably absent in both Friday and Saturday's games was LaTroy Hawkins, who looks to be in the doghouse and won't be called on in close spots. Kyle Farnsworth, on the other hand, has been brought in two nights in a row. The YES announcers commented on how Torre never used to use Kyle two days in a row and were hesitant as to how he'd perform. On Friday he gave up a quick run to close a 2-run lead to a 1-run lead. Last night he quickly got all three batters out.

Veras and Ramirez both continue to look good and are the heart of the Yankees middle relief right now. I'd take either of them over Farnsworth in the set-up role, but Girardi has been a longtime Farnsworth fan and that doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon.

Neither of the starters looked particularly sharp, but both Wang and Mussina managed to get through the bulk of the innings with the score close, and sometimes, that's all you can ask.

Bobby Abreu has been the offensive star the last two games, going 2 for 5 and then 3 for 4.

There has been a bit of sloppy play lately, and errors and bad plays that could be scored as errors are starting to creep into the mix more and more. Alex Rodriguez got picked off of second base after stealing it, and a similar thing happened to Derek Jeter a few days back. Last night's game had an errant throw by Jeter that cost the team a run and the night before Shelley Duncan had an error.

Shelley Duncan is a fun guy to watch. He brings a great deal of enthusiasm to the game and is good for bench morale. Unfortunately, he really hasn't improved his game much over the last year. He's hitting .161 and is playing average defense at best. He really hasn't turned out to be much of an improvement defensively over the lumbering Giambi and hasn't come close to the offensive production, despite the fact that Giambi was in a huge slump.

I like Shelly and would like to see him stick around, but he's got work to do. He might last a bit longer than Ensberg, but he's going to have to start bringing something more to the table if he wants to be successful in the big leagues.