You Can't Put This Joba in the Pen

Three weeks ago, some impatient Yankee fans wanted starter Joba Chamberlain, then 4-2 with a 4.25 ERA, to be sent back to the bullpen.

They were wrong.

Now, some overprotective Yankee executives want Joba, currently 7-2 with a 3.58 ERA, to return to being a reliever.

They, too, are incorrect.

On Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays, Chamberlain turned in his third straight brilliant performance, allowing just three hits and two walks, while striking out five over eight shutout innings.

The right-hander improved to 3-0 with a 0.83 ERA and 0.74 WHIP since the All-Star break.

But team officials are insinuating that the 23-year-old could be relieved of his starting duties come September because of a ridiculous innings limit.

Joba has pitched 110.2 innings this season, already 10.1 frames more than the 100.1 he tossed last year.  There has been talk that he will only be allowed to throw between 140 and 150 innings in 2009, which would mean he'd have to be shut down after five or six more starts (end of August) or transitioned to the bullpen after about four more starts.

This is all because the Yankees' front office believes Chamberlain's arm will fall off if he throws 70 more innings that he did in 2008.  Do the extra 30 or 40 innings really make that big of a difference?

Can't they just decrease the number of pitches Joba throws between starts or skip a couple of his turns in the rotation if the Yanks have a big enough lead in the final month?

Sending him back to the bullpen would just stunt his growth as a starter even more right when he's finally starting to click.  And how do they expect him to be able to quickly transition back to the rotation in the playoffs? 

Or would the team rather have Sergio Mitre or Alfredo Aceves starting Game Four of the ALDS because that's who it would be if Brian Cashman can't acquire another starter before Friday's trade deadline.

But my biggest fear is having to argue once again with the fans who are going to want to keep Joba in the bullpen in 2010 after he pitches 15 scoreless innings out of the pen in September.

Follow me on Twitter at JordanHarrison.

Jordan Schwartz is Bleacher Report's New York Yankees Community Leader. His book Memoirs of the Unaccomplished Man is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and authorhouse.com.

Jordan can be reached at [e-mail]