Someone Talk About Joba Chamberlain

[AmScray 355]

Opinions, thoughts, random prattling, whatever. Overhyped?

[SuitedAces21 2,722]

Def not overhyped. His stuff is sick. He just needs to learn how to pitch.

[CaneBrain 95]

Opinions, thoughts, random prattling, whatever. Overhyped?

eventually, he will be a very good starting pitcher. And thats a good thing because Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes might not pan out.

[Shimmering Wang 1]

Keith Law, respected scout with strong sabermetric bent, before this year had this to say:"Chamberlain is best cast as a four-pitch starter who projects as a true No. 1 starter. He has a four-pitch repertoire where all pitches project as average or better: a plus 94-98 mph four-seamer, a toxic 83-87 mph slider with good tilt and variable break, an 11/5 curveball with good depth, and a straight 81-84 mph changeup with good arm speed. The fastball and slider are already big league out pitches and in relief, he can probably get away without the other two pitches. Chamberlain has a great pitcher’s build with broad shoulders and the height to get good downhill plane on his pitches, and his arm is quick."John Manuel, from Baseball America, says:"Chamberlain’s superior fastball makes him the better bet to be a long-term ace. In fact, it makes him the best pitching prospect to come around since I’ve been at BA, surpassing Josh Beckett and Mark Prior." (disclaimer: there are rumors that Manuel, who covers the Yankees for BA, might not be totally objective, here)Anyway, from what I've seen, he has a plus fastball that he can locate and command and miss bats with. His slider is nasty, and I haven't seen much of his curve, but his change, though still a work in progress, has the makings of a very good tertiary MLB out-pitch. He's legit (but still overhyped, because everybody for the Yankees is overhyped).Wang

[GeneralGeeWhiz 0]

He is a great pitcher, but I'm so sick of how sportscenter talks about him almost everyday.

[aadams_22 3]

He is a great pitcher, but I'm so sick of how sportscenter talks about him almost everyday.

90% of ESPN's baseball coverage is New York and Boston...how does this not surprise you?That's the main reason I don't watch ESPN anymore and stick with XM satellite radio. At least XM is pretty much balanced with it's coverage...even the Royals get decent air time on there.

[CaneBrain 95]

John Manuel, from Baseball America, says:"Chamberlain’s superior fastball makes him the better bet to be a long-term ace. In fact, it makes him the best pitching prospect to come around since I’ve been at BA, surpassing Josh Beckett and Mark Prior." (disclaimer: there are rumors that Manuel, who covers the Yankees for BA, might not be totally objective, here)Wang

holy hyperbole Batman!

[GeneralGeeWhiz 0]

90% of ESPN's baseball coverage is New York and Boston...how does this not surprise you?That's the main reason I don't watch ESPN anymore and stick with XM satellite radio. At least XM is pretty much balanced with it's coverage...even the Royals get decent air time on there.

Yeah I'm growing pretty sick of ESPN. When I need sports news I go to Sports Illustrated.

[AmScray 355]

sabermetric bent

Off the topic of Joba Chamberlain, but...So, I decided to join SABR. Thought it would be a worthy expense.Paid my dues, logged into their forums and dear god, it was a total ****ing mess. Apparently, they did something a couple years back to kill their online participation (some sort of forum switch and modification), so the forums have been completely abandoned and overrun with link farmers.Basically, their entire online existance is a nightmare. The various SABR sub groups are spread out through random Yahoo list servs, their website is circa 1993... You can tell its an .org run by a bunch of 65 year old men who view the internet as "something we have to think about once every few years to keep the kids happy" and that's about it. (I'm also a member of a horological fraternal organization that is much like this, but unlike baseball, its understandable, since there is a genuine lack of interest in that topic by anyone under the age of 40)What makes so ****ing sick about the whole SABR thing is that something like "baseball research" is a topic of interest that is just so synergistic with the internet medium. Like, it's the sort of thing that was the basis for the internet being invented in the first place. I emailed the Eceutrive Director at SABR, John "Can I Buy A Vowel" Zajc right after signing up.

Hello.I'm a brand new SABR member. My name is (Schminkusberg Finklestein). In my newmembership email, it said that if I had any questions, I could directthem to you.As a long time and highly active web user, former part time forumadministrator/webmaster and all-in-all "tech" oriented kind of guy, Imust say that I was totally let down by the web forums of SABR- whichwere a large part of the reason I joined. They are an absolutecatastrophe; overrun with link spammers, virtually no user activity,a horribly outdated format and a large amount of the interactive, userdriven participation base rooted in "Yahoo Groups" and listservs-utilities that people haven't seriously used since the 1990's. Itseems as though this potentially critical aspect of SABR's existance-your web presence- has been all but abandoned.Anyway, this isn't a random "complaint" email, but rather, an inquiryto see if you could help me contact the right people in theorganization to possibly offer my assistance in remedying thissituation. Seeing a great organization like SABR with such ahorrendous and outdated interactive, user driven web presence (theforums and the groups) is borderline humiliating. In short, I wouldlike to do everything I can to help fix this- no charge, no fee- justwould like to help out. I will gladly help bring the discussion forumsup to a higher standard- bring in new, more efficient software,develop strategies to coordinate the various groups and disintegratedmember organizations under one, core umbrella and moderate the webforums. The reason I'm directing this query to you rather than your"webmaster" is that it's apparent that the person tasked withwebmastering isn't doing anything resembling a "job" whatsoever.If my help is not wanted (or if there isn't any sort of existingdirective out there to fix the situation) and nonsense like this...XXX... is what's par for the organization, please promptly cancel mymembership and issue a refund.Hate to end it on a sour note, but really, when I entered the forumsfor the first time as a newly joined member, the letdown was huge, tosee it polluted with linkspam and virtually abandoned.

He emailed back

Mr. (Finkleberg),Thank you for your email discussing your opinion of the SABR Forums andoffering to help.SABR is at the beginning of a (long, probably slow) process to really revampits web site; something that probably will show minor changes in the next 3months and hopefully more significant changes within 12 to 18 months. BeckyBristol (copied on this email) is in charge of this process and she is opento hearing some of your ideas. She started this job on June 2, so it's stillvery early.While our plans are evolving as we get more member feedback, at present timewe haven't prioritized fixing the Forums and probably won't until sometimein 2009 at the earliest.Since I doubt that in the near term SABR will be able to meet your needs andexpectations, I've instructed our database person to remove your name fromthe database and to not process the credit card charge (the SABR storecaptures the card and amount, but we have to manually approve it before thetransaction is completed, so there is not a need to refund the money at thispoint). Please don't take this to mean that we are not interested in yourhelp, just that we are small-staffed and micro-budgeted and there are moregreat ideas that need time and/or money than we can take care of quickly.I will also be sure to have someone reach out to you when we are closer tohaving what you find necessary to best use and enjoy SABR membership.Thanks for your interest and offer to help,

I email back

Thanks for your prompt attention. The charge is showing up on myaccount, so I will assume that its been released and will eventuallydrop off. If not, I'll email and let you know.In any event, I would still make myself available to SABR at any timeat no charge for whatever help I can give as far as assisting withdeveloping a suitable and efficient web presence, moderating theforums, etc. I am quite experienced with outsourcing web development(I have access to programmers in Pakistan and India) who are able todesign extrodinary sites for very little money, so even if you wantedto start fresh from the ground up, that would be an option. When I say"little cost", it's just that. Development that would cost thousandsand thousands of dollars domestically can be done for $100 or $200overseas, if you know who to contact.In any event, sorry I wasn't able to join, but I will most certainllydo so once the web presence is brought up a bit.Thanks again

He never replies. So, hooray for Bill James, rah-rah sabermetrics, fuck SABR.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Getting back on Topic, Joba is from my home town, and the amount of hype for him was immense in Nebraska, so it was hard at first for me to get a feel for what the national hype is. And from what I can tell, he's the biggest young phenomenon to hit New York since Dwight Gooden. I thought the starting vs relief debate for him was interesting, but I'm glad they made him a starter. True, clutch, dominant number one pitchers are just too valuable, more valuable than relief pitcher, even closers.I listen to Kellerman and Kinney out of New York City ( fantastic show) and they of course love Joba, love the whole story behind him, love his pitching, eat him up with a spoon. But they talk about the concept of the "Relief Ace", which could be potentially more valuable than the closer. The concept is, your best reliever should come into game during high leverage situations. Those are when you have a a small lead, a one run lead would always be high leverage, a 2 run or three run lead would be with runners in scoring position and the tying/winning run at the plate. The relief ace would come in, usally with men on base and few outs, and pitch out of the most difficult jams. Some times this would occur in the 7th inning. when the starter has walked the first two guys, some times this would occur in the 8th when Kyle Farnsworth has given up a 3 run bomb, and your 4 run lead is cut to 1. Some times he'd come in at the start of the ninth, when your team is up by 1. But what ever that high leverage, clutch situation is, the pitcher would come in and pitch the team out of it. Kellerman and Kinney argue that this is how a pitcher like Mariano Rivera should be used ( or perhaps Joba Chamberland or Edwar Ramirez). That your "relief ace" your shut down reliever shouldn't necessarily just be saved to pitch in the 9th when your team has a 2+ run lead, and no one is on base, but should be saved instead for situations when the game hangs in the balance. I really like this concept, and wonder why it's not used more by major league managers.