Joba Chamberlain

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Joba Chamberlain (pronounced IPA: [jah-buh]) (born Justin Chamberlain, September 23, 1985, in Lincoln, Nebraska) is a baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees.

Background

Chamberlain grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. At age 3, his parents divorced, and his father Harlan, a counselor at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, took custody of Joba and his older sister Tasha. The family lived in poverty, with Harlan often pawning his possessions to buy things for the children. Joba served as a ball boy for Lincoln Northeast High School's state championship basketball team, and eventually graduated from Northeast. He did not jump straight to college; to help pay the bills, Joba briefly worked for the city of Lincoln's maintenance department.

Chamberlain's father was born on a reservation for the Winnebago American Indian Tribe, but had to leave to be treated for polio. Harlan spent his childhood in hospitals and foster homes and now uses a motor scooter to get around. After retiring from the state penitentiary, he currently works as a substitute teacher and takes tickets at Cornhusker baseball games. Chamberlain still has family living in American Indian reservations.

According to Yankees television sportscaster Michael Kay, his niece pronounced Justin as Joba and he grew to prefer this name. He eventually had his name legally changed to Joba.

Joba has a son, Karter, born in 2006.

Chamberlain is one of a few Native American baseball players currently in organized baseball; others include Bobby Madritsch, Kyle Lohse, and Jacoby Ellsbury.

The scouting reports on Chamberlain highlighted his power fastball (95-102), a plus-slider (86-90), a big, slow low-mid 70's curve which he rarely throws in the majors, and a developing change up. Joba has demonstrated good command of all but his change up, and has the potential to enter the elite starter ranks with two potentially plus-plus pitches.

However, the most exciting part about Joba's repertoire is not his velocity, but rather his mechanics and control. While he is able to break 100 mph at will, Joba has demonstrated the ability to paint the corners of the plate with a 97-99-mph fastball without appearing to overthrow the ball or break down his mechanics. Scouts rave more over his 90-mph slider, which has incredibly late bite and which he has superb control over, than his triple-digit fastball.

Chamberlain has quickly risen through the Yankee minor league organization and broke into the major leagues on August 7th, 2007. He struck out two batters and walked two in 2.0 IP, mainly using his fastball and slider. His fastball consistently registered from 95-98 and topped at 101 on the TV gun, while his slider consistently registered at 87 mph with a very sharp, late motion. His current strike out to innings pitched ratio implies that half of his outs are strikeouts.

Baseball

College

Chamberlain played Division II baseball for the University of Nebraska-Kearney Lopers, leading the team in ERA (5.23), opponents batting average (.250), strikeouts (49), and complete games (4), before transferring to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He helped the Cornhuskers reach the 2005 College World Series and helped Nebraska with the team's first-ever CWS win, going 10-2 with a 2.81 ERA for the year; his 2005 stats included 5 double-digit strikeout games. Triceps tendinitis limited his 2006 season but he still pitched in 14 games, posting a 6-5 record, a 3.93 ERA and 102 strikeouts in 89.1 innings.

ERA W L G IP ER BB K
2005 2.81 10 2 18 118.2 37 33 130
2006 3.93 6 5 14 89.1 39 34 102
Total 3.37 16 7 32 208 76 67 232

Minor leagues

Chamberlain was drafted 41st overall by the New York Yankees in the 2006 Major League Baseball Draft; the Yankees received that draft pick as free agent compensation for Tom Gordon, who signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. Chamberlain did not pitch in the organized minors during the 2006 season, but dominated the winter league in Hawaii, posting a 2.63 ERA for the West Oahu CaneFires.

Before the 2007 season, Baseball America ranked Chamberlain as the 4th-best prospect in the pitching-rich Yankee organization, and the 75th-best prospect in Major League Baseball, and ranked his fastball as the best in the Yankee farm system.

He spent the first part of his 2007 season on the Tampa Yankees in the Florida State League. He went 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA in 7 games, and had 51 strikeouts and 11 walks. He was then promoted to the AA Trenton Thunder in the Eastern League, where he was 4-2 in 7 games with a 3.43 ERA and 64 strikeouts. He was named to the U.S. Team in the 2007 All-Star Futures Game July 8 at AT&T Park. Chamberlain pitched the third inning, striking out one, walking one, and allowing a hit and an earned run. On July 24, 2007, Chamberlain was promoted to AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre, and made his first start the next day, striking out 10 in 5 innings and earning his first AAA victory. While the Yankees still see him as a starter in the future, the team announced on July 29, 2007, that Chamberlain would be moved to the Scranton-Wilkes Barre bullpen, and he made his first appearance the next day, striking out the side in 1 inning pitched and hitting 100 on the radar gun three times. On August 1st, Joba went back to Trenton to make a relief appearance, striking out 2 batters in a 1-2-3 8th inning. He then came back to Scranton, pitching 2 innings and striking out 5 batters.

Major leagues

On August 7, 2007, the Yankees purchased Chamberlain's contract, elevating him to the major leagues for the first time in his career. To make room on their roster, the Yankees designated Miguel Cairo for assignment, and sent down Brian Bruney (coinciding with the activation of Jason Giambi). [1] [2] In his debut, a Yankees victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, Chamberlain struck out the first batter he faced and went on to pitch two scoreless innings, striking out two. The television and stadium radar guns clocked his fastest pitch at 100 and 99 miles per hour, respectively, with his slider consistently registering at 87.

On August 10, 2007, Chamberlain pitched two perfect innings against the Cleveland Indians, striking out 1 in the 7th, and the side in the 8th. The following Monday, he retired the Baltimore Orioles 1-2-3 in the 8th inning. Joba struck out 2 while the Yankees won the game, 7-6. It was his Yankee Stadium debut and he was met with chants of "Jo-ba! Jo-ba!" by the home crowd.

On August 30, 2007, Chamberlain threw his 11th scoreless inning despite a Dustin Pedroia double in the 8th inning. Throwing only 9 pitches in the inning, he started the 9th. After getting one out in the ninth, two of Chamberlain's pitches went over the head of Kevin Youkilis, giving Youkilis enough time to duck out of the way. For his actions, Chamberlain was ejected for the first time in his baseball career, a controversial decision by the homeplate umpire. This was also Chamberlain's first major league appearance where he didn't strike a batter out.

The next day, he was suspended by the MLB for two games and fined $1,000 for the incident.

On September 5, 2007, Chamberlain won his first major league game, pitching 1 scoreless inning of relief before the Yankees took the lead for good in the following half-inning.

The Joba Rules

For the immediate future, the Yankees plan to use Chamberlain as a bridge from their starting pitching to their closer, Mariano Rivera (the broadcasters have compared Chamberlain's role to Rivera's in 1996 as the primary setup man to John Wetteland). In the long run, Joba is expected to break into the starting rotation. Manager Joe Torre and the Yankee organization has come up with a set of guidelines which Yankee's broadcaster Michael Kay refers to as "Joba Rules". They state Chamberlain will only come into a game to start an inning, and that he must get a day of rest for each inning pitched, both prior to and following the game in which he pitches. This is used to protect his arm because he has never relieved before in his career, and Yankee manager, Joe Torre, has a reputation of over using relief pitchers.[1] Also, if he throws 13 pitches or less, he will most likely pitch the next inning.

Awards

  • 2005 3rd Team All-American
  • 2005 1st Team All Big 12
  • 2005 Big 12 Newcomer Pitcher of the Year
  • 2005 2nd Team All Midwest Region
  • 2005 Big 12 Pitcher of the Week (3/1/05)
  • 2005 National Pitcher of the Week (3/1/05)
  • 2005 Big 12 Pitcher of the Week (4/25/05)
  • 2006 1st Team Preseason All-American
  • 2006 Hawaiian Winter Post-Season All-Star
  • 2007 FSL Pitcher of the Week (5/14/07)
  • 2007 FSL Pitcher of the Week (5/28/07)
  • 2007 EL Pitcher of the Week (6/18/07)

References

  1. ^ http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/the-joba-rules/

External links

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