[外電] CHAMBERLAIN CAN BE YANKS' ACE IN HOLE

[BastardRose (叛客)]

source: http://0rz.tw/7c38H

October 13, 2007 -- BOSTON - The temptation is great, and it'll be there most
of the winter, and for the early portion of Joba Chamberlain's career. The
bullpen has become the overwhelming baseball obsession of the new millennium,
the thing that keeps fans awake at night, keeps GM's ears permanently glued
to their telephones and keeps manager's stomachs awash in Maalox.
Somehow, somewhere, we have forgotten about the Ace.

Keep the capital letter precisely where it is. That's how important the Ace
is going back to the beginning of baseball time, the man around whom an
entire team - hell, an entire city - can rally every five days. The guy you
know - you just know - will deliver you when you need delivering.

A guy like Josh Beckett of the Red Sox, for instance. A guy who can go out,
in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against an
ultra-confident lineup of Cleveland Indians and give them this: four hits,
two runs, seven strikeouts spanning six innings and 80 pitches.

"He was just fabulous out there tonight," said Terry Francona, the Red Sox
manager, savoring another Ace effort from an Ace pitcher, savoring this 10-3
win that gives his team the early advantage in this best-of-seven series.

That is what an Ace does. And this is what an Ace says:

"It's important to get your guys in the dugout, especially on a cold night,"
Beckett said. "Sometimes you realize you don't have to make perfect pitches.
Sometimes good ones are good enough."

That's the way it is with an Ace. Everything we've seen about Chamberlain
tells us he's got that in him. That he's got some Beckett in him, that the
talent coursing through his right arm could allow him to be the
traffic-stopping, eye-popping, jaw-dropping Ace that can sustain a team
through the long season of summer and absolutely carry them through the short
series of October.

Chamberlain himself has yet to state a preference. "It's kind of hard to see
myself as a starter right now," he said recently, "just because I haven't
done it for a while."

Mariano Rivera's dominance - coupled with a procession of Mets bullpen
frustrations, from John Franco to Armando Benitez to Billy Wagner and a cast
of subpar setup men - has drilled into New York baseball fans the importance
of the men who enter late in games. Make no mistake, that is important. But
that compulsion has come at the cost of forgetting just how valuable the guys
who enter early in games are.

Part of that is because we haven't had an Ace, a real one, around here in a
long time, maybe going all the way back to David Cone's twin primes with both
teams. There have been terrific frontline starters - Andy Pettitte, David
Wells, Orlando Hernandez, Al Leiter, Mike Hampton - for both clubs, nominal
aces, but all of them distinctly lowercase.

Occasionally, Roger Clemens has offered glimpses of what he was in Boston and
Toronto and Houston, but even he was never a wire-to-wire Ace in any of his
Yankees seasons, even the Cy Young year of 2001. It's what Joba Chamberlain
could well become for the Yankees. He has the electric skills. He has the
repertoire. He certainly has the dare-you-to-knock-me-out attitude an Ace
needs, the snarling swagger that Beckett exemplifies better than anyway. An
Ace's attitude.

People always point to the Red Sox, and to Jonathan Papelbon, but that move
was as much about necessity, as much about protecting a balky shoulder.
Chamberlain has no such issue right now.

Right now, it's about value. And there is no question that a drop-dead closer
- the kind Rivera has been since 1997 - is a precious commodity. But just
think: How much did having Rivera lurking help the Yankees this year when
Chien-Ming Wang - their ace, small a - failed twice to get out of the fifth
inning? How much did it help the Mets having Billy Wagner two Sundays ago
when Tom Glavine never got out of the first? Last night Papelbon took the
night off primarily because Beckett didn't.

You get the chance to put an Ace on your team, you better do it. Ask the Sox.
Ask the Tribe. And ask the Yanks, if Chamberlain becomes everything he's
bound to become.



--
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◆ From: 218.162.86.29
推 bravee:Ace換人作作看?!
推 yoyoboy1:看來球迷還是沒辦法接受洋基ACE是東方人 王季後賽一爆
→ yoyoboy1:就一堆看衰王的報導出來
※ 編輯: BastardRose     來自: 218.162.86.29        (10/13 17:06)
→ agoodjob:明天拿個二時勝繼續用實力讓他們閉嘴...像前幾年一樣
推 qodie:Chamberlain for Cya!!!
推 BastardRose:戰績太好 小心被拿去當交易籌碼-_-
推 BastardRose:http://0rz.tw/8a37J  這外電的作者不僅僅是個球迷...
推 yoyoboy1:爛報導 一個連MLB先發都沒有的投手就稱ACE
→ BastardRose:從1989到現在 又一堆專業獎項加持的專業記者了...
推 BastardRose:而且只是探討Joba具備的各種優勢跟應該做的而已...
推 fjjkk:他的重點是ACE的態度 美國人的態度吧 我想台灣人不是都不愛
→ fjjkk:嗆聲 只是在人家的地盤 剛好王建民又是個低調的人
推 liuche:其實我覺得沒關係,當二號壓力較小,對王來說可能更好
→ siliver:其實二號有啥不好,看看派派,都兩百勝了還賺了1e美金耶....
推 agoodjob:又有人在凹當二號有啥不好了哈哈！
推 littleyes:當幾號都無所謂，重點是要打得長久~
推 c12680000:鄉民好像對"二號""工作馬"這些字很敏感....
推 henk:建議工作馬以後用英文寫 因為這詞有點文化背景的認識不同...
推 c12680000:挨呀...到時搞不好又說秀英文,搞專業啥的
推 GBoys:噓:來源不實的國外消息
推 Minamii:一定要給小克試試看的..如果他能投出老克當年的身手
→ Minamii:那當CL真的太可惜了..至於ACE論就不能當我們有兩張A嗎
推 william0612:Ace可以有四張.....
推 Czero:推樓上....小王和Joba都可以是ACE