[新聞] A No. 1 grows in the Bronx

[yyhong68 (come every now and then)]

A No. 1 grows in the Bronx
by Dan Graziano
Thursday June 19, 2008, 9:53 PM
NEW YORK --

It tempts and tantalizes, this powerful young right arm. You watch
Joba Chamberlain pitch and your mind starts to race ahead -- months
ahead, years ahead, imagining what he might someday be if his talent
and his luck and his work ethic all stay together and grow together.

You watch 98-mph fastballs and disappearing sliders and hitters who
have no chance, and you realize what the Yankees are talking about
when they say the guy can be a No. 1 starting pitcher.

"Without guys like Joba, you can't win championships," Alex Rodriguez
said after yesterday's game, in which Chamberlain struck out nine
lame-looking San Diego Padres in 5 2/3 innings. "That's how you win
championships -- with guys like Joba and (Chien-Ming) Wang at the
front end."

Of course, Wang is now hurt. The No. 1 starter who won 19 games for
the Yankees in each of the past two seasons is out, maybe for the
season, and there's a void there.

No matter how solid or reliable they may be, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina,
Darrell Rasner and Dan Giese will not be No. 1 pitchers. Neither will
Ian Kennedy or Phil Hughes, if they make it back from their injuries,
or Sidney Ponson, if he can keep from punching anybody out before he
gets here from Scranton.

But Chamberlain can be. The Yankees have ample reason to believe he
someday will be. That's what gets them so excited talking about him.

"Toronto has three of them," Rodriguez said, generously referring to
the Blue Jays' impressive starting troika of Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett
and Dustin McGowan. "Boston has one of them (Josh Beckett). If you don't
have guys like that, you don't win."

The problem is, of course, that Chamberlain isn't there yet. As awesome
as his talent is, there remains a gap between what he is now and what
he can or will someday be. That's what the Yankees and their fans need
to remember about Chamberlain as they go forward in need of a No. 1.

"He's going to have to guard against these mental lapses where he
doesn't focus so much on where he puts the ball," Pettitte said.
"I mean, his stuff is so good, I think sometimes he probably feels
like he can get away with just letting it go and not worry about,
 'I need to get this one in on this guy,' when in fact you do need
to get it in, you can't just leave it out over the plate."

Pettitte said he saw some of that from Chamberlain yesterday, when he
loaded the bases with nobody out in the second, or when the first two
batters in the fourth reached base against him. Of course, he also saw
what followed. The Padres didn't score a run in the second, and only
got one in the fourth, because once he got into the messes, Chamberlain
started focusing more.

"When he gets in trouble, you see how he locks in," Pettitte said.
 "I mean, it's like, all of a sudden, he's just striking everybody out."

That's where the physical talent meets the mental requirements of the
No. 1's job. Chamberlain knows he can strike batters out -- particularly
batters on a brutal team like the Padres, who just whiffed a stunning
40 times in this three-game series. He knows, when the bases are loaded
and nobody's out, that he has the ability to escape without a run.

"You get up in the morning, and when you're washing your hair and brushing
your teeth, you know you're going to have to get out of a jam that day,"
Chamberlain said. "You've just got to try and be that much better in those
situations."

It helps to have an arm like his. Of the 100 pitches he threw in this
game, 97 were either fastballs or sliders.

"One of the best sliders I've ever seen," Pettitte said. "Period."

But this remains an ongoing process. He needed 100 pitches to get through
5 2/3 innings against a weak National League lineup. Had the opponent
been the Boston Red Sox, those 100 pitches might not have gotten him
through four innings. He might not have gotten away with the lapses
Pettitte described.

He is still learning, and as brilliant as he can be, he is still not
the No. 1 starter the Yankees need right now. He could be next year,
or by the end of this year, or even by the All-Star break. With talent
like this, you can't really forecast these things.

The key for the Yankees is to stick to what they're doing, not get
too excited and enjoy watching the slow, steady blossoming of a
potential star pitcher. And if they do that, and Joba Chamberlain
keeps pitching the way he's pitching and learning the way he's
learning, then before they know it, they won't need a No. 1 starter
anymore.

They'll have grown one.

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2008/06/a_no_1_grows_in_the_bronx.html

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◆ From: 140.109.23.24
推 frank94:現在球隊的半重建狀態   簽長約的A-rod應該滿認同的吧
推 frank94:希望Joba真的能夠長成Ace
→ frank94:之前Joba轉先發   最先出來挺的好像也是A-rod
推 nch6710:加油阿~以後喬巴小王雙門神!
推 warchiefdodo:應該是投手再半重建  打者在巔峰~
→ warchiefdodo:像LAA BOS的SP輪值真是顛峰到可怕XD
推 Anero:Lackey的確是顛峰 Garland是穩定的三號投手
→ Anero:Santana&Saunders則是在成長茁壯 Weaver還在掙扎
→ Anero:要說巔峰的話 應該是Escobar健康 然後這6個人選5個先發
推 Anero:今年LAA的rotation會威 主要是因為小山和小桑表現超乎預期
推 decorum:把未來王牌的牌子往21、22歲的人身上貼，實在操之過急了
→ decorum:倒是小王年紀到了，應該是大方扛這招牌的時候了