Jobattoir

Joba Chamberlain- A 22 year old right handed powerhouse. A bulldog of a pitcher who has scouts raving and Yankee fans in a frenzy.

Abattoir- A Slaughterhouse; from the French meaning to strike down.

Jobattoir- A butcher of bats, a slaughterer of the sultans of swat. His presence on the mound is more intimidating than any blood splattered apron wearing, cleaver wielding maniac could ever hope to be…or so the Yankees hope.

The Cattle- Toronto Blue Jays and their .262 batting avg. (12th overall).

The Tools-

1. Fastball- ranges from the mid to upper 90’s reaching over 100mph
2. Slider- A knee-buckling pitch that has received perfect ratings from the scouts, and has batters striking out at an alarming rate.
3. Change-up- 80-82 MPH that has grown significantly better and more reliable.
4. Curveball- Rated above average it’s one of the pitches he’s shied away from in the setup role, and could prove to be the off-speed pitch that can catapult him to ace status.
5. He’s been toying with various techniques from some of the vets in the Yankee system. How has their experience prepared him for the start today? We’ll soon find out.

The Job- Slice and Dice the cattle until the fat lady sings. He’ll be on a pitch count and under immense pressure, but he is after all the Jobattoir.

First Inning

First AB- The crowd erupts into applause as they anticipate the first of many pitches tonight…fastball outside, but he quickly counters with 96 MPH heat and gets ahead 1-2.
The count goes full on a very questionable call by Blue and Stewart eventually draws the walk.

Joba’s missing the plate by mere nanoinches, as the adrenaline is pushing him a bit too far, but he must be wary of his pitch count restrictions today. Ahh he drops the curve nicely to pick up a much needed strike, and then goes back to the slider to pick up the K on his second consecutive 3-2 count.

Oh the phantom balk call…gotta love that call, let’s play ball already. After a swing and a miss the ball is missed by the catcher, Jose Molina, and there is a runner on third with 1 out. Well a weak grounder gets a run in after some really bad umping and a misplay by the catcher.

Joba responds with a 100 MPH heater, and quickly gets ahead of Scot Rolen, but a weak dribbler finds its way through the infield. Tough first inning thus far, as Joba will eclipse his most pitches ever in one inning. That limit of 70 is approaching far too quickly. Ball four!

We’re looking at a 30+ pitch inning right now, and the Blue Jays are executing the game plan, which is not to swing and let the ump squeeze him at the plate. I’ve counted 5 corner pitches that were not called so far. Here we go another full count…this is a big pitch. Ball four!

This is coming down to overthrowing the fastball. Joba was unable to nail the fastball early on and was then not granted any borderline calls. He needs to buckle down here as bases are loaded, and he quickly jumps ahead 0-2. Strike three swinging 99 MPH!

The inning was worse than it’ll look on the box score. The pitches weren’t missing by much, but the quantity was the killer. Joba’s first day of starting is going to be over by the 3rd inning. You have to credit Toronto for knowing how to hit against a guy that can’t throw more than 70 pitches, but also applaud Joba for putting an end to the inning with minimal damage.

Second Inning

The Yanks swing more impatiently against better executed pitches yet come out of the first with two runs and a one run lead…baseball is a funny sport.

Joba has to throw strikes. Hopefully the two out lightning from the Yankee bats has settled his nerves, and he can just go out to the mound and trust his stuff.

The 0-2 count is quickly wasted as the Jays just refuse to swing at anything off-speed, but the fly out on the 3-2 ends the AB by Wilkerson. The pesky Eckstein proves no match as Joba had him flailing at the 1-2 fastball. The 1-2-3 inning is complete. Joba retires Shannon Stewart (his first hitter who’s seen him twice in one game), and Chamberlain probably felt like fist pumping his way to the dugout after the way the first inning went.

Third Inning

Probably the last. Joba needed to get ahead early today, because these Jays weren’t swinging at anything. Sure enough he falls behind the first two hitters; Scutaro takes a fly ball to the warning track and Rios walks. That ends Joba’s outing.

Summary

Joba was on a leash and the Jays knew it. Once Joba failed to establish the fastball with consistency the Jays just sat there with birds perched on their bats until they had two strikes. His off-speed pitches, when executed, were unhittable. The lone hit he surrendered over the 2.1 IP was nothing but a weak dribbler hit off the inside part of the bat that found its way through the right side of the infield. For the most part the Blue Jays hitters were overmatched, but the four walks put a damper on the moment. It isn’t much of a SP debut when it doesn’t make the four innings. We’ll have to wait and see on Joba as a starter as this was nothing more than an earlier relief appearance from the bullpen.

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