Hank's At It Again

The New York Times has reported that Hank Steinbrenner has lashed out and almost demanded that Joba be placed in the rotation. He nudged that it'd be in place of Mike Mussina as well.

“There is no question about it, you don’t have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don’t do that. You have to be an idiot to do that.”

Out of all the comments he made, this one struck me as the most humorous. First of all, he basically called his manager an idiot, along with many, many media members who agree the Yankees need Joba in the pen.

For everyone, including Hank, visualize the Yankees bullpen without Joba Chamberlain. This would mean LaTroy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth pitching the 8th inning. As a Yankee fan, we better hope that we're up by five heading into the 8th frame if we want to win.

The other part of that statement is the top, about not having a pitcher who can throw 100 as a setup guy. Now, Kyle Farnsworth can throw regulary in the high 90s, and has touched 100. Using Hanks logic, Farnsy would be a good fit for the rotation too, right?

Hank then also said he believed the rotation would work out when Kennedy and Hughes got more starts, Joba entered the roto, and Wang and Pettitte stay consistent. By doing this, he shunned Moose out. When asked about Moose, he said that Mussina needs to learn how to pitch like Jamie Moyer. One can tell the extreme dislike Steinbrenner has for Mussina as a pitcher. I don't think Moose can pitch either, but the owner of the franchise doesn't have to chastise a guy who gave them some great years.

After reading this, I'm just glad Hank doesn't run the actual team. We'd probably be closer to 5-15 then 10-10. Everyone, except Hank, knows that he's the idiot, not Girardi. Joba should ultimately be a starter, yes. But at this point in time the Yankees will be most successful with Chamberlain pitching the 8th inning.

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