Joba Chamberlain is not a stoic person. He’s fiery and, as we saw this past weekend, a bit confrontational.
Chamberlain, you see, pumps his fist after “key” strikeouts. This breaches a code of baseball etiquette, especially when the celebration is in the sixth inning of a game the Yankees are losing. So in the first inning Sunday, Baltimore’s Aubrey Huff, after hitting a three-run home run off Chamberlain, mockingly pumped his fist twice, a not-so-subtle message that the 23-year-old needs to tone it down.
Chamberlain’s numbers (2-1, 3.89 ERA, 34 Ks in 34.2 innings) aren’t bad. But his behavior is overkill for a starter, where perspective is necessary. His fastball, which touched 98 mph as a reliever last season, ranges from 89-94 now that he has to pace himself. And he rarely goes past six innings, thereby taxing a weak New York bullpen.
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Joba is more effective as an eighth-inning stopper, where he can enter tight games in a fury of fist pumps, theme music and triple-digit smoke. But until Chien-Ming Wang figures out how to lower his zip code of an ERA, that isn’t an option for the Yankees.