Barney Fife bullet. I like that.

Using Joba last night was as close to a no-brainer as they come. The Yanks need him to get consistent work AND reach about 130 IP on the season. He hadn’t pitched since Sunday, and with today’s being an off-day, the Yanks don’t lose him for any games. Joba is, in other words, available for their very next game, and he was able to stay on a consistent track.

There’s very little – or in fact, no – reason to question or doubt that move.

Joba hadn’t pitched since Sunday and with the day off tomorrow, not pitching him would have not pitching for 5 days. By pitching him Wednesday, he is still fresh for Friday, but you don’t have to use him, maybe saving him for more important innings on Saturday… It just maintains a consistent schedule.

Under use can be as bad as overuse.

Mo probably came in because he needed the work too; before last night he pitched on Monday.

Well, if he throws 2 innings, then you can’t use him until Saturday if you follow the JOBA RULES. Now, they can pick a spot where they need him in the Detroit series.

The issue I had was Rivera being used. Why is Farnsworth on the team if he can’t throw an inning in the blowout on Tuesday or apparently can’t throw with the Yanks up 8-1 in the 9th? But I’ve pretty much given up looking for logic in these things anymore, you have dead-armed Viz throwing down 18-9 and Mo mopping up a 8-1 game and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Joba is just ridiculous, my God.

I can see the point about him already having been warmed up. OK, then, why not let him pitch two innings, and save Mo? If the answer is that you didn’t want to waste him further, then I suppose the answer to the warm up issue is that you could have sat him down there too, not to waste him more beyond the warm-up.

To repeat what Christoper said, I’m pretty sure he pitched because he had already warmed up before the Yanks scored the extra 4 runs. The adult part of me thinks it’s too bad we had to waste him, but the kid part of me thought that the strikeout of Vlad was just AWESOME, regardless of the score.

Joba was already warming up when the Yanks scored 4 in the top of the 8th. Once he’s warmed up, you pretty much have to commit to using him, right?

I agree about Pettitte being the number 1 starter. A lot can happen between now and the post-season, but I think it’s Pettitte’s job to lose at this point.

Man, I’m getting old….I think I watched a total of 5 innings during this Angel series. Having to be at work extra early (project demands) really sucks – it’s getting in the way of me enjoying my Yankee games.

Nice recap. Glad they won and it was great to read so much good stuff about Joba today and yes I think he should have pitched.

Question, is it suppose to be “the Joba rules” or “JOBA RULES”? I like the latter.

My guess would be that the overall innings limit has been replaced by the “Joba Rules” and I don’t see anything wrong Joba pitching the 8th here since they have a day off today. It’s unrealistic at this point to have an innings limit because if they make the playoffs they don’t really know how many games they will play and how far they will go.

Petitte has been great lately, how many quality starts does he have this year compared to the league leaders?

I still think Torre would use Wang as the number 1 but honestly you have to think the Yankees will be fighting until the last day of the season to get into the playoffs, so it’s very possible they won’t be able to setup the rotation if they make the playoffs. You could see almost anyone pitch the first game.

This is definitely a big win, I’m not happy with taking 1 out of 3 from the Angels especially when they could have won the first game but I kind of expected them to only win one game so this series isn’t as devastating to me as it is to some other people.