I thought the biggest problem last night was batters’ not swinging at breaking balls and borderline fastballs. These all got called for balls and then he’s pitching behind in the count. Bad luck? Bad umpiring? Is he signaling pitches? Whatever.

Nevertheless, he should be able to throw a fastball in a fastball count and get an out. He also needs to toughen up after bad breaks.

Didn’t Flash, on YES last night, talk about how Joba’s stuff was lacking in this start? FWIW, he did say he liked the way that he went after hitters, attacking the zone, but, on more than one occassion Flash said that Joba’s fastball was just average and that his breaking stuff was inconsistent.

The Yankees are ‘all in’ with Joba as a starter. My own positive spin is that he has the ‘stuff’: He has the physical ability to throw pitches that other pitchers just cannot do. What he needs is to learn how to use it. And if he takes advantage of the deep resources on this team then he can develop into a solid starter.

Joba’s start was similar to his last one, giving up a large lead. He seems unable to deal effectviely right now with errors behind him on the field. For most younger pitchers who go through this, it is part of the adjustment process. Sometimes it requires a return to the minors to work through the challenges, but it is hard to see how the Yankees, already down one starter, can afford to do that at the moment. So the team will just have to hope he can work through it. And we know now it isn’t the catcher…..