Kruk Is Confused By the Joba Rules. Oh Well.

If you watch Sportscenter (and I assume most of you do at some point), you may have seen John Kruk, former player and Baseball Tonight "analyst" preempt Sunday's highlights with a thirty second rant on the Joba Rules. The crux of Kruk's point?  He's confused. According the Kruk, the Yankees have been letting Joba twist in the wind.  Is he a top of the rotation guy, Kruk asks.  Is he a middle or back of the rotation guy?  Is he a middle reliever or closer of the future, Kruk asks.  The Yankees have wasted three years of Joba's youth according to Kruk and it doesn't make any sense.  Look at Felix Hernandez, Kruk asks.  He's the same age as Joba and has pitched a lot more innings. I can see why Kruk is confused because his arguments don't make any sense.  Apparently, this confusion extends beyond Kruk because other people don't understand either. Joba threw three innings on Sunday because the Yankees need to limit his innings.  They want him to be available as a fully functioning starter in the playoffs, so what they've decided to do is give his arm a little bit of rest now by limiting his innings per start.  Next start, he will pitch a few more.  The start after, he will pitch more.  By the time October is here, he will be back to his regular starters innings. What is there to complain about here?  The Yankees have a six game lead over the Red Sox.  They have a 9.5 game lead over the Rangers should the Sox somehow overtake them.  There's 32 games left to play.  Is there a need to be anything less than careful with Joba at this stage?  Should the Yankees throw him out there every fifth day for eight innings a clip because some people don't like the concept of being cautious?  Why should the Yankees add risk to a situation where none is needed? Now, let's address Kruk.  The Yankees have no reason to label Joba a top of the rotation guy, a middle of the rotation guy, or a back of the rotation guy.  Those labels don't mean anything.  If you are one of five pitchers, you will likely pitch every fifth day.  Labeling a 23 year old pitcher puts expectations on that pitcher, which might not be realistic.  Do they have to label Burnett, Sabathia, and Pettitte?  Was Wang labeled going into this season? The original intention for Joba this year was for him to be the fifth starter and hopefully miss a few starts due to off days, etc.  The disintegration of Chien-Ming Wang threw a wrench into that little plan and suddenly, more was needed from Joba than the Yankees originally wanted to ask. But again, what purpose does labeling Joba as a middle of the rotation guy serve?  Because he doesn't have a label means that the 234 innings Joba has pitched over the last two years are worthless? The Yankees have said all along: Joba is a starter.  For Kruk to even raise the question of whether Joba is a bullpen pitcher just highlights how little he is paying attention.  The only people who raise that question are the media, who either want to be correct about their initial predictions after Joba was called up in 2007 or are out to lunch. The comparison to Felix Hernandez is also misinformed.  Looking at King Felix's innings totals would make you think that the Mariners have been much looser with Hernandez's innings than the Yankees have with Joba. Looking at Felix's actual innings pitched, the only area of concern would have been Hernandez's innings from age 17 to 18.  In 2003, Hernandez threw 69 innings in short season and single A ball.  In 2004, Felix threw 149.1 innings in Class A advanced and AA, a jump of 80.1 innings. However, in 2005, Felix threw 88 innings in AAA and then 84.1 on the major league level, for a total of 172.1, 23 over his previous mark.  His high water mark since has been 200.2 innings. Now, this could all be a coincidence.  In 2005, Felix averaged 101 pitches a start at the major league level.  He also went through an eight game stretch where his pitch counts went 115, 112, 108, 107, 106 (6 earned runs), 78 (5 earned runs), 106, and 114.  It's also worth noting that Felix's walk totals rose significantly during these high pitch count starts and his strikeout totals went down. If Kruk had taken a look at Hernandez's innings pitched, he would have seen that the Mariner's haven't tried to push him too far beyond his previous seasons.  I can't find any info about whether Felix pitched in Arizona or winter ball in 2003 to lower the gap between his 2003 innings and 2004.  Since then, he has been right in line with the same thinking the Yankees are applying to Joba. Kruk doesn't like what the Yankees are doing because Kruk doesn't understand it.  He played baseball, dammit, and baseball players play. Pitchers pitch. That's what they're born to do and you ruin them if you don't let them pitch. What Kruk doesn't realize is that people a lot smarter than him, me, and most of the people talking about this stuff have actually studied the effect of too much pitching and pitch counts.  And guess what?  Adding too much workload to an arm that is not used to it hurts that arm.  Amazing. It's even been discovered on the Little League level.  It's not necessarily the pitches you throw, but how many you throw and how often.  In other words: abuse. Get used to what you're seeing with Joba, Mr. Kruk.  You're going to be seeing a lot more of it in the coming years.  Maybe it's time to read up.