Joba Chamberlain's first start...

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Originally Posted by dickay

They are both very very good prospects which is fair to say. I've seen much more of Joba at the pro level which is why i'd rank him above Kershaw right now........but yes Kershaw may in fact be better long run.

I just get a kick out of the homers who show gross inconsistent while creaming over their prospects. There is no legitimate rationale for saying that you have not seen enough of Lincecom to know if he's going to be an ace type or a solid #2 type, after saying that you HAVE seen enough of Joba to know he's going to be an ace type. Yet, we see stuff like that all the time with these prospects.

I for one believe Lester should be on that list I put above, but won't put him up there because he hasn't really shown enough consistency at the pro level. I see his ability to work out of jams however, and that really impresses me. With maturity and health I feel he won't put himself in those jams and will be a top flight pitcher. But I feel that without any real statistics to prove my 'opinion' that overvaluing him for discussion sake is pretty stupid.

Although i'm not sure how old he is...edison volquez has been pretty **** impressive as well.

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Just FYI, I'm not being a homer at all, I'm a Red Sox fan and I DESPISE the Yankees and all their overhyped prospects, but I just happen to be a Red Sox fan that will usually acknowledge talent when I see it. I literally don't think I've seen Lincecum pitch more than 3 innings, so I don't remember a **** thing about him. I've heard that hes got three or four excellent pitches and I know hes got excellent velocity for a smaller guy, but other than that I don't know a whole lot about him, to be quite honest. I've been very impressed with what I've seen of Joba, he has four very good pitches but he only used two or three of them since he was pitching out of the bullpen.

As a Red Sox fan, I'm not confident in Lester. I don't think theres any doubt he has the intangibles, I think a lot of them comes from the perspective he gained from dealing with cancer, and I too have been impressed with his ability to work out of jams, but I'm not confident in him at all. He has a really hard time getting his off-speed and breaking stuff over for strikes a lot of the time and can suffer from just generally poor control altogether a lot. When he attacks the strikezone with his fastball and pitches off it hes very good, he just doesn't do that enough and he doesn't seem to trust his ability. The potential is certainly there, I just don't think he'll harness it, and I've never thought of him so highly as to put him in the same class as Liriano, Felix, and Kazmir anyways.

EDIT: I personally think Clay Buchholz is the best pitching prospect to come out of the Red Sox in a while. I've been really, really impressed with his control of all his pitches, and the movement on his change up and curveball. That change is absolutely devastating. If he can learn to pitch off his fastball and become a smarter pitcher, not to say he isn't because I think hes a pretty smart pitcher for his age, he'll be a great one.

Volquez is in his early-mid 20's. He used to be a can't miss prospect when he was with the Rangers, it just didn't work out there I guess and he finally put it together with the Reds.

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Yeah...i guess i should apologize to you as you haven't been grotesquely overrating Joba like others have. For some reason I thought you were....

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No worries.

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Originally Posted by dickay

I really have no idea why Kershaw would be ranked above Joba????

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Keep in mind its not like Joba has a huge track record here, He played ONE minor league season and made just 15 starts, throwing just 88 innings. Yes those innings were extremely good but took place at A and AA levels.

joba is done :p trade him for a bag of balls

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Originally Posted by yankee hater

rosin bags....

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and some pine tar for kenny rogers :p

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Originally Posted by TheNamelessPoet

and some pine tar for kenny rogers :p

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Now now, we all know it was 'dirt'. ;)

hah!

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

They're broadcasting both the playing of Oh Canada and the National Anthem. They never show that on TV before games.

Jeez.

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That's because they were playing the Blue Jays.

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Originally Posted by Polkovnik_Alex

That's because they were playing the Blue Jays.

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Well, I know why Oh Canada was played, my point was...they never show either that or the anthem on the TV broadcast..

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Originally Posted by HoustonGM

Well, I know why Oh Canada was played, my point was...they never show either that or the anthem on the TV broadcast..

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They don't really show the US anthem, but I noticed that they show both anthems when the Jays are in town. A lot of it depends on if they have anything to go over before the game begins after the pre-game show.

Joba = BEAST!