The door is wide open for moving Joba to the bullpen…where he belongs.

Joba has started nine games this season.  He completed 7 innings only once, 6 innings only three times, and threw under 5 innings in three other starts. He isn’t going deep enough into games to justify keeping him in the rotation when he can be such an immense upgrade in an unreliable bullpen.  As a matter of fact, when Joba starts…he drains the bullpen since he isn’t going deep enough into games!

Hughes pitched 8 innings on Monday and could have arguably thrown a complete game, something Joba hasn’t even come close to doing. Hughes should stay in the rotation – especially now that he is gaining confidence and has some fire in his belly. They shouldn’t throw this guy back down to triple A when he is making strides.  It’s going to mess with his head.

They should make room for Wang in the rotation, when he’s ready, by putting Joba in the pen. Joba in the pen makes this a much better team. And he is the obvious replacement for Mariano in a time when closers are ridiculously hard to come by and very very expensive.