09/12: Nice Cashman Interview
Posted by: Patrick
Phil Allard has a great interview with Brian Cashman where he touches on a number of subjects, including our young pitchers, the Joba Rules, Kei Igawa, A-Rod's contract and more.
Via Steve.
The rapid ascent of Joba Chamberlain has to be a surprise to you and everyone in Baseball.
When you have a great deal of ability and it comes together, you can move fast. No one would have thought he’d be doing this in ’07 – same as Ian Kennedy -- but sometimes players move themselves ahead of their developmental program. In these two cases they have. Joba Chamberlain has been a huge stabilizing impact on our bullpen. The Joba rules have also contributed to the fact that – since there are days he can’t be used – it forces a situation where others have to be used, because there are no other choices, to be quite honest. This has helped Kyle Farnsworth, whose 10 of his last 11 appearances have been shut out baseball, and Edwar Ramirez has done very well. Now the work load is spread evenly throughout the bullpen. That might not be the case if Joba were available more often.
And this is to protect Joba in a role he isn’t accustomed to. I know that some people in the media have been saying that this is my way of protecting Joba from the manager. Nothing is further from the truth. This is about protecting a young pitcher at the end of his inning limit who has never been a reliever before. And we relied on Nardi Contreras to develop a program that would protect him. When I realized that we weren’t going to secure any outside help -- I didn’t want to give up the farm system -- we started to prepare him for the bullpen and his graduation to the big leagues and he has been spectacular.
When you have a great deal of ability and it comes together, you can move fast. No one would have thought he’d be doing this in ’07 – same as Ian Kennedy -- but sometimes players move themselves ahead of their developmental program. In these two cases they have. Joba Chamberlain has been a huge stabilizing impact on our bullpen. The Joba rules have also contributed to the fact that – since there are days he can’t be used – it forces a situation where others have to be used, because there are no other choices, to be quite honest. This has helped Kyle Farnsworth, whose 10 of his last 11 appearances have been shut out baseball, and Edwar Ramirez has done very well. Now the work load is spread evenly throughout the bullpen. That might not be the case if Joba were available more often.
And this is to protect Joba in a role he isn’t accustomed to. I know that some people in the media have been saying that this is my way of protecting Joba from the manager. Nothing is further from the truth. This is about protecting a young pitcher at the end of his inning limit who has never been a reliever before. And we relied on Nardi Contreras to develop a program that would protect him. When I realized that we weren’t going to secure any outside help -- I didn’t want to give up the farm system -- we started to prepare him for the bullpen and his graduation to the big leagues and he has been spectacular.
Via Steve.
