Mound Talk

Joba Chamberlain was drafted out of Nebraska in 2006 in the supplemental round by the New York Yankees. The 6-foot-2 and 230 pound right-hander has certainly made a splash in minor league baseball. He’s moved up to Double-A, Trenton in his first full season in the minors and poised to become the top prospect in the Yankees organization.

Chamberlain made his professional debut last season in the Hawaii Winter League in an impressive fashion. He threw 37 2/3 innings allowing just three walks and striking out 46. He gave up just 28 hits and made strides in his delivery, which was good to begin with.

He started 2007 in High-A, Tampa. He needed just 40 innings to prove he was ready for higher competition. With 51 strikeouts against 11 walks, Chamberlain’s numbers were clearly dominant. What might be more impressive is against 151 batters faced, he allowed just three extra base hits and less than 1/4 of the batters faced reached base. He was promoted to Double-A Trenton where he continued his dominance. Through 34 2/3 innings, Chamberlain has struck out 57 and walked 12. He’s allowing more hits, and more extra base hits, but considering he’s 21 and in his first full season, Chamberlain looks well on his way to stardom.

While his nearly meteoric rise up prospect charts is founded largely on his statistics, it’s his ability that is most interesting. Chamberlain leads with a good fastball that sits in the 94-96 range with good movement. He controls his fastball very well. He works well off his fastball and it sets up his other pitches well.

Chamberlain throws a changeup in the low 80s that has seen some improvement over his professional career. It lacks movement enough to be a great pitch at the moment but he is able to mix it in effectively. More work is needed before this is a major league ready pitch.

His second best pitch is his slider. Chamberlain is a power pitcher (as his frame suggests) and uses his hard slider as his strikeout pitch. He commands this pitch well. He’s got a little more work to do on this pitch but it certainly looks as if his slider is going to be his ticket to success at the major league level.

His curveball is ok. He throws a big slow curve but seems to have gotten away from that more and more this season.

Overall his stuff is good and shows signs of improvement and has the potential to dominate hitters with two, and possibly three potentially plus pitches. While his control is good, he needs to improve his command.

There are some physical concerns. Weight has always been a big concern for him. At one time, it was reported that he weighted over 290 pounds and he was unable to maintain velocity into games.

Nonetheless, Chamberlain has the potential to be an ace. A hard thrower with good velocity and control and the potential for a plus fastball/slider combination is a great base for him to launch himself into the elite status. But he has some work to do before he’s there. Look for Chamberlain to continue to move up the chain and be in the big leagues at some point in 2008.