For Yankees' sake, Joba belongs in pen

They used to be the prototype by which all franchises measured themselves.

Boy, how times change.

In the late 90s, they could do no wrong. The New York Yankees won four world championships between 1996 and 2000, creating a seemingly endless dynasty.

Key word: Seemingly.

The Yankees were the best. They used to beat out the Red Sox every year in the AL East. They had the golden boy Derek Jeter. They had the hitting. They had the starting pitching. But most importantly, to me at least, they had a guy named Mariano Rivera, who threw one pitch – a cut fastball – that was virtually unhittable, even by the best of major league hitters. When Mo used to trot out from the bullpen, you knew the game was over. Yankees win. Theeeeeee Yankees win!

Not anymore.

Something magical happened in the fall of 2004. The Red Sox came back from an 0-3 hole to defeat the Bronx Bombers and go on to break the 86 year-old curse by sweeping the Cardinals in the World Series. Call it a miracle. Call it a fluke. Call it what you want, but since then, the boys donned in pinstripes haven’t been the same.

Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman used to be the professor of the class How to Create a Dynasty 101. Now, he’s ripping pages out of Sox GM Theo Epstein’s textbook, wondering what went wrong.

Under Epstein, Boston has created a team loaded with homegrown talent. Aside from the obvious (Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia, to name a few), Epstein’s prospects keep coming up and producing at the major league level. Guys like Justin Masterson, Jed Lowrie, and Jacoby Ellsbury have shown that Boston sports fans still have something to look forward to, should these fantasy-like seasons suddenly come to a screeching halt.

The same can’t be said in the Bronx.

Cashman and Co.’s prospects have done everything but give hope to the Yankee faithful. Except one.

Pitchers Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy have been utter disappointments thus far. Joba Chamberlain has not.

Prior to the 2007 season, the Red Sox decided to convert Papelbon back to a starter. They changed their minds come spring training, and that change of heart led to a dominant regular season from the flamethrower from Mississippi State and a subsequent World Series Championship.

You’d think the Yankees would have learned.

Chamberlain has been every bit as dominant as Papelbon since his debut in the major leagues last season. And with Rivera staring retirement in the face, the obvious decision would be to have the kid from Nebraska succeed the cutter-throwing legend.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Hank Steinbrenner evidently disagrees.

So Steinbrenner and the Yankees decided to do what the Red Sox chose not to: Make their stud reliever a starter. And in his debut last night, he didn’t make it out of the third inning; how fitting.

I laughed when I saw the line, but I would have liked to have seen a different scenario. I would have loved for Chamberlain to throw a solid seven innings, and then have the Yankee bullpen blow it in the eighth, just to prove how valuable he is as a reliever.

Too bad.

Great closers are a rarity in baseball today. I believe the Yankees have one, they just refuse to believe it.

Good luck Hank, you’ve made an awful mistake.