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It's Joba time.

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Casual Yanks fan here. Joba, who just had a sick inning, is being groomed as a starter right?

Cody

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That's what they say. His future is as a starter... Mariano was a starter too (not that the situation is the same).

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IIRC, next year he will go back to a starter. I mean things can change, I'm not even sure where I'd want him to be bullpen or rotation.

I would wait to see what happens with the bullpen, if a guy like Edwar can solidifiy a role along with a few other pieces he might be best off as a starter, but if he can be Mo's successor then I'd be fine with that.

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I think the decision with Joba pretty depends 100% on how good his #3 and #4 pitches develop to be b.c. fastball-slider is obviously optimal for a closer, but "deception" is more crucial than raw speed/power/nastiness for a starter. Deception is either achieved through 3+ equally good pitches, or "mechanical tricks" such as Randy Johnson's height / sidearm / release point, etc. The SPs who become top-class through the latter category usually get beat up pretty bad in their first few seasons before they become dominant (Santana, Johnson, etc.)

Question: What calibre stats / success would Rivera have given his pitch profile if he were exclusively a starter the past 15 years? I actually wouldn't be surprised if he had an ERA of 4.00+ cumulative.