Pow! Biff! Time to go back to the BatCave and throw out the Joba Rules

Like most Yankee fans, I've pretty much had it with Joba Chamberlain at this point. For most of the season, he's been terrible. He seemed to turn it around after the All-Star Break, but ever since the Yanks started 1) stretching his starts out and then 2) severly limiting his innings count, he's been worse than awful. Even Jorge Posada is wondering if all these new rules are doing more harm than good:

"It's tough to pitch when you don't know what's going on," Posada said. "It is hard. You pitch three innings and they give you 10 days to pitch. It's tough to pitch like that."

Look at these numbers - since August 1, he's given 33 runs, 50 hits, and 21 walks in 36 innings. But hey, he only pitched 36 innings in those nine starts, so he's as fresh as a daisy for October.

To put the innings in an even worse perspective, Chad Gaudin has given up 12 runs, 30 hits, and 16 walks in 29.1 innings as a Yankee. Heck, even the terrible Sergio Mitre is looking better by comparison - he did something Chamberlain was able to do - shut down the Mariners!

And Joba is still in denial about how poorly he's pitching, telling reporters:

“My delivery was great,” he said. “I threw some great changeups. My slider velocity was great. My fastball velocity was more consistent. … It’s going to take a lot more than this to get my confidence level down, I’ll tell you that much. You can kick me as much as you want but I’m going to come back fighting every time. That’s how I live this life and that’s how I play this game of baseball.”

The sun will come out tomorrow, and Joba is singing like "Annie". But, apropos of yesterday's "Batman" rookie hazing, somebody needs to put a Mr. Freeze on that act!

Incidentally, did Mike Dunn get off easy as being The Riddler or what? Ramiro Pena had it the worst as Catwoman! Mark Melancon is Batman, video coordinator Anthony Flynn is Robin, while Dunn gets the second-coolest outfit of all. The coolest, I thought, was massage therapist Lou Potter's Penguin getup.

I'm digging the Yankees love for the old-school, campy "Batman." I grew up watching reruns of that show. To me, it's 10 times better than the super-serious, ultra-dark and depressing "Batman" movies. Give me glee, and silliness, and over-the-top acting. I don't want drama about comic book misery - I want Vincent Price, Tallullah Bankhead, Eartha Kitt, Burgess Meredith and Liberace as my villains. And put out the "Batman" series on DVD already!

Speaking of the Riddler, it's a riddle as to why Joba is so terrible this year. I hate to say it, but I'm starting to jump on the Joba to the Bullpen bandwagon. Dopey innings rules aside, he is not the same pitcher he was as a starter. For one thing, whatever happened to his fastball?

If only the Yankees had implemented my new Joba Rules that  wear Crocs to the mound and throwing the Bugs Bunny changeup. Kidding.

Seriously, at this point I would trust Chad Gaudin and Alfredo Aceves to Chamberlain as the fourth starter in the playoffs. How sad is that?

What do you think about Joba? Tell us about it!