WHAT'S UP WITH JOBA THESE DAYS?

Like many of the Yankee family I often browse the Yankee player's twitter accounts to see what they are up to. I just can't get over how cool it is that these guys tweet what they are eating, or where they are, or what movie they are watching just like you and I. I get it. I know not every player is personally tweeting all the time. I'm sure sometimes their are player's publicists that send out tweets when they are sponsoring an event or something. But for the most part, especially the younger players, these guys genuinely interact with the fans.

One of those players who stays pretty active on twitter is Joba Chamberlain (@Joba_62). He seems to be a great guy and I can see by his tweets that he tries to write back to the fans. I can only imagine just how many tweets a guy like Joba gets from fans everyday so it would be unreasonable to expect him to answer us all. But one thing I will give Joba credit for is how open and honest he has been with his elbow since the Tommy John surgery. Through his twitter account he has been updating his progress and, thank God, it's been all good news. In fact, just a couple days ago I read a tweet telling one of the fans that his "elbow is great!" That was nice to see! With all the talk about who the Yankees need in the starting rotation and now with the addition of lefty Hideki Okajima (to a minor league contract), it's easy to forget what we have waiting for us when Spring Training rolls around in just about 6 +weeks.

Although Joba probably won't be ready for game time action for the first 1/3 of 2012, it goes without saying that WHEN he does come back healthy, his presence in that bullpen can be a game changer. Bleeding Yankee Blue has written several pieces arguing how important Joba is to this team. You can read a couple of them HERE and HERE. Joba could be that one puzzle piece we often hear about that completes the Yankee puzzle. Look I'm with you all...we need another solid starter...at least one, if not two. But what happens if we don't? Let's be honest, it's getting late in the off season and we haven't really come close to improving our starting rotation, in fact, it doesn't look like we're going to. Well, to me, what that means is, our bullpen will become that much more important.

Say on average, our starting five only pitch 5 innings per start...this is just a hypothetical. If that was the case than it's obvious how important our bullpen becomes. Especially if we are leading after five innings or we are within striking distance of just a run or two where we need the bullpen to hold the opposing team where they are. Believe it or not, Joba is practically becoming a veteran out in that bullpen and will be relied on to remain consistent and lights out. That's what we need from Joba this year when he comes back: consistency and guts! That's what I think at least.

Anyway... back to the Twitter stuff. I encourage my Yankee family to jump on Twitter if you aren't already signed up and follow the Yankee players who have twitter accounts. Oh, and don't forget to follow us @BleednYankeeBlu -- Here is a list of all the current Yankees who are on Twitter as of today. If I missed any, please feel free to leave who I missed in the comment section below. Keep in mind I did not include former Yankees or minor leaguers.

YANKEE TWITTER ACCOUNTS:

Robinson Cano = @RobinsonCano

Francisco Cervelli = @fran_cervelli

Joba Chamberlain = @Joba_62

Curtis Granderson = @cgrand14

Phil Hughes = @PhilHughes65

Russell Martin = @russellmartin55

Mariano Rivera = @MarianoRivera

David Robertson = @DRob30

CC Sabathia = @CC_Sabathia

Nick Swisher = @NickSwisher

Mark Teixeira = @teixeiramark25

--Mikey Blue, BYB Senior Writer
Email: DonnieBaseball2323@gmail.com
Twitter: @MikeyBlu23


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