Two of the top, highly regarded pitchers in the Majors’, Edinson Volquez of the Cincinnati Reds, and Joba Chamberlain of the New York Yankees. These two pitchers have really amazing stuff and can dominate any lineup.
Last year, Joba Chamberlain was called up to help solidify a “consistently inconsistent” Yankee bullpen. With Chamberlain taking over the setup role, if the Yankees had a lead up until the 8th inning, they would most likely win that game under the determined Joba Chamberlain and, of course, Mariano Rivera. The Yankees wanted to turn him into a starter, but at that time, bullpen was a priority. Early this season, he was still the setup man until desperate times called for desperate measures. With injuries to many pitchers including Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes, Chamberlain needed to start, and fast.
Present time – Joba Chamberlain is 2-2 with a 2.45 ERA with 7 starts, 58 innings pitched, 42 hits, only 2 home runs, 67 strikeouts, and 32 walks. Pretty impressive starting numbers for just a 22 year old. Moving onto Edinson Volquez now. Interestingly enough, he was involved in a trade with fellow all star Josh Hamilton. It’s also kind of interesting to break down who got the better deal, Texas in getting Hamilton, or the Reds getting Volquez, but that will be for another time.
In the beginning of Volquez’s career, he had some pretty bad starts in the majors and was demoted to the Rangers’ minor league system to fix his stuff. He was used in ’06 but still had a very high ERA of 7.29. Then he was traded for Josh Hamilton in the offseason of this year. He has been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal Reds season. Going into the All star break, they are currently 5 games under .500 with a record of 44-49. He is 11-3 with a 2.36 ERA 110 innings pitched with only 84 hits, 4 home runs, 54 walks, and a 116 strike outs.
Now here is my question: Who would you rather have on your pitching staff, Joba Chamberlain or Edinson Volquez. Both of these pitchers have all the talent in the world and Volquez could very will win the Cy Young award up against Brandon Webb. If Chamberlain had been starting the whole season, it would be interesting to see how his stats would compare. If Volquez gets to pitch in the All Star game, we will be able to see how he fares against the top hitters in the league.
hands down its edison volquez
starters are more valuable than relievers, and I do know Joba currently starts, but we are yet to see if he will be as dominating in the starting roll, and it is obvious that at least at this time hes not as good of a starter as volquez
Volquez
joba, but its close.
they both are very domninant when they are on, but when they don’t have their best stuff, volquez gets beat around way more than joba.